Being a Kpoper somehow comes with the commitment to spend your money in order to support your favorite groups. Even though it's not obligatory to lay aside your pocket money to get any or every product associated with your idols, ranging from albums, tour merchandise, collaboration products, and many many more, somehow you can't fight the urge to get your hands on their merchandise.
I myself don't buy every piece of merchandise the agency releases every two months or so, because sometimes it doesn't suit my liking and I don't find the urgency to buy every single one of them. However, I tried my best to get all of their albums 'cause I'd like to think I'm really supporting their music and career in the industry. Hence, I can say I'm just a casual spender who buys something I truly want and can afford.
So, as someone who never used to save their money, sometimes my wallet found it hard to breathe in between the release date of merchandise and fulfilling my basic necessities. The devotion I pour into supporting my K-pop idols is no joke. Yet, this year, I finally found the formula to build an equilibrium amidst fangirling and living.
 Save Money/ Foto: Istimewa |
This method was introduced by my dearest friend, who is also a Kpoper. She made a TikTok video about it last year, and it inspired me to do the same in 2022. The method was rather simple; every time your favorite idol posts a selfie, it means that a penny goes into piggy bank. Now, of course, the amount of money is entirely a choice of yours; a dollar, five dollars, ten dollars, whichever you like. The number doesn't have to be consistent either, even though it's better if it is. My choice? A hundred thousand rupiah for one selfie.
The first few months were full of me adjusting to this habit. Especially when I had other priorities that coudn't be compromised, sometimes I'd just hit it off with fifty thousand rupiah every time Kim Taehyung, Min Yoongi, or Kim Namjoon posted a selfie on their social media. And it's only applicable for selfies; say they post a full-body picture or any non-selfie posted from my favorite K-pop idols, it doesn't count. These are entirely the rules I set.
I keep track of their posts through the Note app on my phone, which looks a bit like this.
 List / Foto: Istimewa |
I have another friend who has a similar method, but instead of selfies, she counts every social media post made by her ultimate bias, including comments or replies on Twitter, Weverse, and Instagram. The amount of money she saves also varies; a post on Twitter means 5 dollars, an InstaStory means 3 dollars, a comment on Weverse means 1 dollar, and so on.
Speaking from experience as someone who struggles with saving money, this method has proven to be effective as I never broke the savings chain from January 2022 until today. You could say it's ridiculous, but I'd say it's groundbreaking. I still find it hard to believe that I have committed to maintaining this method for 10 months, especially knowing how much of a spender I am, an impulsive one at best.
The one true key to this is commitment. A year ago, when my idols posted a selfie, I would just fangirl so hard, but today, it's not the case as it signifies the time to set aside my money too. I wouldn't say it's a burden, but more like a challenge since there's this uncertainty about the amount of money you need to save every month. When it's close to the end of the month, and you almost have no pennies left but suddenly you have to set aside some due to their sudden posts-it could be aggravating, to say the least.
But if you stick your heart to it, surely it will be the fruit of work in the future. In a span of ten months, I have saved almost ten million rupiah-all thanks to selfies.
(HAI/DIR)