Kathmandu, June 7 -- 21-year-old Ananya Poudel, who is pursing a diploma in fashion design, rarely eats out, buys things she doesn't absolutely need or does anything that requires her to spend a lot of money unnecessarily. It's not that she doesn't have much money. She works as a freelancer at a number of design houses around Kathmandu and has a stable income. But she spends a big chunk of her earnings buying albums of the K-pop artists she likes, which don't come cheap, and she has to cut down on other expenditures.

"Albums put out by K-pop artists are pretty expensive. I don't want to ask my parents for money to buy them. So I save up to buy these albums," says Poudel who names Red Velvet, Twice, Stray Kids, NCT, Ateez, Seventeen, Itzy...