If you read my last post you'd know I came to Japan this year and at the time I wrote it I did not expect to make any money since my expenses were high and my pay was low. I am not one to be defeated so easily, however, and I am determined to save money with this venture! I did some budgeting and have put together a few things I can personally do to save money in Japan, and I hope it can help you out as well.
1. Make a budget!
This is most important way to save money. Obviously if you know how much money you are making, how much you are spending, and you know how much you want to save, you can easily calculate where your money goes each month. When calculating expenditures, it is good to categorize them into static bills and dynamic bills, i.e., bills that are fixed each month, and bills that can change based on your habits. Static bills, for example, would be things like your rent, car insurance, health insurance, phone bill, internet, etc. Dynamic bills would be things like propane, water, electricity, food, and gasoline. Monitor your spending habits for a month, marking down every thing you purchase in a notebook, or online if you use a credit card regularly. Once you have all your figures, see where you have your most waste and try and cut back on those dynamic bills. You will want to put aside a certain amount for leisure each month, since you are traveling after all, so make sure you aren't wasting money anywhere. Once you set your budget for each area, including savings, leisure, static, and dynamic bills, STICK TO IT! There is no point in making a budget if you don't follow your own plan!
2. Learn to cook
One of the biggest expenditures people will have anywhere you go is food. Especially if you eat out often, you will be spending thousands of your hard earned yen just feeding yourself. If you think the average meal when you go out is somewhere between 500 and 1000 yen ($5-$10), if you ate out every meal, you could be spending between 45000 and 90000 yen ($450-$900) a month on food! In comparison, if you cook for yourself every meal, you could be spending $2 or less per meal, which ends up being only around 20000 yen ($200) a month. This is a HUGE savings and well worth it. Your home-cooked meals will not only save you money, they will most likely be healthier for you than restaurant food, so you are doing your body a favor as well!
3. Buy in bulk
This goes hand in hand with our last money saving tip. Buy your food in bulk! I use Amazon.jp for all of my bulk dry goods and save hundreds of yen each month on food. I can buy a 200 g bag of beans at the grocery store for 300 yen that will last me for 6 meals. Not a bad deal right? Well, I can get those same beans online in a 3 kg bag for 1900 yen that will last me for 90 meals. If I bought the small bags for all those meals, I would be spending 4500 yen! That's a savings of 2600 yen in the long run. If you buy yourself a cheap pressure cooker you can cook up any dry bean or grain in less than 15 minutes. Buy some potatoes, daikon radishes, leafy greens, and whatever else you like and throw them in there with it and you have a healthy meal in no time with hardly any prep! I tend to eat vegetarian for the most part since it tends to be cheaper as well, but you can treat yourself to some meat every couple meals or so if your budget allows. You can even buy 海苔(seaweed) in bulk online, which I would recommend as a healthy green and a good source of iodine and fiber. The Japanese don't put iodine in their salt so you will have to get it from seaweed if you want to prevent goiters.
Other than food it is a good idea to buy your home goods, such as toilet paper, in bulk as well.
4. Grow your own food and buy food at markets
This one might be a little difficult for most ALT English teachers here in Japan, especially if you live in a Leo Palace, but it is not impossible and it is certainly worth it. If you have a window, you can grow plants. If you have a balcony, you can definitely grow plants! A good way to do this on a budget friendly system is to grow from seed (you can get them at the dollar stores rather than the home goods places to save money), and use cardboard boxes instead of buying planters or pots. At my grocery store if you don't want to buy a plastic bag, they just give you as many boxes as you need. Take some of these home, cut some holes in the bottom for drainage, and buy a bag of dirt. If you are eating mostly vegetables, this can cut out a nice chunk of your food budget for the summer months. I like to have a few large planters filled with lettuces, and some small ones with herbs. I also do one with strawberries because I fucking love strawberries. If you pick one or two leaves from each plant every meal, they should have a chance to grow back enough where you can continuously harvest the lettuce and herbs all summer long. If you have them inside, even better! You can keep the green coming all year round. In addition, check online to find your local farmer's markets. After March there are pretty much markets every week in most every town across Japan. The prices are almost half of what they are in the grocery stores and the money goes directly to the farmers so it's a win-win! Here is a helpful guide to how to find farmer's markets in Japan.
5. Find cheap ways to enjoy yourself
I was recently hanging out with one of my coworkers who was regaling me with a story of his epic weekend. He went out drinking, met some Japanese business men, played with some cute Japanese girl's titties at a hostess bar, and 40000 yen later ($400) he awoke in his apartment with a raging hangover and some pleasant, yet foggy memories. To be honest, it sounds like he had a really great time, and I am sure every once in a while having a night like this will make your trip to Japan worth it, but it is certainly not a good way to save money! There are much cheaper ways to enjoy yourself and explore the beauty and splendor of Japan without getting bombed and hitting and skanky women. For example, take up hiking and mountain climbing! Over 70% of Japan is mountainous and it has some of the most beautiful countryside scenery in the world. To ignore this aspect of Japan and only spend time in the bar scene would be an insult to the land and a waste of your time, in my humble opinion. Not only is this hobby a great way to see real Japan, it is cheap! Why it would be completely free if it wasn't for the travel costs of getting out there. Being a tourist in general, visiting shrines and temples and seeing old architecture is a great affordable way to enjoy Japan without spending much at all. On the weekends I know of people who go do homestays and learn to plant rice with a Japanese family. Again, this is free, and you might even get some free food out of it. Beyond these, there are tons of ways to enjoy yourself that are free. Read a book, learn a skill, exercise, join a club, play an instrument, and just take a walk around town! Going out into the Japanese nightlife can be a unique experience as well, but it is certainly not one that can be budget friendly as a regular hobby.
6. Travel by bus or train
We are here living in Japan so of course we are going to want to travel to neighboring towns and cities and explore some of the culture here. Driving can be convenient, but you will usually have to pay for parking in big cities and if you take the expressways tolls can be 1000 yen each way! Not to mention the cost of gasoline. Everyone wants to take the shinkansen (bullet trains) but they can be almost double the price of the local trains. The buses and local trains are by far the most affordable ways to travel around Japan. If you travel every weekend, or you might even use the train to commute to your schools, it would be worth it to invest in a Suica commuter pass. These are much more convenient than buying a ticket each time, and you can get monthly or 3 month passes that could save you if you take the train enough.
7. Buy second-hand goods
Thrift shops are everywhere in Japan, and the prices are insanely cheap! Apparently, Japanese people do not like buying things used, so you can snag some crazy deals. Everything including furniture, clothing, appliances, school supplies, knick knacks, instruments, decorations, kitchenware, and anything else you could think of is at a second hand shop. They call these shops Recycle shops here in Japan. Just do a google search for リサイクルショップ and you are bound to find some gold! One of my favorite stores here in Japan that sells used goods for cheap is called Book-Off. It centers around used books, but they almost always have a section for furniture, clothes, instruments, and various other items that you might want and/or need.
8. Avoid using heat in the winter, and A/C in the summer
This one might be difficult for some, but if you have the willpower, it can be a huge saver on electricity. If you buy warm enough blankets, there is really no reason to run the heat in the winter. For some reason Japan hates insulation, so there is no way to keep a room heated for more than an hour after you turn off the heat. You might as well just forget about it and bundle up! If you can find one, some Recycle shops sell Kotetsu for around 3000 yen, those heated tables, which use up much less electricity than your standard heating unit, so that might be worth the investment if you can't handle living like a human sausage roll.
In the summer it can be brutally hot and humid in many places in Japan and A/C can be a godsend. I understand that, but if you can get by with just a fan, you would save a bundle as well. Another idea would be to put bottles of water in the freezer and use them to cool off. You could also just suffer through it. After a few days your body will get used to it and it won't be so bad...probably. Taking cold showers is another great way to save on A/C, cool off, and save on the propane bill!
9. Shop at the Daiso and 100 yen stores
Japan has a wonderful store called the Daiso and other non brand name 100 yen stores that are amazing and fantastic. They are basically what every dollar store in America wishes it could be. They have everything you might need for school supplies, kitchen and home goods, gardening tools, clothes, socks, ties, underwear, towels, and even snacks and drinks. It's like a huge Walmart, but everything is only 100 yen! Well, not exactly everything. Sometimes you can find higher quality goods that are 200 or 300 yen but they are always clearly marked and well worth the extra coin. Overall it is a heavenly place, and you can get all of the random miscellaneous things you'll need for your apartment for under 3000 yen easily.
10. Find alternative sources of income
There are always extra ways to make money, and this is going to be the clincher if you want to save up some extra cash before you leave. Depending on your company and work hours, you may end up with a lot of free time after work, summers off, and plenty of time on the weekends with nothing to do but explore Japan. Granted, you must explore Japan while you are here, but there will be times when you want to just chill in your apartment and that's cool too. In those lonely hours, don't just watch movies and play video games. Take some time to learn a skill that you can monetize. If you are an English speaking person in Japan there are plenty of opportunities to tutor someone on the side for some spare cash. There are even websites that offer placement services to set you up with someone online to skype with and tutor for a fee. You can check your local town's classifieds or even craigslist for people looking for a tutor, or post there yourself. You might even want to be less formal and just offer your services so some of your coworkers at school or people you meet in clubs. Be sure to check your contract with your company if you are here as an English teacher, as some don't like you tutoring on the side. Joytalk is okay with it, if any of my coworkers are reading this.
If you are tired of teaching English, there are many other things you can do. Learn programming and develop an app. Learn a skill like guitar or photoshop and teach that to people for a fee. I am a registered yoga teacher so I can offer lessons to people for a fee as another income source. You can check out this forum for other tips on making some extra money. There are many ways to bring in some more money, just be creative and open to anything!
Well, there you have it folks, 10 ways to save money in Japan. If you follow these tips (especially #1), you should easily be able to make your experience here a pleasant one, and also save up enough money to go on another adventure afterwards! Being able to travel and make money is amazing, but make sure you are aware enough to actually save what you make!
1. Make a budget!
This is most important way to save money. Obviously if you know how much money you are making, how much you are spending, and you know how much you want to save, you can easily calculate where your money goes each month. When calculating expenditures, it is good to categorize them into static bills and dynamic bills, i.e., bills that are fixed each month, and bills that can change based on your habits. Static bills, for example, would be things like your rent, car insurance, health insurance, phone bill, internet, etc. Dynamic bills would be things like propane, water, electricity, food, and gasoline. Monitor your spending habits for a month, marking down every thing you purchase in a notebook, or online if you use a credit card regularly. Once you have all your figures, see where you have your most waste and try and cut back on those dynamic bills. You will want to put aside a certain amount for leisure each month, since you are traveling after all, so make sure you aren't wasting money anywhere. Once you set your budget for each area, including savings, leisure, static, and dynamic bills, STICK TO IT! There is no point in making a budget if you don't follow your own plan!
2. Learn to cook
One of the biggest expenditures people will have anywhere you go is food. Especially if you eat out often, you will be spending thousands of your hard earned yen just feeding yourself. If you think the average meal when you go out is somewhere between 500 and 1000 yen ($5-$10), if you ate out every meal, you could be spending between 45000 and 90000 yen ($450-$900) a month on food! In comparison, if you cook for yourself every meal, you could be spending $2 or less per meal, which ends up being only around 20000 yen ($200) a month. This is a HUGE savings and well worth it. Your home-cooked meals will not only save you money, they will most likely be healthier for you than restaurant food, so you are doing your body a favor as well!
3. Buy in bulk
This goes hand in hand with our last money saving tip. Buy your food in bulk! I use Amazon.jp for all of my bulk dry goods and save hundreds of yen each month on food. I can buy a 200 g bag of beans at the grocery store for 300 yen that will last me for 6 meals. Not a bad deal right? Well, I can get those same beans online in a 3 kg bag for 1900 yen that will last me for 90 meals. If I bought the small bags for all those meals, I would be spending 4500 yen! That's a savings of 2600 yen in the long run. If you buy yourself a cheap pressure cooker you can cook up any dry bean or grain in less than 15 minutes. Buy some potatoes, daikon radishes, leafy greens, and whatever else you like and throw them in there with it and you have a healthy meal in no time with hardly any prep! I tend to eat vegetarian for the most part since it tends to be cheaper as well, but you can treat yourself to some meat every couple meals or so if your budget allows. You can even buy 海苔(seaweed) in bulk online, which I would recommend as a healthy green and a good source of iodine and fiber. The Japanese don't put iodine in their salt so you will have to get it from seaweed if you want to prevent goiters.
Other than food it is a good idea to buy your home goods, such as toilet paper, in bulk as well.
4. Grow your own food and buy food at markets
This one might be a little difficult for most ALT English teachers here in Japan, especially if you live in a Leo Palace, but it is not impossible and it is certainly worth it. If you have a window, you can grow plants. If you have a balcony, you can definitely grow plants! A good way to do this on a budget friendly system is to grow from seed (you can get them at the dollar stores rather than the home goods places to save money), and use cardboard boxes instead of buying planters or pots. At my grocery store if you don't want to buy a plastic bag, they just give you as many boxes as you need. Take some of these home, cut some holes in the bottom for drainage, and buy a bag of dirt. If you are eating mostly vegetables, this can cut out a nice chunk of your food budget for the summer months. I like to have a few large planters filled with lettuces, and some small ones with herbs. I also do one with strawberries because I fucking love strawberries. If you pick one or two leaves from each plant every meal, they should have a chance to grow back enough where you can continuously harvest the lettuce and herbs all summer long. If you have them inside, even better! You can keep the green coming all year round. In addition, check online to find your local farmer's markets. After March there are pretty much markets every week in most every town across Japan. The prices are almost half of what they are in the grocery stores and the money goes directly to the farmers so it's a win-win! Here is a helpful guide to how to find farmer's markets in Japan.
5. Find cheap ways to enjoy yourself
I was recently hanging out with one of my coworkers who was regaling me with a story of his epic weekend. He went out drinking, met some Japanese business men, played with some cute Japanese girl's titties at a hostess bar, and 40000 yen later ($400) he awoke in his apartment with a raging hangover and some pleasant, yet foggy memories. To be honest, it sounds like he had a really great time, and I am sure every once in a while having a night like this will make your trip to Japan worth it, but it is certainly not a good way to save money! There are much cheaper ways to enjoy yourself and explore the beauty and splendor of Japan without getting bombed and hitting and skanky women. For example, take up hiking and mountain climbing! Over 70% of Japan is mountainous and it has some of the most beautiful countryside scenery in the world. To ignore this aspect of Japan and only spend time in the bar scene would be an insult to the land and a waste of your time, in my humble opinion. Not only is this hobby a great way to see real Japan, it is cheap! Why it would be completely free if it wasn't for the travel costs of getting out there. Being a tourist in general, visiting shrines and temples and seeing old architecture is a great affordable way to enjoy Japan without spending much at all. On the weekends I know of people who go do homestays and learn to plant rice with a Japanese family. Again, this is free, and you might even get some free food out of it. Beyond these, there are tons of ways to enjoy yourself that are free. Read a book, learn a skill, exercise, join a club, play an instrument, and just take a walk around town! Going out into the Japanese nightlife can be a unique experience as well, but it is certainly not one that can be budget friendly as a regular hobby.
6. Travel by bus or train
We are here living in Japan so of course we are going to want to travel to neighboring towns and cities and explore some of the culture here. Driving can be convenient, but you will usually have to pay for parking in big cities and if you take the expressways tolls can be 1000 yen each way! Not to mention the cost of gasoline. Everyone wants to take the shinkansen (bullet trains) but they can be almost double the price of the local trains. The buses and local trains are by far the most affordable ways to travel around Japan. If you travel every weekend, or you might even use the train to commute to your schools, it would be worth it to invest in a Suica commuter pass. These are much more convenient than buying a ticket each time, and you can get monthly or 3 month passes that could save you if you take the train enough.
7. Buy second-hand goods
Thrift shops are everywhere in Japan, and the prices are insanely cheap! Apparently, Japanese people do not like buying things used, so you can snag some crazy deals. Everything including furniture, clothing, appliances, school supplies, knick knacks, instruments, decorations, kitchenware, and anything else you could think of is at a second hand shop. They call these shops Recycle shops here in Japan. Just do a google search for リサイクルショップ and you are bound to find some gold! One of my favorite stores here in Japan that sells used goods for cheap is called Book-Off. It centers around used books, but they almost always have a section for furniture, clothes, instruments, and various other items that you might want and/or need.
8. Avoid using heat in the winter, and A/C in the summer
This one might be difficult for some, but if you have the willpower, it can be a huge saver on electricity. If you buy warm enough blankets, there is really no reason to run the heat in the winter. For some reason Japan hates insulation, so there is no way to keep a room heated for more than an hour after you turn off the heat. You might as well just forget about it and bundle up! If you can find one, some Recycle shops sell Kotetsu for around 3000 yen, those heated tables, which use up much less electricity than your standard heating unit, so that might be worth the investment if you can't handle living like a human sausage roll.
In the summer it can be brutally hot and humid in many places in Japan and A/C can be a godsend. I understand that, but if you can get by with just a fan, you would save a bundle as well. Another idea would be to put bottles of water in the freezer and use them to cool off. You could also just suffer through it. After a few days your body will get used to it and it won't be so bad...probably. Taking cold showers is another great way to save on A/C, cool off, and save on the propane bill!
9. Shop at the Daiso and 100 yen stores
Japan has a wonderful store called the Daiso and other non brand name 100 yen stores that are amazing and fantastic. They are basically what every dollar store in America wishes it could be. They have everything you might need for school supplies, kitchen and home goods, gardening tools, clothes, socks, ties, underwear, towels, and even snacks and drinks. It's like a huge Walmart, but everything is only 100 yen! Well, not exactly everything. Sometimes you can find higher quality goods that are 200 or 300 yen but they are always clearly marked and well worth the extra coin. Overall it is a heavenly place, and you can get all of the random miscellaneous things you'll need for your apartment for under 3000 yen easily.
10. Find alternative sources of income
There are always extra ways to make money, and this is going to be the clincher if you want to save up some extra cash before you leave. Depending on your company and work hours, you may end up with a lot of free time after work, summers off, and plenty of time on the weekends with nothing to do but explore Japan. Granted, you must explore Japan while you are here, but there will be times when you want to just chill in your apartment and that's cool too. In those lonely hours, don't just watch movies and play video games. Take some time to learn a skill that you can monetize. If you are an English speaking person in Japan there are plenty of opportunities to tutor someone on the side for some spare cash. There are even websites that offer placement services to set you up with someone online to skype with and tutor for a fee. You can check your local town's classifieds or even craigslist for people looking for a tutor, or post there yourself. You might even want to be less formal and just offer your services so some of your coworkers at school or people you meet in clubs. Be sure to check your contract with your company if you are here as an English teacher, as some don't like you tutoring on the side. Joytalk is okay with it, if any of my coworkers are reading this.
If you are tired of teaching English, there are many other things you can do. Learn programming and develop an app. Learn a skill like guitar or photoshop and teach that to people for a fee. I am a registered yoga teacher so I can offer lessons to people for a fee as another income source. You can check out this forum for other tips on making some extra money. There are many ways to bring in some more money, just be creative and open to anything!
Well, there you have it folks, 10 ways to save money in Japan. If you follow these tips (especially #1), you should easily be able to make your experience here a pleasant one, and also save up enough money to go on another adventure afterwards! Being able to travel and make money is amazing, but make sure you are aware enough to actually save what you make!