“What gets measured gets improved.” – Robin Sharma, author of The Greatness Guide.

I love reading financial blogs where they track savings/spendings and give their own figures. This week, I wanted to write my own post about the cost of living in an average city (ie. not Tokyo) in Japan.

As an experiment, I kept track of ever single yen I spent over the past week. It’s a good thing to do once in a while, especially if you find yourself at the end of the month with less than you had figured on – which, this month, I have…   ;)   It can be very eye-opening to see where all your hard-earned money is going, and useful for deciding how to adjust your spending habits.

(As a side note, my parents hate it when I write about money: too much personal information, they say. I respectfully disagree, and point to things I’ve learned from others’ financial blogs…  Sorry parents.)

I hope somebody living in Japan or planning on moving here will find my spending figures useful, but at the very least it was a good exercise for my own financial well-being.

Here’s the breakdown of what I spent this past week living in Japan (Mon, May 23rd to Sun, May 29th)

Utilities (electricity, gas and water, prorated to one week) 2,200 yen

Rent (prorated to one week) 9,030 yen

Groceries (5 trips to the grocery store, including wine) 11,492 yen

Eating out (sushi resto x1 and Yayoi-ken x3) 2,505 yen

Conbini Bentos (pre-made convenience store lunch x3) 1,261 yen

Cleaning supplies (from the 100 yen shop) 525 yen

“Band meeting” (ie. Chipping in for lunch at a jam session) 850 yen

Stuff I didn’t actually need (new earrings, etc) 5,000 yen

Grand total 32,863 yen

Or, $388 CAD per week. Not terrible, but not where I want to be.

Analyze

It was admittedly a quiet week: I had a bad cold for a few days and didn’t go to any bars (an average weekly bar tally might be 1500 yen). As if to make up for that, I bought some stuff I don’t really need but wanted (earrings, cologne) — I don’t usually spend this money. So if we remove the “stuff I didn’t need” from the equation, and if I spend a similar amount every week for a month, that amounts to about 123,000 yen — which puts me only slightly over budget. About 4000 yen per week over, which is completely fixable.

Another reason my numbers are high this week: I’m trying to gain weight. I’ve been working out, trying to put on a bit of muscle (I’ve had very mild success so far and I stepped it up this week) and protein is expensive in Japan. For example, as I type this, I’m snacking on a bag of cashews – 130g of nuts for 320yen (almost $4 CAD). That’s pretty expensive in my books. For protein in Japan, Chicken breast is the best deal, at between 58 and 68 yen per 100g, but I’ve discovered that one can only eat so much chicken…

Improve

Looking at my numbers, I can see that I could cut down on my costs by replacing most of my restaurant and conbini meals with home-made bentos — which also has the added benefit of being healthier. I’m also thinking about cheaper, yet still healthy sources of protein — but I would much rather be eating healthy than saving a few extra bucks. I may try this receipt-saving experiment again in a few weeks time to see if I can bring my costs down.

If you’re reading this, and have some cost of living tips for Japan (especially about buying groceries), please leave a comment!

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Postscript: I suppose I should also address the elephant in the room. Some of my friends reading this may have noticed that my numbers are for only one person. Kim and I had some amazing adventures together over the years, but in April we went our separate ways. Kim’s now on her way to India for some spirit-cleansing yoga. She’s an amazing woman on an incredible path, and I wish her the best.

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(above photo from our motorbike trip in Newfoundland by Josh)

I’ve recently started a new job and have a new home for the next ten months. Seems to me a good time to reevaluate what’s important to me, set priorities and really focus on the next big goal: buying my freedom.

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