Pinching Yennies

Me, too. I have a cash stash for food and household expenses. Good way to keep within my budget. My credit card is only for auto payments like utilities.

I've been diligent about preparing bento box lunch every day for years. At this point, I prefer my own food to convenience store bento! About drinks - I do indulge in vending machine bottled drinks but lately, I've been reusing screw-top aluminum cans for coffee, juice, and water. My workplace has a fridge, so I pop my bento and drinks in there when I arrive every morning. I find that outerwear and blazers from second hand shops here in Japan are high quality. I've got high end pieces for less than 10th of the price at recycle shops.

I had a coat from BookOff that was secondhand and that I wore for 10 years and then put back in the second hand circuit. The quality/sturdiness was impressive. I bought the coat 500 yens back then 😭🙏

Wow I think we are all very like-minded! My favorite thirft shops are also Book Off! and Second Street.

That's rough that you experienced a drop in income. My base salary is stagnant, but the employer gives me other things to do a few times a year which help. I make three meals at home to cut costs, eat out once or twice a month with my partner, and try to be thrifty with utilities. Coupons and shopping late in the day for discounts means I save about 10-15% on items I need. I'm looking at changing things up - phone and internet providers, for example, to see if I can get a better deal. That's about all I can come up with to pinch yens.

It's already a lot! I feel like I already do these things 😂 my mom was always trying to save some money I guess I had that from her plus the fact it's more logical. Oh I also walk instead of getting into the subway, which enables me to save the transportation fees my company pay 😅