Tuesday 31 March 2009

Re-Framing

It has been a crazy few months. One of my buddies came in October for a month, I busted my ankle, had a horrific wisdom tooth extraction, company woes, and my sister and friends came in March.

The schedule and routine I had going in September times is now non-existent. It is time to get it back!!

April is going to be a rough month. I am pretty sure I spent at least 200,000yen this month. I could look at the books to get an exact figure but I am too scared to…

It is payday tomorrow but most of the pay will be gone within a day or two with bills and other things I need to pay. This month I must show the discipline I once had.

First step is a budget. I am going to set myself a weekly budget of 10,000 a week. That means I have to start eating breakfast at home and cooking my lunch. That is what I used to do. But recently I have fallen back into the habit of spending 300yen+ on breakfast every morning and 1000yen+ on lunch at work.

If you do the math then that’s 26,000yen+ a month on food during the week. But wait, that does not include dinner or weekends. If you add those, I am probably spending something ridiculous like 50,000+ on food a month… LOL? I am pretty sure if I tried I should be able to cut that by half… All I need to do is take a little time to go shopping and cook.

I can use the extra money I save to fund my new habit :D

Because of the 10,000yen a week budget I will not be able to live how I am used to. In fact, it is going to be a pretty lame month. I am not looking forward to it at all...

But 2 odd years ago when I first came to Japan on my internship, after rent and bills I probably had less than 10,000 a week to live on every month. However, I still managed to live well and have fun every day.

It is funny how life is.

I wonder what changed…

5 Show some more love?

Sugar Shoulder said...

One word: Responsibilities!

Thomas Hammerlund said...

You definitely want to budget, but 10,000/week might be excessive.

Try it and see, but it seems like a bad diet and you might just rebound.

Abae said...

u spending too much =P

danjamin said...

I love how you're saving money on food so you can, um, spend money on food. Lol.
But yeman, eating on a budget techniques. Bust out some protracted eating dishes. You can make a curry and make it last all week if you just top it up with water/cubes/milk (milk goes surprsingly well in curry). Just add new things to jazz it up throughout the week (like oden dashi!), that way you won't forever hate curry. Also, rice, furikake and pickles can be surprsingly filling. Oh, and for dinner, wait till 8:30-9, then go supermarket to partake in the joys of half price freshly made goods, the only problem with that is that it's all so cheap that your eyes get the better of you, you end up spending more than you need to and get fat.
Finally, lettuce x 1 + goma dore bottle x 1 = 4 days of power salad.
Anyway, i'm sure you know all this stuff but thought i'd give my 2p. Ganbare!

Prometheus said...

@Tokyo Grindhouse CEO
Preach, preach. I feel ya on that one :(

@sixmats

Yeah doing the math now it looks like it might suck. But if i just eat rice spaghetti etc I should be able to make it :P 100 yen shop baby. Also it is only for this month!

@Abae
LOL, I know :( but sometimes you jsut gotta do it....

@danjamin
LOL Dan you have outdone yourself. Sick surivial guide.
Never ending Curry and genki genki power salad sounds good. I dont really feel pickles and furikake though...

Also I will be alseep by 9 most days this month :(