Tips
Living Like a Cheapass in Japan, Part I: 11 Tips for Cheap Eating
Are you cheap, lazy, and living in Japan? Good news: I?ll be writing a series of updates featuring tips on how to survive cheaply in Japan! I will be combining my first-hand experiences with tips I have learned about from other people in Japan, as well as stuff I may have seen on TV.
The first article in this 3-part series is the Japan Probe list of 11 Tips for Cheap Eating in Japan:
* Cook. Cooking your own meals can be far cheaper than buying pre-prepared foods or dining out. It will also allow you to practice a useful life skill that can impress members of the opposite sex.
* Buying vegetables: Compare prices between the local supermarket and the mom & pop grocers. Often the little old lady who sells vegetables out of a cardboard box is the best deal.
* Get a rice cooker. This is probably the most important item for cheap eating in Japan. Make the initial investment in a rice cooker and a giant bag of rice and see it feed you for months. Do not waste your money on microwavable rice packets.
* Don?t buy food at convenience stores. It may be much closer than the supermarket, but you are paying a mark-up for that convenience. A lot of people go to the nearby 7-11 and buy ready-to-eat meals there. This is an expensive habit that will see you wasting a lot of money on sub par food.
* Pasta is your friend. If you are tired of rice, you can always carb-up on pasta, which is cheap and readily available at all supermarkets in Japan. If you can?t make your own spaghetti sauce, you can buy packets/cans of instant sauce cheaply.
* Learn about discount times. Many super markets have certain times when food items are discounted. The most common time is the hour before closing every night, when perishable food items that haven?t been sold are marked down greatly. There may also be certain days of the week where supermarkets have special sales.
* Watch for supermarket discounts. When you go to a supermarket, scan perishable food items carefully. Occasionally there are items with small stickers on them marking down the price by 100 yen or more. The bread section usually has almost-expired bread that can be bought at a significant mark-down. You can also check out the sale bins in the fruits/vegetable section for soon-to-be-expired fruits and vegetables and bargain prices. Just don?t forget to eat them, or your apartment may end up smelling like rotting food a couple days later.
* Eat curry. Most Japanese supermarkets have a large selection of curry. Choose whatever curry you like and make a big batch of it. You can refrigerate and re-use the curry for a whole week of meals. It?s not exactly great for those who like variety, but very cheap.
* Don?t eat out. Many foreigners are too lazy to cook and don?t like ready-to-eat supermarket/convenience store food, so they eat out at restaurants almost every night. If you are trying to live cheaply, this is not a very good idea. If you absolutely must eat out, eat dinner at really cheap restaurants and eat lunch at restaurants with special lunchtime deals.
* Buy in bulk. While it is often difficult to find large size food items in Japan, buy in bulk whenever possible. Examples of food that can be bought in larger sizes for long-term savings include rice, soy sauce, ketchup, pasta and alcohol. Be sure to buy items you will actually consume, and not something you would rarely eat. You might also want to think about refrigerator size issues before buying larger items (since most gaijin do not have huge refrigerators).
* Instant noodles. Who could make such a list without remembering these? There is a huge selection of instant noodles in Japan for low prices. Many of them taste really great too! However, keep in mind that instant noodles are not exactly the healthiest option.
There are many other methods for eating cheaply in Japan, but these are the main tips that came to mind when I was making this list.
This article was originally written on http://www.japanprobe.com as a feature article. Check out Japan Probe for other similar articles! |
Jeffrey Hall
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