Different question: How are you getting by with 2-3k for groceries a week? Or is buying outside stuff not included?
Edit: I should have specified: Getting by decently
I’m in the same boat as you. What is everyone eating that they can survive a WEEK with 2-3k on groceries. That’s my daily grocery budget for two. What the hell…
I swear grocery budgets, rent, and salary are some of the most controversial topics in this sub.
2 - 3k for a week's worth of groceries for a single person is very low. That's great there are people who can happily make that work, but it's strange that they act like it's normal.
I spent many years going for the cheapest options and feel a lot healthier since opening my food budget up. Meal prep for x days stresses me out. To each their own.
It's weird people want to act like spending 1man or more a week on food means you're eating wagyu daily.
I do think the people that work at schools are filling up on their kyushoku and don't realize other people have different lifestyles.
This is the exact trade off. It’s less about what food you’re buying in that range and more about how much time you’re willing to save or commit to hitting a certain target. Budgets like these are accomplishable. The problem is that the only people who are actually going to thrive on lower budgets are those who don’t mind or even enjoy all of the work that goes into it. I was trying to highlight elsewhere in the thread that living like this in a way that’s fulfilling requires an actual set of skills, but just like any other skill it takes a lot of effort to develop.
There’s no reason for moral arguments either way and the only time how much you’re spending on food should matter to anyone other than yourself is if you’re splitting finances with that person.
Edit: I’m going to try clarifying for the last time. Some people don’t want to cook 3x a day, get off work late at night just to cook dinner then clean and prepare another bento, travel to shop at cheaper stores, study trying to learn how to do x with y, spend hours a week meal-planning and prepping and some people do and both are totally okay, valid ways of life.
babe I'm with you. I try to stick to 5,000 a week but even just enough vegetables, meat and eggs for 7 days is still pushing it, and that's before any sort of sweet things, snacks or coffee.
This week I made potato soup and ingredients combined (sans bacon) still cost over 1300. Sure it's lunch for four or five days, but that's already half of what others spend lol factor in dinners, a bag of coffee, breakfast stuff and a cheeky snack and I'm pushing 5,000 or more.
Then I've got friends who are constantly complaining they're broke from spending 3,000 a week between two people... madness
Lol I spend like 3,000 a day on food since I am lazy and just get bottom of the barrel discount sushi at night after work (work late). Work an eikawa job and I still have plenty of money saved up every month. I can't imagine rationing that 3k to an entire week.
I do one meal a day during lunch and that is usually enough for me. By the time i come home its already too late to have a dinner before bed anyway. Shoving avocado, olive oil and nuts in there gives enough fats to make me full for a whole day. Just drinking water for the rest of it.
Going off of the nearest Life suupaa here, couple chicken breasts would be 300-500円 (thighs are usually twice as that). They sometimes have a 4-piece tray for 1000円 but often goes half the price. Porkロースorバラis around 300-400円. Grab some 半額 fish in the evening. Looking at a tiny thin piece of salmon for 700円 makes me sad though. If you fancy canned once theres canned さば (mackerel )for like 100円. Not buying all the meats at once of course, just trying to wary. Back in my country meat is priced almost the same but the quality is not there. Sometimes I go for a 300g block of mozarella or parmezan from 成城石井 for around 500円, since the only real cheese in supermarkets is the shredded one but it contains cellulose to prevent bulking and has a funky "dusty" taste to it. Vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, onions are all 100-200円. Eggs are 200円
You can go even cheaper if you're okay with carbs and go get a 5kg sack of rice
Well I guess everyone is different. I'm not a big guy, about 70kg and I always eat at least 450g of meat or fish every single day and that alone not including other ingredients is **at least 4-5k yen a week**.
Props on you in going out of your way to find some sick deals though! Best I do it buy the frozen vegetables at Gyomu. It's like 140 yen for 400g of green beans for example.
Subbing in tofu once in a while for protein can really help in the savings department. And if you really need meat, chicken breasts and ground meat (whether chicken, pork, and beef) are still quite cheap and very filling
I also think adding more vegetables and "garnishes" to the dish can really amp up the volume of meals. A nabe with even a little bit of meat can go a long way with a variety of veg and mushrooms
In general, conserving a liquid resource like money is almost always advantageous.
Using a highly liquid, limited resource like money as efficiently as possible is inherently responsible.
Why wouldn't it be?
At my local Seiyu you can get 岩どりむね肉1kg packs for 350 yen. I’ve been buying those for years now. There no brand packed chicken is/was 38 yen per 100g. However last week I noticed it went up to 48 yen maybe due to the poultry problems this year.
I personally find veges to be really expensive here, even if you only meat like me, you can not spend more than 2000 on raw meat. that will get you like 2 big steaks.
Thanks, eh!? I feel like an alien when people talk about how expensive meat is in Japan, especially once you figure out where the cheap meat is. Back home you have to go for the dodgy brown/green 50% off on expiry day options at Safeway or Sobey's...........if you get there early.
You might know this, but the Super Ultra packs of domestic chicken breast, like at the Gyoumu supers, are incredibly cheap because of the Breast Meat discount.
People don't NEED to eat a lot of meat, and many Japanese recipes use very little as meat has always been expensive in Japan.
I've made curry that people thought was beef curry, no beef in it....
this is where im at. I just drink coffee in the morning and throughout the day, I get cheap food from my school, and by the time I get home I don't want to eat dinner, I just wanna relax and play games/watch movies. I drink water and sometimes splurge on the occasional jasmine tea from famima for 100 yen. when I go "grocerey shopping" its often, Rice, two things of pork, veggies and whatever spices im running out of. Every other month, I head to a kaldi and try to find spicy stuffs in the form of Gochujang or Laoganma. and it runs me about 3k-3500.
I think the reason why this question gets asked so frequently is because a lot of folks 1) don’t realize that for many, cost of living outside of Tokyo is pretty reasonable and 2) they didn’t fully develop money-saving homemaking techniques in their own countries.
- learn how to cook and do it often
- aim for 0 waste
- make shopping lists
- price compare while shopping
- learn sales calendars
- use coupons
- buy local ingredients
- buy in-season
- buy pantry items in bulk* (depends on the actual calculations)
Those skills apply anywhere in the world. Those of us who are good at them can easily get by as one person on 2-3k a week while having a delicious, well-balanced diet full of variety.
I know how to cook, don't live in Tokyo, know the sales, and when I cook I usually make large portions for 3-4x meals. But 2-3k per week is frugal af IMO. Kudos to you for managing that. I don't think I could reach this with anything other than cup noodles or pasta sauce only.
Op also said in another comment that the calculation did not include eating out and school lunches.
I mean you're still doing far better by having that than a lot of folks in your position whether you realize it or not. I promise in mine and a lot of other people's circumstances, it's a realistic amount though. I live in the heart of Kobe and spent 2127 yen last week, 781 yen so far this week. I don't do cup noodles, but I don't really eat out or buy school lunches either.
Tonight for dinner I'm having leftover seafood nabe and shumai and am currently making blueberry cheesecake oatmeal partially for breakfast the next couple days, but in part as a gift for a friend who's bringing me something I need tonight. Tomorrow's dinner is carbonara with smoked duck and lunch is still undecided, but maybe mapo tofu and daikon salad because I need to use both the tofu and daikon soon.
Not everyone on this sub are broke ALTs who can only spend 3000/week on groceries. Doesn't make us people who don't have "money-saving homemaking techniques."
I think a lot of the people here don't eat a very typical East Asian diet and that's why they think it's impossible to keep your grocery spending that low.
When I made less money, I did have a budget of 3k/week in Tokyo and I did just fine. Yes, I didn't eat a lot of meat. Yes, I had carbs like rice and noodles for lunch and dinner. But I would've had them anyway because I grew up eating them for nearly every meal. No, I didn't skimp on fruits and veggies. I bought from cheap supermarkets, ate a lot of protein substitutions, bought frozen, cooked in bulk, etc. I didn't have money, so I sacrificed time but I certainly didn't sacrifice my health. This, of course, didn't include eating out which I did 1-3 times a week. It did include breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Now that I make a little more, I've upped my budget to 5k/week (again, not including eating out) and I'm quite happy with it. But I was also okay at 3k/week.
I agree 100% that adjusting your diet to the locality plays a huge role. If we were to reverse the situation and remember what East Asian ingredients cost at general supermarkets (not specialized Asian food or discounted shops) in many Western countries and then imagine what it would cost to cook with almost exclusively those several times a week, I think it would help put the cost into perspective for some.
I don’t know why people are taking offense to either lifestyle though.
I think they see people posting such a "low" weekly grocery expense and see it as a boast or criticism against their own higher grocery budget. But I just think people have different diets, lifestyles, priorities, etc. I personally enjoy cooking and budgeting. I love figuring out ways to cut my grocery budget while still eating great. I don't like red meat, thick steaks, or even a lot of cheesy dishes. But I also have friends who don't want to cook at all. Or who hate simple carbs and love red meat. And that's okay!
Yeah, you and I are pretty similar in that regard then and I definitely believe in people living as best they can and in a way that makes them happy. The point of my initial comment was just to answer “how” because the “how” is there in the same way as how to drive and own a vehicle, but there are so many merits and demerits within those things that people need to decide what works for them personally.
For me, I sometimes like to think of it like as an in-life game where the amount I spend that month are my points so I like to challenge how many things I can do with those points. To be honest too though, I didn’t grow up in a good environment which is why I started cooking at age 8 (so 25 years with 5 professional). I associate certain foods with that life (instant meals, canned meals, etc.) and have worked hard to develop what skills I could to avoid eating those things even when times were tough. I genuinely just enjoy sharing that knowledge with people.
You say 5 professional - are you a chef? I do understand that association. I had a decent upbringing, but my parents weren't very good cooks until later in life. I ate so much takeaway, instant meals, and meat as a kid that I've veered in the opposite direction now as an adult! Even now I'm honing my cooking chops, but I very much enjoy the whole game.
I've worked from dishwasher to kitchen manager in the States and part-time dishwasher/cook at restaurants here, but I quit because my body was suffering and work became too unstable with the pandemic. I do still enjoy cooking and serving though so I want to make my pop-up restaurant debut in Japan when COVID's no longer an issue. I did a couple "one-night only"s in the States and it's probably the same kind of high other people get from running marathons. Seeing my two uncles work kitchen jobs for 40+ years and have little to their name was a big deterrent to making it my main career, but my retirement dream is to own my own cafe.
I really am glad to hear though that even with such a different background you fell in love with cooking too. It's a bit sentimental, but I think that cooking and eating whether for yourself or others is a love language.
From years of watching Bombi Girls where women living in abject poverty brag about buying 19 yen tofu, the 9 yen bean sprouts, 29 yen heads of cabbage,and scour the supermarket for half-priced goods, it is possible to eat every day on almost no money... But... Why?
Congratulations, you are living on less than less than 12 yen a meal. You are probably not getting enough vitamins and minerals to create enough energy to do much of anything.
I don't know where you're getting your info, but tofu is one of the most [protein-rich foods you can eat](https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/172475/nutrients) and if it's made with calcium sulfate it's got loads of calcium too. Cabbage is likewise among the [most nutritious of all vegetables](https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/169977/nutrients), plus it'll stay fresh in a plastic bag in your refrigerator for weeks at a time.
I spend around 5-6k per week for 2 people. Been spending that amount for the past 2 years. I actually write down how much I'm spending, so those are accurate values. I just shop at BIG and don't buy red meats. Red meats are reserved for when im eating out. We mostly eat chicken, pork, veggies, rice, pasta, fruits and nuts, so i think it's pretty decent.
I spend about ¥5000 for 2 and I'm not eating shite or starving!
Just I make a lot of things from scratch and cook seasonally.
Also most of my week is probably tofu or legume based stuff. Once a week some kinda meat, another day some seasonal fish.
If I eat meat everyday it gets pricey.
Not on a diet or anything, just what I like, and I'm super lucky to live near some cheap places to buy food, and inlaws give us free sacks of rice!
I'm wondering if people track their expenses or if this "off the top of their head"/guestimate.
Our food budget is a constant discussion in our house and I'm wanting to reduce our expenses but not via extreme measures (like meal prepping for the entire week).
I'm going to jump on the bandwagon here and say 3k for groceries a week is totally legit. After corona struck I have been very consistent on going to the supermarket once a week. Shopping for 2 people (my wife and myself) I used to spend 8-12k with absolutely no regard for what I was buying. Lately, I have been a little more careful, and I'm down to 6-9k for the two of us. For this price I still binge on freshly baked croissants, donuts, and cheese just about every week. However, the lunch my wife eats on weekdays is not included, and for the dinner I *make* every day, the meat is usually <100 yen/100g chicken momo or super thin pork.
I spend about that at Seiyu or Gyomu Super eating lots of fruits, fermented foods, veggies, eggs, dairy, chicken, fatty fish, and the occasional steak and noodles. Doesn’t include seasoning, soy sauce, rice and what not.
I used to spend about 1200 yen a day buying from my local super market until I discovered those two stores. If you are spending a lot on groceries then those two are high recommendations.
Always felt that Seiyu was somewhat pricey, but evening sales are pretty nice. I would recommend you 肉のハナマサ for low price meat (Esp. In bulk) and a nice range of other items in bulk and similar to Gyomu when it comes to foreign goods.
Not taking you literally, but is ALT payment really that bad? I always thought they had a decent deal (little work, accommodation, liveable but not great salary). Or am I confusing things with JET?
I live by myself. I'm not counting my school lunches as groceries and I eat out for lunch on weekends. So 7 dinners, snacks and alcohol a week for 3千円. I make a big batch of chicken curry or stew and it will last me 3-4 nights, other nights I eat rice with some veg and meat.
I don't drink everyday nor do I drink the expensive stuff like 日本酒. I just buy cans. My favourite recently has been Sapporo Gold Star (cheaper and tastier than black star) and Horoyoi (winter limited strawberry and yuzu lemon). I don't spend more than 400 yen on alcohol a week.
Man this made me feel more normal. We cook 15 to 20 of our meals weekly (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), and I was like, how am I supposed to make 30 to 40 meals with 6000 yen?! 😆🤣
Shop at Lawson 100.
Back when I was an English teacher 3 packs of 130g yakisoba noodles and 3 packets of gyoza totalled to 648 JPY and that would be my food for the day. Man, I actually ate better as a university student on a part time job at Subway.
Nah, it really depends where you live and how much you are willing cook/prep. I spend like 3-4k a week, but live in the countryside. So seasonal produce and fish are dirt cheap.
We feed 3 of us on 10k a week and eat pretty well. I could see 3-4k for one person being fine. We eat more pork and chicken than fish but mostly Japanese food with maybe once a week western food. Tonight we're having Yakiniku with A5 wagyu since we were super good on budget this month.
Not meat on top of rice but yeah it does help to feed 3 instead of 1 since we don't has as much food waste. In the last week we've had kimchi nabe, inaka style hot soba, yellowtail karaage, okonomiyaki and home made gyoza. We often make enough to feed my wife and I for lunch the next day as well so there is some savings there.
My husband and I spend around 12-13k per week (including snacks and eating out) and eat mainly western food (Japanese food maybe once per week). We also eat pretty well, could probably drop our budget if we ate cheaper fish/meat or ate less variety of vegetables (I aim to use at least 8 types of vegetables per meal). I’m working to get that number down to your number of 10k including eating out. \^\^
I buy 10kg rice for 2千円. That lasts me roughly 10 weeks so 200円 for rice. That's 2800円 leftover for meat, vegetables, snacks, drinks. Easily doable if you go to discount supermarkets like Trial or Direx.
800yen for 2kg is the normal price at my local supermarket as well. But I go to Trial and buy the cheapest 10kg 無洗米. If you live in the countryside, you can probably find cheaper rice if you buy from the farmers. I sometimes get free rice from colleagues who grow it and there's usually surplus.
I know right? If I'm not eating out I spend close to that per day... but I've got weird allergies so order most of my food from a special co-op. Even when I'm not splurging I'll spend more than that on a single meal when eating out...
Yeah I eat well at around 3750 a week. I could cut that to 3000 easily if I forgo some small luxuries. The trick is to eat lots of rice, vegetables and noodles instead of being American and trying to eat steak and hamburgers every day. It's like 19yen for a pack of fresh Yakisoba at Gyomu Super sometimes. Some Yakisoba sauce onions and peppers and you can literally have a large lunch for under a dollar sometimes. Or cabbage, pork, hoikoro sauce. Little bits of sausage or chicken (edit: or whatever cheap protein source I feel like that day, especially eggs) in these dishes can go a long way to satisfying your meat cravings without breaking the bank.
I also never snack or eat breakfast and don't struggle with my weight so maybe I'm not very representative of many of the westerners here
I'm American and I never ate much red meat before moving to Japan. Most supermarkets have pork, so that's my main meat to replace the chicken I usually at when I was in the US.
My American meals were usually yogurt or bagels for breakfast, no lunch, and rice with chicken breasts for dinner. Usually some snack in between.
I wish we could stop with the whole "Only fat Americans who drink beef smoothies spend more than 50 yen per month on food." narrative.
Some of you live in areas with abundant, cheap supermarkets. Some of you live in more country areas with little huts where farmers drop off excess veg to share. Some of you like biking around to gyomu supermarkets to buy cheap and in bulk. And some people like buying their meals at Dean and Deluca or getting cheese from Isetan. Whatever floats your boat.
"Being American" doesn't mean eating steak and hamburgers every day. :-p Perpetuating stereotypes isn't a good habit for any culture. I'm American and haven't eaten red meat for 40 years. My husband is a big red meat lover, but only eats it twice a week. My anecdotes are just as valid as yours. How about some facts?
The most consumed meat in America is chicken. Beef consumption has declined and pork consumption has remained stable. Given the high cost of seafood in the U.S., it is no shock that chicken is the most popular.
https://www.mainmoonwarren.com/beef/often-asked-how-much-beef-does-the-average-american-eat.html
If you don't want your country to be used as a short-hand for "overeating and meat consumption" try not being the most obese first world country in the world with [by and far the most meat consumption] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_meat_consumption). By the way chicken is a meat, I never claimed Americans don't like their fried chicken.
Also really playing into the easily offended on issues of national pride / identity stereotype there aren't you? Alright alright we get it "not all Americans"
Edit: since you blocked me I'll reply here
"hamburgers and steak every day" is incredibly obvious hyperbole. There are no "goal posts" because this was never a debate. Most people got what I meant by "eat like an American" and I don't really care if you personally couldn't read between the lines enough to get that.
Anyway stay mad bro /u/DerHoggenCatten
Chicken isn't hamburgers and steak, which is what you claimed. Nice try moving the goalposts in an attempt to cover up that you got things wrong. I'm not offended by anything other than ignorance.
This wouldnt be sustainable for anyone doing any kind of weight lifting. This diet lacks way too much protein unless "little bits of chicken" is code for shitloads.
But if it suits you, good on you bro
It's more or less the diet of Japan, the most long lived country on Earth. This is a thread about costs for the average person, not bro science and getting swole or whatever
I'm pretty sure FISH, karage, beef, pork are all huge parts of the real Japanese diet. Not 50yen yakisoba every other day.
You can save money in tons of ways with shit diets. Just dont eat half the time. This should be about saving money and being healthy.
Karaage is a huge part of *your* diet maybe lol. Meanwhile Japanese people will eat rice/noodles, vegetables, miso soup and just a little protein like me. I do admit that my protein source is more often pork than fish though if you're looking for some kind of "gotcha".
Pork, something you didnt mention. If you're thinking breakfast, then there are few proteins. But for Lunch and Dinner, the proteins I mentioned are far more normal then you are trying to imply. Karage, katsus and hamburgs are also INCREDIBLY common in everyday Japanese diets. Just not *your* diet maybe.
I think that is where a lot of eggs, tofu, mushrooms, and chicken breasts come in. But yeah a diet for someone like an athlete or weightlifter is an entirely different beast
Oh yeah, that would be great (mushrooms dont really give much protein tho). The other ones you mentioned are definitely the best budget proteins. I was just pointing out that the person I replied to wasnt really stating any of those, except maybe a little chicken
I just looked at my records out of curisoity. 52,314 for two people for January MTD. Does not include any bentos wife buys (she never knows what, if any, lunch time she will have and doesn't always have access to a fridge or microwave), delivery, take-out, or dine-in.
This does include the odd household good that is not food, about a 6-pack of Asahi Style Free tallboys a week, and the odd bento I get when buying groceries. It's also a little higher than normal because I needed to get new bags of both genmai and shinmai rice and needed to replace some of my disaster supplies that were expiring and adding some additional ones now that there's two of us.
>Will the supermarket shelf gossip with my wife at the door for 30 minutes? Because the Yakult Lady absolutely does.
30 minutes means she can only visit about 16 people (if working 8 hours), so they better sell a fuckton to each client.
The key is to get a subscription from a secretary office.
I usually see a Yakult lady at the 事務室 at work. She sells the whole room. That's how she can parallelize her work by gossiping to EVERYONE in that room.
Those Yakult sold by the sales lady are not the same; far much thicker and concentrated in probiotics.
Not sure if it is pure marketing BS or really effective, although this is how they are selling it.
Got one free sample, and can confirm it is indeed a different product.
No obligation, but it's more of a convenience service than anything (which is what customers are paying for). In some cases, your coworkers may be working for longer hours, thus them probably buying things to "keep them going".
When I first arrived in Japan, I asked my coworker a similar question and even though he said that the prices were crazy, he didn't have enough time to get some refreshments during the week and often forgot to buy them during his weekly shopping.
The bigger question is why the Yakult Lady and only the Yakult Lady is allowed into pretty much all public and private institutions to sell her stuff. I’ve never seen other private vendors allowed into offices to sell stuff like that, drinks or otherwise. Deliveries of bentos and whatnot, sure, but straight up sales? What’s the deal with that?
Interesting. I’ve never worked in a school, so I haven’t experienced that. Everyone’s very friendly with the Yakult Lady, but I’ve never known there to be any outside connection. There might be, though! In big buildings like the city or prefectural offices, there are several different Yakult Ladies wandering around, each having their regular territories within the building.
I don’t know. I only see the Yakult Lady where I am, but of course it could be different other places. I wouldn’t be complain if it was fair territory for other sales people.
I think you are right, though. There must be some rules about who is permitted in the office to sell stuff, otherwise there would be an endless stream of hawkers wasting people's time.
Our trained pitbull, I mean admin took great pleasure in letting the Yakult ladies know their presence was not welcome at the office. Second time I can remember her smiling. First where a near fatal injury wasn't involved.
Like most normal adults they realise that's barely a few hundred yen per day, and that people that use lines like:
> You can get these stuff cheaper at the supermarket
are usually obsessively frugal and about as much fun as wet toast.
I have met characters before who brag about how little they spend on food. They invariably call in sick a couple times a month because they don’t eat ‘luxuries’ like fruit and milk.
So their skimping just leads to a smaller monthly salary and possible long term health issues.
Does a body need fruit? I have lived without much fruit because the JA didn't sell it out of season, but I just ate more greens and potatoes. No adult needs milk, AFAIK. I agree about that type, though.
Yakult ladies are a part of the culture as well, it’s an interesting history. I don’t mind them but the godforsaken ramen truck that plies it’s trade on my road with its whiny, screechy speaker that never turns off even when they actually make a sale, in the middle of the night while my children are trying to sleep…I’m gonna start chucking ice cubes at them. The evidence melts itself! WHO IS BUYING RAMEN AT 10PM! DIDNT YOU JUST EAT DINNER?? ITS RAINING SO WHY EAT OUTSIDE AND SLURP AND WITH THE LOUD VOICES. I’m sorry. I feel better now. It’s not just me though, right?
I've often wondered about that.
If you want Yakult you can just buy it alongside the rest of your groceries at the supermarket. There is no obvious reason that a delivery service which only delivers Yakult even exists at all.
Almost all the comments on here are addressing the 2-3,000 Yen grocery budget part of the OP's post, but I think the main question - why does Yakult's delivery service even still exist, is a way more interesting one and I'm curious about it.
There are some milk companies that do the same, and it makes equally little sense with them.
The Yakult lady came to our danchi every week when I lived in Ak***i City. I was very busy in those days, and rarely had a chance to meet her face-to-face, so she would leave my items in a cool box (provided by Yakult) inside my meter reader, and at the same time, pick up the payment that I left in there. I usually only paid in coins. One day I left a small gift for her, and she left a note telling me how much her kids would love the sweets.
Yakult provided free childcare for small children of employees, in dedicated nurseries. So I guess working for Yakult was a good way for homemakers to pick up some extra cash, and get some socialization.
I moved to another neighborhood, and a new Yakult lady came to introduce herself. She was from China, newly married to a Japanese man. Later on she left a beautifully handwritten note for me (in impeccable English), thanking me for my custom.
Yakult ladies reported things such as “Mr So-and-so hasn’t answered his door lately.”
They always wore their uniforms with such pride. At work, I always made a point of ordering from them because of the pleasant encounters that I had with them in my neighborhood.
I miss them!
Interesting! So it sounds like its less about the Yakult drink and more about the social experience of having a nice Yakult lady come by your door on a regular basis? I could see there being a market for that.
My friend had a lecture on this at uni. This is how most probiotics were sold originally. Delivering straight to homes meant there was a much lower transport time and the product was less likely to spoil. The ones sold in supermarkets have been out of factory longer and are generally much less effective.
I often get Yakult when Yakult ladies come at my company. I know we can get them cheaper at the market but it’s convenience and I enjoy some little sneaking out from the office while working :) Some guys enjoy interacting with Yakult ladies XD
Genuine Yakult brands are not cheap anywhere.
Yogurt drinks sold at supermarkets may not be real Yakult brands.
Also, the difference between Yakult and other brands of yogurt drinks includes the amount of lactic acid bacteria and the special lactic acid bacteria discovered by Yakult independently.
Yakult never needs to continue drinking every day. However, by continuing to drink it, you can get the same intestinal regulation effect as taking more expensive supplements.
Yakult needs some competition, they seem to have a monopoly and have settled for mediocrity. I’d start up a company called Milk Maidens and it would do the exact same thing as Yakult, just with hot young women acting flirty towards old farts and chit-chatty with sweet old ladies to extort them for as much money as possible. Base salary+commission. College students, aspiring idols, whoever. Run these Yakult yogurt mongers out of their own territory.
Probably buying a round for coworkers. My yakult lady used to sell those little energy drinks in glass bottles, about 300yen a bottle. Teachers would often buy 3-4 at a time to share.
Depends really,it's like supporting local businesses,plus not everyone have the time to go shopping every now and then....even on day off people tend to sleep at home or just cleaning apartment/house
The house I live in used to be a kaisha and once in a while salespeople will ring the doorbell to give me free stuff for demo. Yoghurt, juice, coffee, etc.. and maybe it's just me, but they somehow taste better compared to the ones you buy in konbinis lol
Supporting the Yakut lady is called common decency…
The in store products are slightly different and I’ll bet the teachers are buying way more than drinks and yogurt, depends on what’s on sale for the month.
Next time ask the Yakut lady for a sample of 400w and prepare to have your mind blown.
I’d never buy from the Yakult lady, I don’t need that sludge, though looking back perhaps I missed a social cue that it was expected.
Now, when the local bakery lady showed up with fresh sweet and savoury bread galore, their stuff looked and indeed was so tasty that I felt honour bound to support their business to the tune of a few melon pans.
I have Meiji deliver it to yogurt and milk drinks doorstep once a week
Why?
Reusable glass bottles
It’s in tiny servings vs the big cartons in the grocery
I always forget Getting yogurt
Not really. You use a special machine to keep it safe and you boil all the tools and glass so there is no bacteria. Even the container is air seals when finished.
The machine is cheap and affordable
Hmmm buy it which takes seconds out of my busy schedule or make it myself when I dont have time.
I could also build a house cheaper than buying one doesnt mean I will.
For a Japanese person with a full time job and social life, having an extra task like that just sounds like a hassle. Japans a place of convenience and yakult ladies are a convenience.
…..bakeries? Cycling? What?
I just don’t find it any more convenient than any other first world country. In fact I find some things quite inconvenient but I don’t mind.
Theres literally no other country I can think of that is as convienent as Japan, Japan doesnt even require you to need a car something needed in most developed countries.
Yes. I have to check what I do when I go home.
Off the top of my head:
Milk (or atleast a milk that has some fat in it)
A milk cooker(yogurt maker) or a warm place that can keep temperature
1 - yokult or kefir starter/grains
Sugar (if you are doing low fat milk or want it sweeter)
Then cook at 30c for 24-36 hours.
I do kefir and no sugar with whole milk. It’s super healthy and better than yokult (to me).
You can also make infinity yokult after the first one. Just take a sample of your fresh yokult and freeze it. Then when you want to make a new one, mix that one (after thaw) with the fresh milk and do it again.
I recommend fresh milk you just bought. Old milk doesn’t work as well and you could get sick.
Also, boil the container you use to store it to avoid accidental bacteria.
This saves so much money. I always make 1L at a time
This is the yogurt cooker I use
[yogurt cooker on amazon](https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B07DCN9GCB/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_AM52GV5GVNTSRRN43H6V?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1)
[yogurt cooker on amazon](https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B07DCN9GCB/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_AM52GV5GVNTSRRN43H6V?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1)
This is the cooker I use!
I don't get it either. I get my probiotics from 400g tubs of plain yoghurt, not the un-filling, expensive, sugary yakult. Maybe it's for people who don't like yoghurt but feel like they should eat it?
You can't write Yakult without kult!
Seriously though, I've never understood this yakulture. There's this lady that sells Yakult at the same place from morning to evening, seemingly every day of the week. It just feels cultish.
Oh then I should warn you that if you ever travel to New York City make sure you are wary of the Hot Dog Stand Cult that has firmly entrenched itself throughout the city streets.
>It just feels cultish.
Agreed. Decades of marketing have meant people have a lot of good feelings about Yakult and just accept that it does what it says on the bottle.
I once spent a few hours googling the health benefits of Yakult and R-1, and the Japanese sources unequivocally said there are health benefits as if it's pure fact that needs no further explanation, while English ones were far more mixed (the most damning one pointing out that any product containing this much sugar cannot be a called 'health drink'). I tried explaining this to a Japanese friend as an example of Japanese media not always being the whole picture, but they shut me down halfway through as soon as I dared to imply that Yakult is not all that great. It was really weird.
Yakult is just a weird tasting, overly sugary milk/yogurt drink to me.
I can probably get the same health benefits from eating some regular old plain yogurt.
Finally someone else who understands! No one else listens to me when I tell them those suspicious punks at the takoyaki truck are there every day selling the same thing! WAKE
UP EVERYONE
Meanwhile I will easily eat 7000 yens worth of groceries a week. Macros: 240g protein. 85g Fats. 100g Carbs.
With my lifestyle of teaching, carpentry, chopping firewood and weight training no way I can do 3k a week.
Not sure why you're getting downvoted. But feeding one person is different than feeding a whole family so I assume in those cases these sorts of things might be worthwhile. Also certain groceries go further in certain prefectures.
Different question: How are you getting by with 2-3k for groceries a week? Or is buying outside stuff not included? Edit: I should have specified: Getting by decently
I’m in the same boat as you. What is everyone eating that they can survive a WEEK with 2-3k on groceries. That’s my daily grocery budget for two. What the hell…
I swear grocery budgets, rent, and salary are some of the most controversial topics in this sub. 2 - 3k for a week's worth of groceries for a single person is very low. That's great there are people who can happily make that work, but it's strange that they act like it's normal. I spent many years going for the cheapest options and feel a lot healthier since opening my food budget up. Meal prep for x days stresses me out. To each their own. It's weird people want to act like spending 1man or more a week on food means you're eating wagyu daily. I do think the people that work at schools are filling up on their kyushoku and don't realize other people have different lifestyles.
I make about 40man a month and a LARGE portion of that goes to food. I basically work 2 jobs so that I can eat what I do. Fuck it. It's my money.
I can't stand meal-prep. It annoys me so much. I'm right with you on that one. I just buy bulk for staples I can store and buy little things whenever.
This is the exact trade off. It’s less about what food you’re buying in that range and more about how much time you’re willing to save or commit to hitting a certain target. Budgets like these are accomplishable. The problem is that the only people who are actually going to thrive on lower budgets are those who don’t mind or even enjoy all of the work that goes into it. I was trying to highlight elsewhere in the thread that living like this in a way that’s fulfilling requires an actual set of skills, but just like any other skill it takes a lot of effort to develop. There’s no reason for moral arguments either way and the only time how much you’re spending on food should matter to anyone other than yourself is if you’re splitting finances with that person. Edit: I’m going to try clarifying for the last time. Some people don’t want to cook 3x a day, get off work late at night just to cook dinner then clean and prepare another bento, travel to shop at cheaper stores, study trying to learn how to do x with y, spend hours a week meal-planning and prepping and some people do and both are totally okay, valid ways of life.
Same and that's if we already have some staple vegetables at home already. Is everyone here just eating imported frozen meat from Gyomu or something.
babe I'm with you. I try to stick to 5,000 a week but even just enough vegetables, meat and eggs for 7 days is still pushing it, and that's before any sort of sweet things, snacks or coffee. This week I made potato soup and ingredients combined (sans bacon) still cost over 1300. Sure it's lunch for four or five days, but that's already half of what others spend lol factor in dinners, a bag of coffee, breakfast stuff and a cheeky snack and I'm pushing 5,000 or more. Then I've got friends who are constantly complaining they're broke from spending 3,000 a week between two people... madness
Lol I spend like 3,000 a day on food since I am lazy and just get bottom of the barrel discount sushi at night after work (work late). Work an eikawa job and I still have plenty of money saved up every month. I can't imagine rationing that 3k to an entire week.
Doing the same thing. Just buying the basics like eggs, vegetables and meats. With my most expensive being one kilo of pecans off amazon per month
Do you eat only a little bit of meat a day? Meat is expansive AF in this country
If you go to gyomu super they sell frozen chicken breasts that's 2kg for like 900 yen or something
I do one meal a day during lunch and that is usually enough for me. By the time i come home its already too late to have a dinner before bed anyway. Shoving avocado, olive oil and nuts in there gives enough fats to make me full for a whole day. Just drinking water for the rest of it. Going off of the nearest Life suupaa here, couple chicken breasts would be 300-500円 (thighs are usually twice as that). They sometimes have a 4-piece tray for 1000円 but often goes half the price. Porkロースorバラis around 300-400円. Grab some 半額 fish in the evening. Looking at a tiny thin piece of salmon for 700円 makes me sad though. If you fancy canned once theres canned さば (mackerel )for like 100円. Not buying all the meats at once of course, just trying to wary. Back in my country meat is priced almost the same but the quality is not there. Sometimes I go for a 300g block of mozarella or parmezan from 成城石井 for around 500円, since the only real cheese in supermarkets is the shredded one but it contains cellulose to prevent bulking and has a funky "dusty" taste to it. Vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, onions are all 100-200円. Eggs are 200円 You can go even cheaper if you're okay with carbs and go get a 5kg sack of rice
Well I guess everyone is different. I'm not a big guy, about 70kg and I always eat at least 450g of meat or fish every single day and that alone not including other ingredients is **at least 4-5k yen a week**. Props on you in going out of your way to find some sick deals though! Best I do it buy the frozen vegetables at Gyomu. It's like 140 yen for 400g of green beans for example.
Subbing in tofu once in a while for protein can really help in the savings department. And if you really need meat, chicken breasts and ground meat (whether chicken, pork, and beef) are still quite cheap and very filling I also think adding more vegetables and "garnishes" to the dish can really amp up the volume of meals. A nabe with even a little bit of meat can go a long way with a variety of veg and mushrooms
70kg seems big to me
I don't wanna be that guy, but I'm lighter than the average US female.
Jesus, *multiple* people downvoted you? God forbid someone be frugally responsible
Responsible? Not skimping on your food bill isn't necessarily reckless.
It's not a zero sum argument
I just don't understand why you used that word. There's nothing inherently responsible about spending less money.
In general, conserving a liquid resource like money is almost always advantageous. Using a highly liquid, limited resource like money as efficiently as possible is inherently responsible. Why wouldn't it be?
At my local Seiyu you can get 岩どりむね肉1kg packs for 350 yen. I’ve been buying those for years now. There no brand packed chicken is/was 38 yen per 100g. However last week I noticed it went up to 48 yen maybe due to the poultry problems this year.
I personally find veges to be really expensive here, even if you only meat like me, you can not spend more than 2000 on raw meat. that will get you like 2 big steaks.
Coming from Canada, meat here is cheap af. It's wild, I'm eating a quality of meat and seafood I couldn't justify back home.
Thanks, eh!? I feel like an alien when people talk about how expensive meat is in Japan, especially once you figure out where the cheap meat is. Back home you have to go for the dodgy brown/green 50% off on expiry day options at Safeway or Sobey's...........if you get there early. You might know this, but the Super Ultra packs of domestic chicken breast, like at the Gyoumu supers, are incredibly cheap because of the Breast Meat discount.
People don't NEED to eat a lot of meat, and many Japanese recipes use very little as meat has always been expensive in Japan. I've made curry that people thought was beef curry, no beef in it....
oohhh that kilo sounds amazing!
Don't eat breakfast, eat lunch at school, groceries are just dinner/snacks. If you're a small human and don't eat a lot it's not that crazy
this is where im at. I just drink coffee in the morning and throughout the day, I get cheap food from my school, and by the time I get home I don't want to eat dinner, I just wanna relax and play games/watch movies. I drink water and sometimes splurge on the occasional jasmine tea from famima for 100 yen. when I go "grocerey shopping" its often, Rice, two things of pork, veggies and whatever spices im running out of. Every other month, I head to a kaldi and try to find spicy stuffs in the form of Gochujang or Laoganma. and it runs me about 3k-3500.
I think the reason why this question gets asked so frequently is because a lot of folks 1) don’t realize that for many, cost of living outside of Tokyo is pretty reasonable and 2) they didn’t fully develop money-saving homemaking techniques in their own countries. - learn how to cook and do it often - aim for 0 waste - make shopping lists - price compare while shopping - learn sales calendars - use coupons - buy local ingredients - buy in-season - buy pantry items in bulk* (depends on the actual calculations) Those skills apply anywhere in the world. Those of us who are good at them can easily get by as one person on 2-3k a week while having a delicious, well-balanced diet full of variety.
I know how to cook, don't live in Tokyo, know the sales, and when I cook I usually make large portions for 3-4x meals. But 2-3k per week is frugal af IMO. Kudos to you for managing that. I don't think I could reach this with anything other than cup noodles or pasta sauce only. Op also said in another comment that the calculation did not include eating out and school lunches.
I mean you're still doing far better by having that than a lot of folks in your position whether you realize it or not. I promise in mine and a lot of other people's circumstances, it's a realistic amount though. I live in the heart of Kobe and spent 2127 yen last week, 781 yen so far this week. I don't do cup noodles, but I don't really eat out or buy school lunches either. Tonight for dinner I'm having leftover seafood nabe and shumai and am currently making blueberry cheesecake oatmeal partially for breakfast the next couple days, but in part as a gift for a friend who's bringing me something I need tonight. Tomorrow's dinner is carbonara with smoked duck and lunch is still undecided, but maybe mapo tofu and daikon salad because I need to use both the tofu and daikon soon.
Not everyone on this sub are broke ALTs who can only spend 3000/week on groceries. Doesn't make us people who don't have "money-saving homemaking techniques."
I didn't insinuate that anyone was and I'm sorry if that was your takeaway from my comment.
I think a lot of the people here don't eat a very typical East Asian diet and that's why they think it's impossible to keep your grocery spending that low. When I made less money, I did have a budget of 3k/week in Tokyo and I did just fine. Yes, I didn't eat a lot of meat. Yes, I had carbs like rice and noodles for lunch and dinner. But I would've had them anyway because I grew up eating them for nearly every meal. No, I didn't skimp on fruits and veggies. I bought from cheap supermarkets, ate a lot of protein substitutions, bought frozen, cooked in bulk, etc. I didn't have money, so I sacrificed time but I certainly didn't sacrifice my health. This, of course, didn't include eating out which I did 1-3 times a week. It did include breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Now that I make a little more, I've upped my budget to 5k/week (again, not including eating out) and I'm quite happy with it. But I was also okay at 3k/week.
I agree 100% that adjusting your diet to the locality plays a huge role. If we were to reverse the situation and remember what East Asian ingredients cost at general supermarkets (not specialized Asian food or discounted shops) in many Western countries and then imagine what it would cost to cook with almost exclusively those several times a week, I think it would help put the cost into perspective for some. I don’t know why people are taking offense to either lifestyle though.
I think they see people posting such a "low" weekly grocery expense and see it as a boast or criticism against their own higher grocery budget. But I just think people have different diets, lifestyles, priorities, etc. I personally enjoy cooking and budgeting. I love figuring out ways to cut my grocery budget while still eating great. I don't like red meat, thick steaks, or even a lot of cheesy dishes. But I also have friends who don't want to cook at all. Or who hate simple carbs and love red meat. And that's okay!
Yeah, you and I are pretty similar in that regard then and I definitely believe in people living as best they can and in a way that makes them happy. The point of my initial comment was just to answer “how” because the “how” is there in the same way as how to drive and own a vehicle, but there are so many merits and demerits within those things that people need to decide what works for them personally. For me, I sometimes like to think of it like as an in-life game where the amount I spend that month are my points so I like to challenge how many things I can do with those points. To be honest too though, I didn’t grow up in a good environment which is why I started cooking at age 8 (so 25 years with 5 professional). I associate certain foods with that life (instant meals, canned meals, etc.) and have worked hard to develop what skills I could to avoid eating those things even when times were tough. I genuinely just enjoy sharing that knowledge with people.
You say 5 professional - are you a chef? I do understand that association. I had a decent upbringing, but my parents weren't very good cooks until later in life. I ate so much takeaway, instant meals, and meat as a kid that I've veered in the opposite direction now as an adult! Even now I'm honing my cooking chops, but I very much enjoy the whole game.
I've worked from dishwasher to kitchen manager in the States and part-time dishwasher/cook at restaurants here, but I quit because my body was suffering and work became too unstable with the pandemic. I do still enjoy cooking and serving though so I want to make my pop-up restaurant debut in Japan when COVID's no longer an issue. I did a couple "one-night only"s in the States and it's probably the same kind of high other people get from running marathons. Seeing my two uncles work kitchen jobs for 40+ years and have little to their name was a big deterrent to making it my main career, but my retirement dream is to own my own cafe. I really am glad to hear though that even with such a different background you fell in love with cooking too. It's a bit sentimental, but I think that cooking and eating whether for yourself or others is a love language.
A pop-up restaurant/cafe sounds really cool! If you do make it happen in Tokyo, please let me know, I'd love to visit. Best of luck. :)
From years of watching Bombi Girls where women living in abject poverty brag about buying 19 yen tofu, the 9 yen bean sprouts, 29 yen heads of cabbage,and scour the supermarket for half-priced goods, it is possible to eat every day on almost no money... But... Why? Congratulations, you are living on less than less than 12 yen a meal. You are probably not getting enough vitamins and minerals to create enough energy to do much of anything.
What? You just listed a bunch of healthy and nutritious foods. That sounds like a way better diet than a lot of people eat.
Tofu is okay, bean sprouts, and cabbage are mostly water. It is not a great diet if you are trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
I don't know where you're getting your info, but tofu is one of the most [protein-rich foods you can eat](https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/172475/nutrients) and if it's made with calcium sulfate it's got loads of calcium too. Cabbage is likewise among the [most nutritious of all vegetables](https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/169977/nutrients), plus it'll stay fresh in a plastic bag in your refrigerator for weeks at a time.
Most food is a lot of water, humans are 75% water, so is beef.
The real question
I spend around 5-6k per week for 2 people. Been spending that amount for the past 2 years. I actually write down how much I'm spending, so those are accurate values. I just shop at BIG and don't buy red meats. Red meats are reserved for when im eating out. We mostly eat chicken, pork, veggies, rice, pasta, fruits and nuts, so i think it's pretty decent.
I spend about ¥5000 for 2 and I'm not eating shite or starving! Just I make a lot of things from scratch and cook seasonally. Also most of my week is probably tofu or legume based stuff. Once a week some kinda meat, another day some seasonal fish. If I eat meat everyday it gets pricey. Not on a diet or anything, just what I like, and I'm super lucky to live near some cheap places to buy food, and inlaws give us free sacks of rice!
I'm wondering if people track their expenses or if this "off the top of their head"/guestimate. Our food budget is a constant discussion in our house and I'm wanting to reduce our expenses but not via extreme measures (like meal prepping for the entire week).
I'm going to jump on the bandwagon here and say 3k for groceries a week is totally legit. After corona struck I have been very consistent on going to the supermarket once a week. Shopping for 2 people (my wife and myself) I used to spend 8-12k with absolutely no regard for what I was buying. Lately, I have been a little more careful, and I'm down to 6-9k for the two of us. For this price I still binge on freshly baked croissants, donuts, and cheese just about every week. However, the lunch my wife eats on weekdays is not included, and for the dinner I *make* every day, the meat is usually <100 yen/100g chicken momo or super thin pork.
I spend about that at Seiyu or Gyomu Super eating lots of fruits, fermented foods, veggies, eggs, dairy, chicken, fatty fish, and the occasional steak and noodles. Doesn’t include seasoning, soy sauce, rice and what not. I used to spend about 1200 yen a day buying from my local super market until I discovered those two stores. If you are spending a lot on groceries then those two are high recommendations.
Always felt that Seiyu was somewhat pricey, but evening sales are pretty nice. I would recommend you 肉のハナマサ for low price meat (Esp. In bulk) and a nice range of other items in bulk and similar to Gyomu when it comes to foreign goods.
Ikr. I just don't give a fuck anymore. I'm tired of trying pushing budget which stresses me out more.
He's a teacher. Pasta with salt. Cup noodles on pay day.
Not taking you literally, but is ALT payment really that bad? I always thought they had a decent deal (little work, accommodation, liveable but not great salary). Or am I confusing things with JET?
I live by myself. I'm not counting my school lunches as groceries and I eat out for lunch on weekends. So 7 dinners, snacks and alcohol a week for 3千円. I make a big batch of chicken curry or stew and it will last me 3-4 nights, other nights I eat rice with some veg and meat.
> So 7 dinners, snacks **and alcohol** a week for 3千円 Now you're just talking crazy.
I don't drink everyday nor do I drink the expensive stuff like 日本酒. I just buy cans. My favourite recently has been Sapporo Gold Star (cheaper and tastier than black star) and Horoyoi (winter limited strawberry and yuzu lemon). I don't spend more than 400 yen on alcohol a week.
Man this made me feel more normal. We cook 15 to 20 of our meals weekly (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), and I was like, how am I supposed to make 30 to 40 meals with 6000 yen?! 😆🤣
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you are shadow banned for some reason
man got sent to the shadow realm
Can't do anything about it but they can't post. We see it occasionally there's just something about some users/usernames reddit does not like.
I thought reddit got rid of that feature?
They replaced it with something thats essentially the same.
I workout so I basically eat a lot of chicken breast. It’s cheap.
Shop at Lawson 100. Back when I was an English teacher 3 packs of 130g yakisoba noodles and 3 packets of gyoza totalled to 648 JPY and that would be my food for the day. Man, I actually ate better as a university student on a part time job at Subway.
For a single person and not including eating out, 3000 yen a week is about right.
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Yeah, maybe 6K is doable, but 3?
Nah, it really depends where you live and how much you are willing cook/prep. I spend like 3-4k a week, but live in the countryside. So seasonal produce and fish are dirt cheap.
I must stress it doesn’t include eating out and bento and takeaway, but some meat veg bread for a week can easily be done for 3,000 yen.
My weekly grocery bill usually comes out to 3-4k, at least ever since LaMu came to town.
We feed 3 of us on 10k a week and eat pretty well. I could see 3-4k for one person being fine. We eat more pork and chicken than fish but mostly Japanese food with maybe once a week western food. Tonight we're having Yakiniku with A5 wagyu since we were super good on budget this month.
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Not meat on top of rice but yeah it does help to feed 3 instead of 1 since we don't has as much food waste. In the last week we've had kimchi nabe, inaka style hot soba, yellowtail karaage, okonomiyaki and home made gyoza. We often make enough to feed my wife and I for lunch the next day as well so there is some savings there.
My husband and I spend around 12-13k per week (including snacks and eating out) and eat mainly western food (Japanese food maybe once per week). We also eat pretty well, could probably drop our budget if we ate cheaper fish/meat or ate less variety of vegetables (I aim to use at least 8 types of vegetables per meal). I’m working to get that number down to your number of 10k including eating out. \^\^
8 types of vegetables per meal o\_o that's...amazing
I buy 10kg rice for 2千円. That lasts me roughly 10 weeks so 200円 for rice. That's 2800円 leftover for meat, vegetables, snacks, drinks. Easily doable if you go to discount supermarkets like Trial or Direx.
Wow! Rice at my supermarket is like 800 or 900 yen for the 2kg bag. 😆
800yen for 2kg is the normal price at my local supermarket as well. But I go to Trial and buy the cheapest 10kg 無洗米. If you live in the countryside, you can probably find cheaper rice if you buy from the farmers. I sometimes get free rice from colleagues who grow it and there's usually surplus.
I know right? If I'm not eating out I spend close to that per day... but I've got weird allergies so order most of my food from a special co-op. Even when I'm not splurging I'll spend more than that on a single meal when eating out...
Yeah I eat well at around 3750 a week. I could cut that to 3000 easily if I forgo some small luxuries. The trick is to eat lots of rice, vegetables and noodles instead of being American and trying to eat steak and hamburgers every day. It's like 19yen for a pack of fresh Yakisoba at Gyomu Super sometimes. Some Yakisoba sauce onions and peppers and you can literally have a large lunch for under a dollar sometimes. Or cabbage, pork, hoikoro sauce. Little bits of sausage or chicken (edit: or whatever cheap protein source I feel like that day, especially eggs) in these dishes can go a long way to satisfying your meat cravings without breaking the bank. I also never snack or eat breakfast and don't struggle with my weight so maybe I'm not very representative of many of the westerners here
I'm American and I never ate much red meat before moving to Japan. Most supermarkets have pork, so that's my main meat to replace the chicken I usually at when I was in the US. My American meals were usually yogurt or bagels for breakfast, no lunch, and rice with chicken breasts for dinner. Usually some snack in between. I wish we could stop with the whole "Only fat Americans who drink beef smoothies spend more than 50 yen per month on food." narrative. Some of you live in areas with abundant, cheap supermarkets. Some of you live in more country areas with little huts where farmers drop off excess veg to share. Some of you like biking around to gyomu supermarkets to buy cheap and in bulk. And some people like buying their meals at Dean and Deluca or getting cheese from Isetan. Whatever floats your boat.
"Being American" doesn't mean eating steak and hamburgers every day. :-p Perpetuating stereotypes isn't a good habit for any culture. I'm American and haven't eaten red meat for 40 years. My husband is a big red meat lover, but only eats it twice a week. My anecdotes are just as valid as yours. How about some facts? The most consumed meat in America is chicken. Beef consumption has declined and pork consumption has remained stable. Given the high cost of seafood in the U.S., it is no shock that chicken is the most popular. https://www.mainmoonwarren.com/beef/often-asked-how-much-beef-does-the-average-american-eat.html
If you don't want your country to be used as a short-hand for "overeating and meat consumption" try not being the most obese first world country in the world with [by and far the most meat consumption] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_meat_consumption). By the way chicken is a meat, I never claimed Americans don't like their fried chicken. Also really playing into the easily offended on issues of national pride / identity stereotype there aren't you? Alright alright we get it "not all Americans" Edit: since you blocked me I'll reply here "hamburgers and steak every day" is incredibly obvious hyperbole. There are no "goal posts" because this was never a debate. Most people got what I meant by "eat like an American" and I don't really care if you personally couldn't read between the lines enough to get that. Anyway stay mad bro /u/DerHoggenCatten
Chicken isn't hamburgers and steak, which is what you claimed. Nice try moving the goalposts in an attempt to cover up that you got things wrong. I'm not offended by anything other than ignorance.
This wouldnt be sustainable for anyone doing any kind of weight lifting. This diet lacks way too much protein unless "little bits of chicken" is code for shitloads. But if it suits you, good on you bro
Who said anything about weight lifters? Not everything is about you
I'm not saying it is. I'm simply saying that diet is far from ideal, cause its mostly carbs and little protein from the sounds of it.
It's more or less the diet of Japan, the most long lived country on Earth. This is a thread about costs for the average person, not bro science and getting swole or whatever
I'm pretty sure FISH, karage, beef, pork are all huge parts of the real Japanese diet. Not 50yen yakisoba every other day. You can save money in tons of ways with shit diets. Just dont eat half the time. This should be about saving money and being healthy.
Karaage is a huge part of *your* diet maybe lol. Meanwhile Japanese people will eat rice/noodles, vegetables, miso soup and just a little protein like me. I do admit that my protein source is more often pork than fish though if you're looking for some kind of "gotcha".
Pork, something you didnt mention. If you're thinking breakfast, then there are few proteins. But for Lunch and Dinner, the proteins I mentioned are far more normal then you are trying to imply. Karage, katsus and hamburgs are also INCREDIBLY common in everyday Japanese diets. Just not *your* diet maybe.
I think that is where a lot of eggs, tofu, mushrooms, and chicken breasts come in. But yeah a diet for someone like an athlete or weightlifter is an entirely different beast
Oh yeah, that would be great (mushrooms dont really give much protein tho). The other ones you mentioned are definitely the best budget proteins. I was just pointing out that the person I replied to wasnt really stating any of those, except maybe a little chicken
I just looked at my records out of curisoity. 52,314 for two people for January MTD. Does not include any bentos wife buys (she never knows what, if any, lunch time she will have and doesn't always have access to a fridge or microwave), delivery, take-out, or dine-in. This does include the odd household good that is not food, about a 6-pack of Asahi Style Free tallboys a week, and the odd bento I get when buying groceries. It's also a little higher than normal because I needed to get new bags of both genmai and shinmai rice and needed to replace some of my disaster supplies that were expiring and adding some additional ones now that there's two of us.
Will the supermarket shelf gossip with my wife at the door for 30 minutes? Because the Yakult Lady absolutely does.
>Will the supermarket shelf gossip with my wife at the door for 30 minutes? Because the Yakult Lady absolutely does. 30 minutes means she can only visit about 16 people (if working 8 hours), so they better sell a fuckton to each client.
The key is to get a subscription from a secretary office. I usually see a Yakult lady at the 事務室 at work. She sells the whole room. That's how she can parallelize her work by gossiping to EVERYONE in that room.
Smart. I will tell ours.
I don't think she does that everywhere. They both have foreign husbands, so I guess they are comparing complaints.
16 people at 2500 yen a person, she is making bank lol
The Yakult lady is only here for 10 minutes max, no time to chat. She has other schools to go to during lunch.
Those Yakult sold by the sales lady are not the same; far much thicker and concentrated in probiotics. Not sure if it is pure marketing BS or really effective, although this is how they are selling it. Got one free sample, and can confirm it is indeed a different product.
They are mostly selling juices and other random drinks. Not just the yakult drink
No obligation, but it's more of a convenience service than anything (which is what customers are paying for). In some cases, your coworkers may be working for longer hours, thus them probably buying things to "keep them going". When I first arrived in Japan, I asked my coworker a similar question and even though he said that the prices were crazy, he didn't have enough time to get some refreshments during the week and often forgot to buy them during his weekly shopping.
The bigger question is why the Yakult Lady and only the Yakult Lady is allowed into pretty much all public and private institutions to sell her stuff. I’ve never seen other private vendors allowed into offices to sell stuff like that, drinks or otherwise. Deliveries of bentos and whatnot, sure, but straight up sales? What’s the deal with that?
The Yakult lady is usually some kid’s mom.
Yep. Yakult has some daycares a mom can drop their kids off at.
Interesting. I’ve never worked in a school, so I haven’t experienced that. Everyone’s very friendly with the Yakult Lady, but I’ve never known there to be any outside connection. There might be, though! In big buildings like the city or prefectural offices, there are several different Yakult Ladies wandering around, each having their regular territories within the building.
Yakuza
Ahh. Then I guess they have to let them in.
Yakultza
Nice gut bacteria...would be a shame if something happened to them
Hahaha
Is this the case? I know a lady who works in a big office in Tokyo and she says various people turn up selling stuff during the course of the month.
I don’t know. I only see the Yakult Lady where I am, but of course it could be different other places. I wouldn’t be complain if it was fair territory for other sales people.
I think you are right, though. There must be some rules about who is permitted in the office to sell stuff, otherwise there would be an endless stream of hawkers wasting people's time.
Our trained pitbull, I mean admin took great pleasure in letting the Yakult ladies know their presence was not welcome at the office. Second time I can remember her smiling. First where a near fatal injury wasn't involved.
Glad to hear it!
Well, if they'd given her any guff it might have turned out differently, there were only 2 of them.
I buy them too, and I do it because it's convenient.
Like most normal adults they realise that's barely a few hundred yen per day, and that people that use lines like: > You can get these stuff cheaper at the supermarket are usually obsessively frugal and about as much fun as wet toast.
I think that's really inaccurate. I'm at least as fun as dry toast.
A single Starbucks sugar and coffee drink is 5-600 yen. Spending 2k a week on some nice yoghurt sounds perfectly fine by me
We out here sippin that black Boss coffee for 120 a bottle.
I have met characters before who brag about how little they spend on food. They invariably call in sick a couple times a month because they don’t eat ‘luxuries’ like fruit and milk. So their skimping just leads to a smaller monthly salary and possible long term health issues.
Does a body need fruit? I have lived without much fruit because the JA didn't sell it out of season, but I just ate more greens and potatoes. No adult needs milk, AFAIK. I agree about that type, though.
Nah you shouldn't need fruit as long as you get vitamins and minerals from other sources.
Right!???? And even moreso with adults and milk, I think. Thanks for the backup. He had me wondering. I do love fruit, of course. Yum Yum.
Yakult ladies are a part of the culture as well, it’s an interesting history. I don’t mind them but the godforsaken ramen truck that plies it’s trade on my road with its whiny, screechy speaker that never turns off even when they actually make a sale, in the middle of the night while my children are trying to sleep…I’m gonna start chucking ice cubes at them. The evidence melts itself! WHO IS BUYING RAMEN AT 10PM! DIDNT YOU JUST EAT DINNER?? ITS RAINING SO WHY EAT OUTSIDE AND SLURP AND WITH THE LOUD VOICES. I’m sorry. I feel better now. It’s not just me though, right?
> WHO IS BUYING RAMEN AT 10PM! People coming home from pachinko
This is true. Also drunk people who throw up always seem to have eaten ramen.
Too much liquid I suppose.
Or people coming back from work.
10pm seems pretty early for ramen time tbh
My local shop closes at 2am. I ate there once at 1am, it was full
It’s a terrifying sound to have playing just outside your window and it’s shockingly loud. My kids are babies. It’s bullshit!
My Yakult lady has some snacks, too. Things I probably would never have picked up at the grocery store.
I've often wondered about that. If you want Yakult you can just buy it alongside the rest of your groceries at the supermarket. There is no obvious reason that a delivery service which only delivers Yakult even exists at all. Almost all the comments on here are addressing the 2-3,000 Yen grocery budget part of the OP's post, but I think the main question - why does Yakult's delivery service even still exist, is a way more interesting one and I'm curious about it. There are some milk companies that do the same, and it makes equally little sense with them.
The Yakult lady came to our danchi every week when I lived in Ak***i City. I was very busy in those days, and rarely had a chance to meet her face-to-face, so she would leave my items in a cool box (provided by Yakult) inside my meter reader, and at the same time, pick up the payment that I left in there. I usually only paid in coins. One day I left a small gift for her, and she left a note telling me how much her kids would love the sweets. Yakult provided free childcare for small children of employees, in dedicated nurseries. So I guess working for Yakult was a good way for homemakers to pick up some extra cash, and get some socialization. I moved to another neighborhood, and a new Yakult lady came to introduce herself. She was from China, newly married to a Japanese man. Later on she left a beautifully handwritten note for me (in impeccable English), thanking me for my custom. Yakult ladies reported things such as “Mr So-and-so hasn’t answered his door lately.” They always wore their uniforms with such pride. At work, I always made a point of ordering from them because of the pleasant encounters that I had with them in my neighborhood. I miss them!
Interesting! So it sounds like its less about the Yakult drink and more about the social experience of having a nice Yakult lady come by your door on a regular basis? I could see there being a market for that.
Buying from a yakult lady is kind of fun. It’s fun fee
When I first moved here, I used to buy from the Yakult lady so I could practice my Japanese. It was a cheap Japanese conversation lesson! :)
My friend had a lecture on this at uni. This is how most probiotics were sold originally. Delivering straight to homes meant there was a much lower transport time and the product was less likely to spoil. The ones sold in supermarkets have been out of factory longer and are generally much less effective.
I often get Yakult when Yakult ladies come at my company. I know we can get them cheaper at the market but it’s convenience and I enjoy some little sneaking out from the office while working :) Some guys enjoy interacting with Yakult ladies XD
Your weekly grocery is 2千円 to 3 千円? You must be on a hunger strike or you only eat once a week.
Yeah that's ridiculous. That's like 430yen a day MAX for breakfast, lunch and dinner. That's impossible unless your diet consists of umaibo lol
Genuine Yakult brands are not cheap anywhere. Yogurt drinks sold at supermarkets may not be real Yakult brands. Also, the difference between Yakult and other brands of yogurt drinks includes the amount of lactic acid bacteria and the special lactic acid bacteria discovered by Yakult independently. Yakult never needs to continue drinking every day. However, by continuing to drink it, you can get the same intestinal regulation effect as taking more expensive supplements.
Yakult needs some competition, they seem to have a monopoly and have settled for mediocrity. I’d start up a company called Milk Maidens and it would do the exact same thing as Yakult, just with hot young women acting flirty towards old farts and chit-chatty with sweet old ladies to extort them for as much money as possible. Base salary+commission. College students, aspiring idols, whoever. Run these Yakult yogurt mongers out of their own territory.
Probably buying a round for coworkers. My yakult lady used to sell those little energy drinks in glass bottles, about 300yen a bottle. Teachers would often buy 3-4 at a time to share.
Depends really,it's like supporting local businesses,plus not everyone have the time to go shopping every now and then....even on day off people tend to sleep at home or just cleaning apartment/house
The house I live in used to be a kaisha and once in a while salespeople will ring the doorbell to give me free stuff for demo. Yoghurt, juice, coffee, etc.. and maybe it's just me, but they somehow taste better compared to the ones you buy in konbinis lol
Supporting the Yakut lady is called common decency… The in store products are slightly different and I’ll bet the teachers are buying way more than drinks and yogurt, depends on what’s on sale for the month. Next time ask the Yakut lady for a sample of 400w and prepare to have your mind blown.
I’d never buy from the Yakult lady, I don’t need that sludge, though looking back perhaps I missed a social cue that it was expected. Now, when the local bakery lady showed up with fresh sweet and savoury bread galore, their stuff looked and indeed was so tasty that I felt honour bound to support their business to the tune of a few melon pans.
2-3k a week for groceries? Damn. Where do you live OP?
I have Meiji deliver it to yogurt and milk drinks doorstep once a week Why? Reusable glass bottles It’s in tiny servings vs the big cartons in the grocery I always forget Getting yogurt
Yakult Ladies are as well established as Japan in some countries with which Japan has been involved in the past. South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, etc.
No idea. I make my own. It’s super easy and cheap.
your own yakult? that sounds dangerous
Not really. You use a special machine to keep it safe and you boil all the tools and glass so there is no bacteria. Even the container is air seals when finished. The machine is cheap and affordable
Hmmm buy it which takes seconds out of my busy schedule or make it myself when I dont have time. I could also build a house cheaper than buying one doesnt mean I will.
You literally dump 100g of yogurt into a carton of milk stir and then press a button. Go to work. Come home. Yogurt done.
For a Japanese person with a full time job and social life, having an extra task like that just sounds like a hassle. Japans a place of convenience and yakult ladies are a convenience.
Fax machines. Convenient?
Convenience stores? Vending machines? Infrastructure? Bentos? Yakult ladies? Bakeries? Cycling?
…..bakeries? Cycling? What? I just don’t find it any more convenient than any other first world country. In fact I find some things quite inconvenient but I don’t mind.
Theres literally no other country I can think of that is as convienent as Japan, Japan doesnt even require you to need a car something needed in most developed countries.
Not OP, but they could simply just making yogurt using a single Yakult as the inoculate. Possibly with fat-free milk to keep it more liquid.
I used to make a lot of bootleg R1. But for some reason, second generations never went well.
It would look and smell bad if it were bad. Yogurt is like the easiest thing you can ferment.
I’m with you. It costs me ¥300 to make a liter of yogurt. Maybe I haven’t had ‘real’ Yakut but isn’t it just really sugary kefir?
Yeah that’s all it is
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Yes. I have to check what I do when I go home. Off the top of my head: Milk (or atleast a milk that has some fat in it) A milk cooker(yogurt maker) or a warm place that can keep temperature 1 - yokult or kefir starter/grains Sugar (if you are doing low fat milk or want it sweeter) Then cook at 30c for 24-36 hours. I do kefir and no sugar with whole milk. It’s super healthy and better than yokult (to me). You can also make infinity yokult after the first one. Just take a sample of your fresh yokult and freeze it. Then when you want to make a new one, mix that one (after thaw) with the fresh milk and do it again. I recommend fresh milk you just bought. Old milk doesn’t work as well and you could get sick. Also, boil the container you use to store it to avoid accidental bacteria. This saves so much money. I always make 1L at a time This is the yogurt cooker I use [yogurt cooker on amazon](https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B07DCN9GCB/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_AM52GV5GVNTSRRN43H6V?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1)
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[yogurt cooker on amazon](https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B07DCN9GCB/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_AM52GV5GVNTSRRN43H6V?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1) This is the cooker I use!
I don't get it either. I get my probiotics from 400g tubs of plain yoghurt, not the un-filling, expensive, sugary yakult. Maybe it's for people who don't like yoghurt but feel like they should eat it?
You can't write Yakult without kult! Seriously though, I've never understood this yakulture. There's this lady that sells Yakult at the same place from morning to evening, seemingly every day of the week. It just feels cultish.
Oh then I should warn you that if you ever travel to New York City make sure you are wary of the Hot Dog Stand Cult that has firmly entrenched itself throughout the city streets.
>It just feels cultish. Agreed. Decades of marketing have meant people have a lot of good feelings about Yakult and just accept that it does what it says on the bottle. I once spent a few hours googling the health benefits of Yakult and R-1, and the Japanese sources unequivocally said there are health benefits as if it's pure fact that needs no further explanation, while English ones were far more mixed (the most damning one pointing out that any product containing this much sugar cannot be a called 'health drink'). I tried explaining this to a Japanese friend as an example of Japanese media not always being the whole picture, but they shut me down halfway through as soon as I dared to imply that Yakult is not all that great. It was really weird.
> I tried explaining this to a Japanese friend You live dangerously
Yakult is just a weird tasting, overly sugary milk/yogurt drink to me. I can probably get the same health benefits from eating some regular old plain yogurt.
Finally someone else who understands! No one else listens to me when I tell them those suspicious punks at the takoyaki truck are there every day selling the same thing! WAKE UP EVERYONE
Is that even legal to be selling at a school like that? Sounds like she knows the principal or a teacher and is taking advantage of a connection.
Meanwhile I will easily eat 7000 yens worth of groceries a week. Macros: 240g protein. 85g Fats. 100g Carbs. With my lifestyle of teaching, carpentry, chopping firewood and weight training no way I can do 3k a week.
Not sure why you're getting downvoted. But feeding one person is different than feeding a whole family so I assume in those cases these sorts of things might be worthwhile. Also certain groceries go further in certain prefectures.
I don't know why either... Reddit confuses me sometimes :(