Is Tokyo expensive? (How to live cheaply, but comfortably)
How much do you need to live in Tokyo? I’ll say minimum of around JPY100, 000/month (after taxes) will do. In order to do so, it does require to control your spending habit; classic. Cook at home, skip the big ticket items, and most importantly choose the guesthouse living which you don’t have to mess with utility bills. You have lived with your parents or friends to save up money to be independent, haven’t you? It’s kind of like that. Imagine your fixed expense is only one flat amount every month. It’s really easy to make plans for the rest of the month after that. My expense runs in a range of JPY90, 000 to JPY110, 000/month which includes a couple times of dinning out. If I were to roughly break it down for average: rent (incl. utility) JPY40, 000, food 15,000, entertainment 10,000, commute 7,000, medical 5,000, and misc., 23,000. Personally, I rule myself for rent to be under 30% of after tax income so that I can pay bills and afford personal items. (I managed to buy a pair of shoes, a scarf, a purse, and a coat for this spring just under 10,000yen!) I’m telling you, it’s not that ridiculously expensive to enjoy the city; again, if you sacrifice a little part of your freedom by living with others in a guesthouse (beautiful thing is that you can always pack up and go). Oh, I almost forgot. I go to SHOP 99 (most items sold there are 99yen) and SEIYU (it’s like Safeway and Target combined) for my foods. Another big factor to a successful low budget life is to find your stores that economically making sense.
