This frugalite has been too busy with work and other pursuits to be much of a saver recently. Oh – the taxi rides! The convenience food! The pile of receipts waiting to be entered into my household accounts (probably won’t happen)! My wallet weeps. Yet, at the same time, I couldn’t [ ... ]
I’ve been too busy the last year to do much beyond holiday meals and the very basics. But, I’m determine to get back into the good ole daitokoro (kitchen) sometime soon. In the meantime, I’m beefing up on my Japanese cooking basics. Why Japanese cooking? Well, for one very good rea [ ... ]
There is an innovative new website from Yahoo! – http://www.shufoo.net — that may be of interest to frugalites. An interesting Romanization of the Japanese term for housewife (“shufu”), the service is a fully-searchable online database of digitized newspaper inserts. Underwhe [ ... ]
It’s coming. The rainy season. And there’s nothing you can do to stop it! You can, however, take some actions to avoid the number one nasty sign of summer – cockroaches. First, let’s learn a little bit about our resilient friend, the cockroach. They like dark, wet, warm, and [ ... ]
Although I like to concentrate on frugal issues which affect a larger segment of the population, I felt it time to introduce one of what I consider to be one of Japan’s greatest cheap secrets: homemade baby food. Wait a minute, you say, generations of mothers in my family were a whiz at the mo [ ... ]
How can you stay warm without going broke? Well, *first* don’t do what I do and keep the heater on all the time. Our December heating bill was in the five digits (remember, we’re talking yen here), and is not something you really want to brag about as a frugal writer. Here are a few [... [ ... ]
One essential part of frugality, I believe, is ingenuity. True tightwads develop very ingenious ways of reuising everyday items in new, fascinatingly frugal ways. Below, I’ve assembled a collection of some of my favorite amazing frugal uses for everyday things. Plastic/Paper Bags It seems you [ ... ]
One glance at this week’s title will let you know that, yes, it’s another “housekeeping” issue. The most recent inquiry I received from the Frugal Japan website came from an intrepid young urban professional who lives in a small Tokyo apartment. Having no clothes dryer, and b [ ... ]
Most people can tell you what the “old” Three Rs stand for: reading, writing, and arithmetic. Lately, however, I’ve been thinking that ‘new’ 3Rs are equally worthy of our attention: reduce, reuse, and recycle. While this mantra might seem a little faded some 30 years af [ ... ]
All right, you’re probably scratching your head in amazement and wondering: “Is there really such a thing as a frugal housecleaning and helper service,” especially in Tokyo, recently voted the most expensive city in the world? In a word, yes! There are several options available to [ ... ]