How to save money in Tokyo: 2008

Monday, June 23, 2008

How to Save Money in Tokyo - Online Food Coupon

This is another post on How to Save Money in Tokyo. In this post, I'll tell you what you should do before you go to a restaurant in Japan in order to get discount.

In Japan, most of the restaurants are registered in some sites where you can search for restaurants according to the types of the food you want. Here are some sites:

Hotpepper
Restaurant Guide
GuruNavi
GurumePia

Now here's the point. When you use these sites, you DON'T use it only to look for restaurants. You use them to get discount. In those sites, there will be a section says coupon (クーポン）. If you click on it a page of coupons will show up. The sites will either ask you to send the QR barcode to your cell phone or print the page out. It takes some time to do it but sometimes you get really good discount from coupons!

Thank you again for reading my post on How to Save Money in Tokyo. I hope you had enjoyed it. Please leave me a comment if you like it and if you have any questions or problems email me at tienhaow@gmail.com

Thursday, June 19, 2008

How to Save Money in Tokyo - Point Card

This is another post on How to Save Money in Tokyo. If you are new to this blog, you might also want to check up the previous posts my friend. This time I will be talking about the point card system in Japan. I know many of you might be thinking...Oh man! You can't save money by point cards in Japan dude. I agree. The amount of money can't saved is really limited. But think! All you have to do is to pass your card to the shop while paying money and you get points (money) in return! Isn't that wonderful? The shop gives you money back!

When I was studying in Taiwan and Thailand, I didn't even care about point cards so I don't know about the point card system in other countries. But here in Japan, because I live by myself now. To save money is something concerning my survival in Tokyo haha.

Anyways, if you want to save money here, try to get you point cards from the shops you often go to. The point cards usually gives you (3%~10%) discount, or they give you back points equal to 3%~10% of the price of the product. With the points paid back, you could use them when the next time you buy stuffs in the same shop. To apply for a point card only takes up 5~10 mins or sometimes even less. So there's no reason not to make one right?

Now you've got your point card and you are ready to save money by it ya? Sometimes you receive a lot of points and sometimes you receive only a little bit points when buying the same product. The reason is simple. In Japan, most of the shops would have their returning points doubled, tripled or more once or twice a week. So, you definitely have to find out what day of the week they have their points multiplied. It looks simple but to tell the truth, a lot of Japaneses don't know it!

These are 3 of my point cards, each of them helps me save a few thousand yen a year. It's not a huge amount of money but it saves you money by doing very little work. One more thing is that, since global warming is getting worse and worse these days. Many shops have started a campaing which they call it ecology point (eco pointo) If you bring your own bag to the shops and not receiving plastic bags from the shops. You get the point! Easy and Simple right? haha

I hope again you enjoyed this post. If you have any suggestion or question on How to save money in Tokyo or point cards. Mail me at tienhaow@gmail.com or leave some comment here. I would be happy to see any ^^

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

How To Save Money in Tokyo - Supermarket

This is another post on How To Save Money in Tokyo, in the last post I have talked about how to wisely use Shop 99. So if you are new to this blog, you might want to check shop 99 up first. Alright, let's get straight to the point of this post. How to save money by using supermarket.

In Japan, they have some widespread supermarkets such as nikunohanamasa, keio store, tokyu store and so on. They all sell same stuff in a slightly different price. However, they all still share one similarity which is the Hangaku (half-price) system. This is the thing we will be focusing in this post. In Japan, all the nearly-expired food or drink product will be put on hangaku sticker, mostly after 7~8 p.m. For most of the cases, even they are put on with half-price sticker, it can still last 1 or 2 days. I know it's annoying and tiring if you have to go to the market everyday or every other day. But for money's sake! Let's put some effort in it man! Unless you don't care about saving 50% of your money.

Things get half-priced everyday after 7~8 p.m are sashimi, lunch boxes, meat, some fruits, fish and etc. I think just by reading this list you'll get an idea what kind of products get half-priced. By only buying half-priced ingredients, I can spend less than 10,000 yen (around 100 $) a month and still be eating 3 meals a day and able to keep myself healthy.

Alright I think I will stop here for today. Now you've learnt another trick on How To Save Money in Tokyo huh. The next post I will be writing about their point card system and how to save money by using their point cards. If you have any questions feel free to mail me at tienhaow@gmail.com

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

How To Save Money in Tokyo - Shop 99 (Dollar Store)

As I have said, almost everything is Tokyo is expensive. So How to save money in Tokyo becomes an important issue isn't it? You can live without shopping, clubbing or travelling, but you can't live without eating! First money saving technique I will be introduce is "Shop 99".

Shop 99 is just like the dollar stores in the U.S. Including tax, everything here is sold for 104 yen (approximately 1$). As a matter of fact, not everything here is cheaper than other store. However, I can say around 60% of the products sold here are cheaper than other store because I have actually compared many products of Shop 99 with other stores myself. For example, a bottle of 500 ml coke is sold 140 yen in most of the convenient store (konbini), but in Shop 99 you can get it for only 104 yen. So the products which most likely are cheaper in Shop 99 are snacks, beverage, bread, toast, milk, ice cream and etc. In most of the cases, food and drink are cheaper in Shop 99.

They open 24 hrs throughout the year and I have never seen them out of stock. Another good thing about Shop 99 is that you can find them everywhere in Japan. If you are already in Japan and you want to find out where the nearest Shop 99 is, go to their official website. http://sp.chizumaru.com/dbh/shop99/top.aspx?account=shop99&accmd=0

So this is my first post on How to Save Money in Tokyo. I hope you have enjoyed the information on Shop 99. If you have any questions please feel free to mail me at tienhaow@gmail.com