Can I Survive?!

[Urban~Ninja]

I sit here tonight counting my money for the next 2 weeks and realized im gonna be tight for cash/yen for those 2 weeks. Until the 27th im gonna be cheap as hell.

I have 10,650 yen for 2 weeks, now that sounds like a great amount but it slowly dies.

10,650-
5,300 for Train Pass for the next month.
2,000 is my estimate for lunch for the school days, i'll be living off Soba and Udon for 10 school day lunches.

That leaves me with 3,350 Yen for the 2 weekends im not at school and probably out with friends.

Any money saving secrets here for Lunch and just general tips?

Anyone who has been in this dilly of a pickle or knows how to deal with it please help me, im a ninja in distress!!!!!!!

I do have 16,000 yen in my bankaccount just incase of emergencies but i would preffer to leave it there, also i have 300 yen in coins anyway i can get em made into 100 yens or should i keep em in 10 yens?

Thanks

[Niff]

Well.. you can survive.. but you won't get to do shit on weekends with only 3k :(

[MNJetter]

You're using yen?

I must have missed a post where you came to Japan, cuz your user name still says you're in Australia.

Anyway....if you were in my area (i.e., out in the sticks), you could survive just fine off that. ....of course, if you were in my situation, you wouldn't be buying a train pass anyway, since trains don't exist in my village, and you would be within walking distance of the place you go to work every day, so you'd have another 5,000 yen to survive off of in addition to the 3k....

Is not going out for the weekend or just having the friends at your house an option? Nothing more money-saving than throwing a BYOB party in which everybody pitches together money for food.

[Urban~Ninja]

Since im Exchange Student i cant really have people over, mostly because the apartment building is VERY Small.

My Plan isnt to go out tommorrow, im gonna sleep alot, since i hate waking up at 6am for school. The i dont know, maybe go over some Japanese for a hour or two, and then read a bit and see if my Host Brother is up to walk to the SunKus (Is that like a Circle K rip off?) to buy a cheap lunch and then sleep some more.

As for the other two weekends i might be stingy on one but on another one im going out with friends already organized, if all goes to plan they will pay for my lunch at Mos Burger...every other time they never let me pay even if i do pay the cashier they give me the money later....its really annoying, but this time its going to come in handy.

Im just happy i dont have to buy dinner or breakfast or i would be screwed.

[MNJetter]

Heh...you updated your user name. :)

I see. Student, eh? I remember the broke student days.

If you're getting your dinner or breakfast already paid for, then maybe you should consider skipping lunch for a few days. Makes you hungry if you're used to three full meals, but it works. I survived for a week at university once without a penny to my name - I worked at the school's cafeteria before classes, and they don't use the ends of the bread loaves for sandwiches, so there's breakfast, (loaf end, plus the fact that you're free to use condiments and fountain beverages while working in the kitchen, equals a jam sandwich and juice every morning) and i already had the meal-a-day plan at the cafeteria, so there was my combination lunch/dinnfer there.

[Urban~Ninja]

Yeah, i could skip lunch i guess, they give you big meals here, so im sure i could just live of breakfast n dinner, i got some pretz somewhere if i get really hungry...its prolly a bit old but food is food.

Luckily i walk everywhere that the tram's dont go or else i would be screweeeeeeeddddddd.

[MNJetter]

Man, I wish there were trains out in the boonies. It costs me more than 5000 yen a month to fill up my car. And that doesn't count annual tax, maintenance, and the couple ten-thousand yen bills i will have to shell out in order to get permission from the Japanese government to continue driving my car...because suddenly after a year of driving it, it becomes necessary for me to prove my competance simply by virtue of being a U.S. citizen.

...maybe it would be cheaper just to give up my license and take the bus whenever i want to get out of town. :P

[Urban~Ninja]

Japan is just to expensive for basic needs, like doing cool things is cheaper in comparasion then other countries, but the daily cost of living is more expensive.

Well apart from Bali n KL, you can live off 3 dollars a day in those places.

[yakamashii]

5,300 for Train Pass for the next month.


There's your answer right there. Try to find the end of the Yamanote Line.

But seriously, ride the trains around. Go someplace that you wouldn't have otherwise. Get your money's worth out of that pass. Enjoy the live music and hip hop dancing available outside of a random station.

Unless the pass is just to get you from point A to point B for a month. Then you should go to bookstores and read for free.

[Urban~Ninja]

There's your answer right there. Try to find the end of the Yamanote Line.

But seriously, ride the trains around. Go someplace that you wouldn't have otherwise. Get your money's worth out of that pass. Enjoy the live music and hip hop dancing available outside of a random station.

Unless the pass is just to get you from point A to point B for a month. Then you should go to bookstores and read for free.


No free music in Kagoshima, we got one main station and the best we get is the local news does the weather there.

I just spend 533 Yen on my Spray for my foot, i hope it pays of.

[stsparky]

No free music in Kagoshima, we got one main station and the best we get is the local news does the weather there.

I just spend 533 Yen on my Spray for my foot, i hope it pays of.

I'll ask my pal who grew up there what to do. Her pop is the head education administrator for the prefecture. More soon, Sparks