Welcome to Money Diaries, where we're tackling what might be the last taboo facing modern working women: money. We're asking a cross-section of women how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period – and we're tracking every last penny.
This week we're with a British woman who has spent the last five years living in Tokyo, working for a nonprofit organisation. Tokyo isn't cheap as a city but there's a lot of fun to be had and she's thrilled to find more and more vegan food places popping up all the time. The rest of her money, she says, goes on travel, including, this week, a spontaneous trip to LA!
Industry: Public Relations (nonprofit sector). Also volunteer for animal charities/groups
Age: 33
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Salary: 3.2m JPY (£22,000) – working four days a week
Paycheque amount: 232,000 JPY (£1,581) – various taxes and health insurance are taken out by my employer
Number of housemates: One – Matilda, my dog
Monthly Expenses
Housing costs: 1K (one room and one kitchen) apartment 15 minutes by subway to the city centre is 87,000 JPY (£592) in rent; residence tax 15,000 JPY (£102.23)
Loan payments: 0
Utilities: Gas/electricity/water/internet 12,000 JPY (£81.80)
Transportation: Commute is paid by the company, this is very common in Japan. Other transportation 11,000 JPY (£75)
Phone bill: 6,000 JPY (£40.90)
Savings: I teach an English conversation student once a week at 3,500 JPY (£24) an hour, and *try* to save this money
Day One
10am: Decide to finally start a new year health kick after stuffing myself silly with winter holiday food and drink well into February. On the way to the office from the train station, I buy a black coffee and a pack of nuts and dates from the convenience store. 598 JPY (£4.70)
6pm: By the time I leave the office I’m ravenous and all of my good intentions go out of the window. I go past the same convenience store on the way back to the train station and buy a cup noodle, crisps, and a chocolate almond milk for dinner. 550 JPY (£3.70)
8.30pm: Realise I’m almost out of bubble bath while running a bath, so order bath salts from Amazon on my iPad while in said bath. Decide I might as well treat myself to some lavender soy candles for ultimate relaxation while I’m at it. 3,375 JPY (£23)
Total: 4,528 JPY (£31.40)
Day Two
10am: After a nightmare commute (the photos you’ve seen online of Japanese people being pushed into train carriages are real), I pop into the convenience store for a big black coffee on my way to the office. (I had never meditated before I moved to Tokyo and now I don’t know how I would survive all of the stress the city has to offer without meditating twice a day.) 180 JPY (£1.20)
7pm: Catch the train again to meet an old work friend after work. Her company (my old company) is having an office party of sorts, so I meet her there and help myself to some free food and wine while catching up on all the gossip. 250 JPY (£1.70)
9.30pm: We go on to a small popular standing bar called Train Bar for a drink, then on to another bar a few doors down which has a small cover charge in return for a drink. The bar looks and sounds banging from the outside, but after walking down the small steep staircase to the basement we realise it is actually empty, apart from two Western men in their 50s (possibly 60s) and three young Filipino sex workers. 1,000 JPY (£6.80)
10.30pm: As we try to leave the bar, we realise there is suddenly a significant number of men compared to women there, so the bartender offers us a free drink to stay a little longer (eeeew!). We drink the free drink then leave.
11pm: We get the train across town, and like any good girls' night out, the night ends with us dancing to '90s pop in a gay club. We buy a couple of drinks, but there were definitely some rounds of tequila shots consumed that we didn’t buy ourselves… 3,000 JPY (£20.40)
2.30am: Miss the last train (by a couple of hours) so get a taxi home. Concentrate all my efforts on not throwing up on myself for the entire 25-minute drive. 8,620 JPY (£58.70)
Total: 13,050 JPY (£88.80)
Day Three
12pm: Wake up and wallow in a self-pitying hangover. Watch Netflix for most of the day (on my ex-boyfriend’s account – he never logged out!).
5pm: Finally feel like I could stomach some food and order pizza (without cheese, which really confuses Japanese pizzerias). Continue to wallow until a reasonable bedtime. 2,150 JPY (£14.65)
Total: 2,150 JPY (£14.65)
Day Four
9am: Spend most of the day working on life admin to make up for yesterday’s waste of a day (cleaning my apartment, doing the washing, opening bills, taking Matilda to the dog run, etc).
5pm: Head into town by train to meet a friend for dinner at a Thai restaurant called Tit Chai that recently started offering vegan options (which are few and far between in Japan, so I feel like I’m responsible for supporting and sustaining every vegan-friendly business!). 4,900 JPY (£33.40)
Total: 4,900 JPY (£33.40)
Day Five
10am: Walk to a friend’s house for coffee and lunch (I avoid the train whenever possible – even when it is quiet and you can get a seat, the person next to you is sure to nod off and use your shoulder as a pillow), and to work on some voluntary animal welfare projects.
4pm: I can’t resist the secondhand shop I walk past on the way home. Today is no exception – I buy a jumper and a pair of blue leopard-print heels (even though I never wear colour or heels!). 1,000 JPY (£6.80)
5pm: Go to the supermarket and the foreign food import store at my local train station on the way home. My basket mainly consists of fruit, veg, nuts, beans, and tofu from the supermarket, and then I splash out on some German bread (because most of the bread at the supermarkets here has lard in it) and vegan chocolate from Europe in the import store. 3,700 JPY (£25.20)
8pm: Video call with a friend from back home who tells me about her upcoming summer trip to LA with some of our other friends. Feeling homesick, I spontaneously book cheap flights to join them. 73,158 JPY (£498)
Total: 77,858 JPY (£530)
Day Six
10am: It’s a sunny spring morning so I decide to work from the window seat of a coffee shop just around the corner from my office (my office is a windowless, overheated room and there’s only so much I can take…). Plus Tully’s Coffee just introduced a banana soy latte with soy whipped cream and, like I said, I have to support every vegan-friendly business... It’s so good that I end up having two! 920 JPY (£6.20)
7pm: Make dinner at home, then Skype my mum.
Total : 920 JPY (£6.20)
Day Seven
10am: Working remotely again today. Make and eat lunch at home.
2pm: Go into town by train to take part in a protest by the Animal Rights Centre Japan at Shibuya Scramble. (Go vegan!!?) 500 JPY (£3.40)
5pm: Get a takeout vegan doughnut from Good Town Doughnuts and buy toothpaste (Toothy Tabs) from Lush on the way home. 1,322 JPY (£9)
7pm: Make dinner and share my doughnut with Matilda.
Total: 1,822 JPY (£12.40)
The Breakdown
Food/Drink: £116.25
Entertainment: £0
Clothes/Beauty: £38.80
Travel: £561.80
Other: £0
Total: £716.85
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