Might be possible by only eating a small breakfast/lunch and dinner at donburi restaurants such as Yoshinoya, naka-u and so on...

Healthy cheap things:
bananas
soba
tofu
eggs

If you can base eating around these (along with the pasta) you can eat pretty cheap and healthy using whatever veg is cheap (you can usually get discounted stuff)

It is easily possible to eat on 1000yen per day. It isn't possible to do it healthily and balanced unless you have a very small appetite though. Vegetables and especially fruits are very expensive here. To a previous poster, bananas are not cheap anymore. Prices in Japan have skyrocketed in the past year. Expect to pay at least 200-300yen for a tiny bunch, probably more in Tokyo.

It really depends on your definition of healthy though. The cheapo grocery bentos may be somewhat balanced, but they are far from healthy since they are sopping with oil (even the rice is oiled). I eat healthily (almost no packaged food) but not especially well balanced (no fruits at all unless you count orange juice, less veggies than I should have) for probably a bit less than 1000yen per day, but I have the benefit of subsidized work lunch (300yen!).

You can probably get close if you have a decent sized fridge so you can buy larger amounts of stuff (ex: a full cabbage is only a bit more expensive than a quarter of a cabbage). Also, watch when the time service sales are. The (major chain) grocery store I go to has a cheap day once a month for rice, one day a week for cheap meat, one hour a day for cheap eggs, etc. If you go late at night there is a lot of stuff 20-50% off too (perishable items). Avoid grocery stores at train stations or department stores, they are usually 2-4x the price of other stores and are meant for rich people.

If you plan on just heating up pre-made crap from the store, you'll never eat healthily on any budget

Last edited by Jarvik7 (2010 June 16, 6:28 am)

I love Topvalu Noodle Seafood, only 87 yen (which leaves 913 yen per day for chocolate).

Alternatively, 100円 convenience stores (e.g. 99, Lawson 105) can be good value for small quantities of fruit, vegetables and other foods.

This guy managed to live off $1 of food per day for a month. Granted he uses a lot of coupons, but shows it can be done!

http://www.grocerycouponguide.com/artic … n-1-a-day/

1000 yen is around £7.40 (GBP). I live in the UK, which by all accounts is an expensive country (though possibly not quite as expensive as Japan). I can live very well on less than £5 a day. Last summer I cycled 4000 miles around europe over a 3 month period and spent an average of £2 a day, including in Germany, France and Italy which are all expensive compared to some other places I visited. There are some key ideas behind eating cheaply in any country and some have already been covered.

Make sure you know which staples are subsidized. In the UK, bread and milk are subsidized (and vitamin supplemented). In Italy, pasta. In Germany it's bread rolls and cheese. I presume in Japan that at the least white rice will be subsidized, and so you will be able to buy in bulk cheaply. Seasonal vegetables are cheaper, so are local vegetables. If you can find out where local fruit and vegetable markets are held, get your vegetables there. Don't eat fruit.

Visiting some types of cafe just before closing time you can get free food. For example, bakeries in the UK have to throw away any unsold produce after closing time, so you can go and get free pastries and bread 5 minutes before closing. Sometimes it's not free but just very cheap. I'm sure there is a similar type of shop in Japan.

Again, I can't say for certain if this is true in Japan, but here you can save a lot of money by buying certain foods frozen. This seems to apply particularly to fish here, probably something different in Japan. Obviously they keep longer this way, but you need a freezer.

If I remember correctly, though Japan doesn't really have coupons like the USA apparently does (we don't have them here either), you do have loyalty cards. I'm pretty sure you can make a good saving by carefully investigating which stores have the best loyalty system to price tradeoff. Then make sure you buy from that store whenever possible, for the items you know are cheapest there. Over time it will benefit you to stick to one shop as you can redeem your loyalty points. Wrightak has an article about it on his blog.

Oh yeah, regarding your vitamin tablets. Take one a day but never ever leave the cap off - with just a tiny amount of moisture in the bottle, most vitamins will denature and become completely useless, and you might as well eat soil. Keep them in a dry place (e.g. not the bathroom cupboard).

Last edited by Blahah (2010 June 16, 9:39 am)

kerosan41 wrote:

I'd recommend trying to find a 業務 type grocery store. They're far cheaper for a lot of things and you can buy in bulk. Frozen vegetables and fruits at these type stores cost a fraction of the fresh versions.

I buy most all of my food from the 業務スーパー and spend maybe 500円 per day total on food.  Tofu 30円, Udon noodles 17円, bag of most any kind of frozen vegetables 100円.  Bananas go on sale for 50円 a bunch a couple days before going brown.  I pay more for rice now than I did back in Hawaii, but it is still cheap per serving.  Makes good inari.

Last edited by bodhisamaya (2010 June 16, 10:02 am)

With the prices bodhisamaya just listed you could very easily eat for far less than your budget each day.

Womacks23 wrote:

Do they have frozen strawberries in your Japan? I can never find any here.

Whose Japan are you in?

When I lived on my own in California I found it pretty easy to eat on $1-3 a day. I'd imagine in Japan eggs, tofu, rice, and udon are very cheap, so I would learn to cook with those. If you want meat, don't bother with beef (too pricey and unhealthy). If you are American you may need to move out of the mindset of needing meat with every meal. Also, beans by far offer the most nutrition per dollar over here, there should be some cheap beans or lentils over there to buy in bulk. Make sure to by some vegetables, whatever is on sale. And get ready to learn how to cook, you may find out you enjoy it (I ended up switching to a restaurant related major)