At the start of a new year many people look at their lives and assess what needs changing.
One of the main concerns people tend to have is money, or the lack thereof, so we will often try to find tricks to help with budgeting.
This is when the simple Japanese money saving trick, kakeibo, comes in.
One way people can save money is by using Japanese budgeting method kakeibo (stock image)
Pronounced kah-keh-boh, the idea is that you fill out a traditional Japanese journal filled with spreadsheets where you are meant to write down your savings goals and budgets.
These journals also contain affirmations and inspirational messages to motivate you as you go about each day.
According to the book Kakeibo: The Japanese Art of Saving Money, the idea behind this practice is to encourage people to become more mindful of their finances.
Pronounced kah-keh-boh, it’s a traditional Japanese journal filled with spreadsheets where you are meant to use to write down your savings goals and budgets
These journals also contain affirmations and inspirational messages to motivate you as you go about each day
The idea is that having your budget written down on paper will make you more accountable of your spending and aware of where you need to cut back.
The book encourages users to sit down at the beginning of each month and plan out the following four week’s finances.
This means writing down how much you plan to save and looking at your necessary expenses in terms of four categories.
The book encourages users to sit down at the beginning of each month and plan out the following four week’s finances
The idea is that having your budget written down on paper will make you more accountable of your spending
These four categories are survival – which covers food, transport and all things medical – optional – which covers takeaway, shopping and restaurants – culture – which involves books, music and movies and extra – which is for things like gifts and repairs.
To help encourage budgeting it asks you to write down what you are going to do each month to reach your savings goals.
There are also four questions that the book asks you to answer at the beginning of each four week period.
These four questions are: How much money do you have? How much would you like to put away? How much are you actually spending? How can you improve on that?
To help encourage budgeting it asks you to write down what you are going to do each month to reach your savings goals (stock image)
On top of all this the journal includes reflection boxes so you can see whether you’re doing enough to meet your targets.
It is believed that using this method will help you cut back your monthly spending by 35 per cent.