Budget Wise

My new year resolution is to reduce my spending money by limiting myself to eat outside 4 times (or less) per month.

I decided to create a budget crunch and see how far I can go with it. The reason has become more obvious.

I havent saved a penny from my paycheck. Eating out is always my problem. I mean, eating out with friends was always fun but considering the money that I usually spent for one meal, roughly 9-15 bucks. Gahhh.....

If I can buy groceries for a month stock and eat at home, I can save 100 bucks per month. So, I decided to strict with my budget: eat at home, 4 times or less dining outside every month. That's it.

Athough, I don't have a debt but I always left in my account with 3 to 5 dollars (if i was lucky enough) by the end of the month .

And, Dad always asked me how much money he needed to transfer whenever he saw my balance statement left with only few dollars.

Seriously, I felt so bad because dad already spent a lot just for my tuition and now, my brother is attending college in Canada. It is not cheap studying abroad.

One time, dad sent me a text saying He transferred some amount to my account. Slightly, I wasnt happy because I felt so bad. I thought about my brother and also my sister who is later going to follow my brother to Canada. Dad would have spent a LOT just for three of us.

I asked him why he initiated to transfer since I didnt ask anyway. He said because I was only left with $5 in my account. He was worried that I would be running out of money. Sigh, I was speechless.

I really felt bad to my dad. So, starting from there, I decided to save up some money so dad would stop being worried about my balance statement every month (he has the access to my bank account).

Being an adult is hard. People thought they were mature enough to take care their life.

However, when it is time to take care their financial issue, they were stuck in tremendous debt. DEBT! Can we people learn from the Japanesse?Japan is a rich country but the people are so wise in budgeting their spending.

One time, I talked to a girl whom i just I met at friend's party. We were just meant to be there because we had such a common friends.

She recently moved from Japan so she was really excited to meet new people. We had a general conversation until she mentioned about her workplace in Japan.

When she was living in Japan, she used to work in a financial firm. She said japanesse and american is so different in term of saving money.

Debt is pretty rare in Japan. Japanesse like to shop but they also saved a lot.

The interest rate is pretty low, much lower than in the US. According to her, normally, the interest rate in Japan is 0.50%.

She also said, "We like to spend our money for fun but we also know how much money we can spend, we know the limit."

People in Japan prefer to bring cash rather than credit card. Maybe, that could be the reason why bankrupt is not common in Japan. Interesting!