Disclaimer I am from America where you can basically get a whole cow for 100$. Where in Japan can you buy bulk food and groceries for someone on a budget? I’ve founding buying rice and eggs seems to do the trick but I’m still very hungry at the end of the day. What sort of tips and tricks do you have for someone with about 1000 yen budget a day?
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**Where to get a good amount of food**
Disclaimer I am from America where you can basically get a whole cow for 100$. Where in Japan can you buy bulk food and groceries for someone on a budget? I’ve founding buying rice and eggs seems to do the trick but I’m still very hungry at the end of the day. What sort of tips and tricks do you have for someone with about 1000 yen budget a day?
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Costco is pretty good.
Your local grocery store will also have retort bags of curry and pasta sauces for pretty cheap, just eat two instead of one.
Usually grocery stores start putting discount stickers on fresh meat and deli counter items from around 7pm onwards. My local store starts at 20% off and goes from there until they’re sold out.
Not to sound mean or anything but you may also want to adjust your expectations foodwise as well. US sized portions are pretty far from healthy. I say this as a dude who is well over 300lbs and needs to learn this lesson too. It’s not easy for sure.
there’s Costco in Japan, which you’d need someone with a membership and a car to take you to. if you can save up some grocery money and make a big purchase there it’ll save you a bunch in the long run.
then there’s also these supermarkets called Gyomu Super (æ¥å‹™ã‚¹ãƒ¼ãƒ‘ー) that have very cheap prices for many things. I always buy my meat there because it’s decent quality and very cheap compared to many other places.
also check out any local veggie stores you can find, they often have veggies and fruit for very cheap. but what’s a bit different to my country and maybe yours is that only local and in-season things are cheap, everything else can be very expensive (since it all gotta be brought in from abroad of course). but you can get packs of carrots or potatoes for really cheap, can buy tons of bean sprouts for almost nothing, and things like spinach and broccoli can be really cheap sometimes.
Google Gyomu Super（æ¥å‹™ã‚¹ãƒ¼ãƒ‘ー）, La Mu（ラ・ムー）, Sundi（サンディ） and Lopia（ãƒãƒ”ア） on Google Maps, and also æ ¼å®‰ã‚¹ãƒ¼ãƒ‘ãƒ¼ and your city’s name.
You can check sales flyers of most regular supermarkets on [https://www.shufoo.net/](https://www.shufoo.net/) as well.
That’s not a very big budget, man.
Are you coming as a university student, or something?
Gyomu supa and niku no hanamasa are budget groceries I go to. They may have more oddly shaped produce (but totally edible) at lower prices, and many other things tend to be lesser known or generic brand products.
Tofu is a really cheap source of protein, at my local grocery store (Shibuya so probably on the expensive side) you can get a pack of 2 servings for under 100 yen. And I assume it’s even cheaper if you buy in bulk. Equivalent amount of meat/fish starts at around 400 yen (that could be 2 small fillets of fish or a package of the cheapest cut of meat).
Gyomu Super all the way. Udon ¥23 a packet (used to be ¥19 but inflation), tofu ¥38, bean sprouts ¥19, super sized loaves of bread ¥238, lower priced than Niku no Hanamasa for frozen foods. 500g pasta maybe ¥138 now. Hanamasa is better for meats & produce. Costco has bulk but I never feel like it’s a good value; just big.