Expensive Expenses

Notable trends from my recorded expenses to date:

About 1/4 of my income goes towards various bills: rent, utilities, ketai, social insurance, etc.

About 15% so far is devoted to transportation. This includes train, car costs, auto insurance and gas. After car purchase in September, transportation costs have hovered around 6-7%.

A pretty steady 12% is eaten. This includes eating out and groceries (instances of eating out that include alcohol are considered entertainment). My experiment to eat out more in November had no noticeable effect on the overall food expenses.

A pretty steady 5% is spent on entertainment. Majority of this is drunk, minority of this is spent on video rentals (and the "perks" associated with these rentals). Much lower than I expected.

This leaves travel, stuff and care as the main categories of variation. [note: Stuff (permanent goods) and Care (consummable/hygenic/personal care goods) are separated so that I can account for purchases that I would have to leave behind once I leave Japan]

After all this, I have been able to save close to 30% of my income. Not bad.