A Story of Small Money That Questions How We Live—'How to Use Three Thousand Yen' by Hika Harada [Reading Record 35]
Hello! 🍦Mao | Reading Record here.
The 35th book I finished in 2025 was'How to Use Three Thousand Yen' by Hika Harada (Chuko Bunko).
Miho (300,000 yen in savings) has started her ideal life living alone after getting a job. Her older sister, Maho (6 million yen in savings), worked at a securities firm before getting married. Their mother, Tomoko (just under 1 million yen in savings), is diligent and highly ambitious about her hobbies. And then there is their grandmother, Kotoko, who has saved 10 million yen. How do the women of the Mikuriya family save and spend their money to overcome life's milestones and crises?
A 'frugality' family novel that deepens your knowledge and is guaranteed to be 'worth it'!
── When we talk about money, we are probably talking about our 'way of life'.
Hika Harada's 'How to Use Three Thousand Yen'.
I'm sure many of you have heard this title before. I've seen this book many times on bookstore display tables and social media, but until recently, I hadn't read it.
'Frugality,' 'saving,' 'investing'──
Honestly, I'm quite bad with these three words.🥲 For some reason, I felt like they were only for 'people who seriously plan their lives,' and I felt like it was someone else's business.
But I also know that's not good.
Being single now, I can spend money freely only because it happens to be now, but the future will definitely come. If I don't face it properly now, I can see a future where I'm 'strangling myself'.
That said, I can't bring myself to pick up any business books at all 🙃
That's when I found this novel.
▫️ Because it's a novel, money became a 'personal matter'
This book is anensemble drama centered on the Mikuriya family, where three generations of women live.The characters have different money worries depending on their age and circumstances. Marriage, childbirth, divorce, old age──no matter what stage of life you are in, you cannot be unrelated to money.
In fact, one's values regarding money even influence their outlook on life and human relationships.The contrasting financial senses of the sisters.
The grandmother's modest yet powerful way of living.
The reality of having to worry about the 'financial literacy' of your spouse's parents.
While reading, you realize that
even though it seems like they are talking about money, they are actually deciphering each other's 'philosophy of life'.For example, for someone like me who used a scholarship for university, it hurt a little to hear the value that 'scholarship = debt, so you should avoid that person' 😢 But it is also a fact that I was able to learn the perspective that 'there are people who think that way.'
By presenting diverse values side-by-side rather than simply judging them, it shakes the reader's own thoughts.
I think this is the fun and kindness of the novel format.
▫️ Looking toward the future and taking care of today
As I read through the story,I couldn't help but think about how I want to deal with money myself.
Of course, saving steadily from a young age is the right answer and an important thing. But for me, 'living through today' is just as important.
Enjoying today.
Making today's self happy.
That might be a sense of security in terms of mental health, or it might be physical care like beauty and health.
Or it might be the experience of having your heart filled by going to a concert or traveling.
For me, 'taking care of today' means 'doing what I want to do and doing what I love'.Creating memories without regrets.
That's why I go to the concerts I want to go to, go on trips, and keep buying books. But even within that, I want to save money without pushing myself.I've come to think that I'd like to find my own balance between 'living happily' and 'living wisely'.
By the way, it's just between us, but right after I finished reading, I ate a 1,700 yen beef cutlet set meal in Kobe...!
▫️ The meaning of 'three thousand yen'──
The 'three thousand yen' in the title actually only appears at the beginning of the story.
But what this symbolic amount means is'the money you use in your daily life most clearly reveals a person's values'.I think a person's life philosophy seeps into their small daily choices, not their luxurious purchases.
For example, even with the same three thousand yen, someone might buy lotion, someone might eat out, someone might buy a book, and someone might save it for the future──it makes me think that all of these are 'correct answers' and all of them are three thousand yen necessary for that person's life.After reading, your feeling when opening your wallet might have changed a little.
▫️ Recommended for people like this
✔ People who are not good with money but want to face it properly
✔ People who want to feel real money problems in a story rather than a business book
✔ People who are interested in saving, budgeting, and investing but haven't been able to put it into practice
✔ People who feel they want to rethink their own 'richness' or 'happiness'
▫️ Summary
Talking about money might not just be about numbers or profit and loss, but a mirror that reflects your own values and way of life.
This novel is a gentle and realistic book that quietly makes you realize that.
And I think I'll start reading'University of Money'which has been sitting in my 'to-read' pile, soon...!
(I've only read the 'Introduction,' but it's great that I even bought it, right!?)
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🍦 I've been keeping a reading record since 2021 ▶︎Here
🍦 I tweet as a bookstore clerk and an otaku ▶︎Here
🍦 I started this recently ▶︎Here
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The book I read just before this one is here ⬇️