How I saved 50,000 yen a month without realizing I was sacrificing anything

Do you think saving money means making sacrifices?

Actually, there is a way to save over 50,000 yen a month without sacrificing anything. As a former bank employee and father of two, I have compiled a 'rational saving method' that even my family agrees with.

• 🧑‍💻 About this note

Nice to meet you. I am a 'rational living researcher.'
As a former bank employee and father of two, I explore daily methods for saving without sacrifice and creating systems that generate time and money.

In this note, I share content on themes such as:

• How to reduce fixed costs without strain

• Time and money management for dual-income, child-rearing households

• Asset formation strategies based on index investing

👇 In this article, I have specifically summarized the actual examples and mindset behind how I saved over 50,000 yen per month. I hope this will be helpful for those who want to let go of the common belief that 'saving equals sacrifice.' 🟡 Introduction

When people hear the word 'saving,' many may associate it with 'sacrifice,' 'restriction,' and 'stress.'
But in my case, even though I saved 50,000 yen a month, I was surprisingly not sacrificing anything.

Moreover, what I did was super simple. My quality of life did not drop, and there were no complaints from my family.
Today, I will talk about that 'secret.'

🟡 Why did I start saving?

I started becoming conscious of saving after my children were born.
Between work, childcare, and housework, my time and energy were stretched to the limit. Furthermore, living expenses like daycare fees and diaper costs increased all at once.

The method of working long overtime hours to earn more, as I did before, was no longer realistic.
With 'no time, no energy, and no motivation'—the conclusion I reached in this dead-end situation was the simple truth that
**'reducing expenses is faster than increasing income.'**

Having been a bank employee, I already had a habit of reviewing cash flow.
However, it was only in the last few years that I started working on saving in earnest.

Every day, I kept thinking, 'How can I reduce expenses without lowering my quality of life and while keeping my family satisfied?'
As I kept thinking about that,
I realized I had become a person who thinks about saving all year round (laughs).

That is where I arrived at the concept of
'saving without sacrifice.'

🟡 The breakdown of the over 50,000 yen I actually saved each month

Even though I call it saving, I didn't use any special skills or tricks.
What I did was mainly a review of **'fixed costs.'** These are things that provide continuous effects just by reviewing them once.

Item | Monthly Savings | Method | Smartphone Charges (Couple) | 13,000 yen | Switch from major carriers to ultra-low-cost SIM | Electricity Bill | 5,000 yen | Switch from major power company to new power provider | Optical Fiber Line | 2,600 yen | Switch from FLET'S Hikari to Hikari Collabo | Subscription Cancellation | 2,000 yen | Cancel U-NEXT which I wasn't watching | Insurance Review | 20,000 yen | Cancel 20,000 yen/month life insurance (considering social insurance system) | Food & Daily Necessities | 15,000 yen | High-reward credit card + store points + Furusato Nozei (hometown tax donation)

▶ Total: Approx. 57,600 yen/month (Approx. 690,000 yen saved per year!)

💡 Explanation and key points for each item

Smartphone Charges (Couple)
Switched from major carriers to ultra-low-cost SIM. No issues with communication quality, and fixed costs dropped by 13,000 yen per month.

Electricity Bill
Switched from a major provider to a new power company. Usage remains the same, but saved 5,000 yen per month.

Optical Fiber Line
Switched from FLET'S Hikari to Hikari Collabo. Service content is the same, but saved 2,600 yen per month.

Subscription Cancellation
Cancelled U-NEXT, which I wasn't watching. Cut 2,000 yen that I was paying unconsciously every month.

Insurance Review
After checking the social insurance system (survivor's pension and high-cost medical expense benefits), I cancelled my 20,000 yen/month life insurance.
I made the decision based on sales proposals and my family's situation, while also judging whether I had sufficient savings.

Food & Daily Necessities
I haven't made a list, but I used a combination of high-reward credit cards + store points, private brands, and
furthermore,
chose daily necessities through Furusato Nozei donations.With this, I succeeded in reducing costs from 70,000 yen to 55,000 yen, a saving of 15,000 yen.

🟡 Why was I able to achieve "savings without sacrifice"?

I am sometimes asked,
"Doesn't cutting back so much make your life inconvenient?"

But in reality,the quality of my life has not dropped at all.
If anything, I even feel like I have more peace of mind and time because my expenses have decreased.

✅ Point 1: "Choose rationally" instead of "forcing cuts"

• Expensive does not equal valuable

• Communication, electricity, insurance, etc., are things where life doesn't change just by "re-choosing"

• I succeeded in saving without force just by reviewing "whether it's worth paying for"

✅ Point 2: It's easy to continue because I "created a system"

• Just by reviewing switches and contracts once, the savings continue automatically

• The trick is to "change the environment itself" rather than enduring it daily

✅ Point 3: View it as a "choice that helps your future self"

• The future of your children and family, career options, and peace of mind in retirement

• Saving as a means to secure these things = transforming it into a positive action

🟡 Note: How will this choice change your future?

The amount saved is about 690,000 yen per year.
If you continue this for 5 years, about 3.5 million yen, and in 10 years, about 7 million yen of a difference will be created.

I use this money for asset building such as index investing.
This further accelerates the speed at which my money grows.

However, I will talk about investing in another article.
Here, it is enough to just convey that your future can change significantly with "just one choice."

🟡 A final word

Saving is not about enduring hardship.
Reviewing things rationally, setting up systems, and expanding future options—that is what I consider "saving."

🟡 If you'd like...

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