Budget tip: This Japanese method can save you money on your shopping

Are you struggling to manage your budget ? Some time-honored methods allow you to save a few euros each time . Coming straight from Japan, the Kakebo method, or Kakeibo, which means "household account book," can also be used for budget management.

This method, developed in 1904 by Hani Motoko, one of the first Japanese female journalists, was intended to offer housewives an empowering tool to better manage their household finances, reports Ouest-France . More than a century later, this method is crossing borders and attracting more and more French people who want to regain control of their wallets.

Kakebo requires a small notebook to record all your expenses and future purchase ideas each month. In the age of banking apps and automatic budgets, it offers a return to manual budget management.

For each purchase, the consumer must ask himself several questions:

• How much money do I have?
• How much do I want to save?
• How much will I spend?
• How can I improve my spending?

Thanks to this technique, goodbye to compulsive purchases.

Thoughtful shopping to waste less

It's no coincidence that many users claim to save up to 30% on their groceries after just a few weeks of using Kakebo. By categorizing expenses into everyday essentials, small pleasures, and unexpected items, Kakebo encourages you to ask yourself a thousand and one questions before making a purchase.

Should you really buy that expensive bottle of juice? Is that packet of cookies a necessity or just a treat? Is that ultra-mega antiperspirant deodorant for 72 hours really more effective than your usual deodorant? These little thoughts, written down in black and white in your notebook, will help you see things a little more clearly.

In supermarkets, this method has a direct impact on consumers because shopping carts become more sensible and smaller. Thanks to this method, expenses are reduced, and savings accumulate. Kakebo encourages us to return to basics: buy what we need, not what we want.

A management tool to regain control

Kakebo is more than a handwritten Excel spreadsheet. By recording your expenses, you adopt an active, rather than passive, stance toward your money. And above all, you regain control of your spending. "This tip should allow you to save up to 30%," says yahoo!life . You also gain peace of mind because you anticipate the unexpected and limit the frustrations associated with "difficult ends of the month." These savings can also be used to treat yourself by opting for more thoughtful purchases.

Many Kakebo templates are now available in bookstores or online, some very playful, others more refined. But a simple notebook will do. A little tip: remember to eat before you go shopping to avoid getting caught out by hunger pangs.