I can always use money saving tips – I tend to have a “small” hole in my hand as the Dutch say. I stumbled across Kakeibo and enjoyed the simplicity and back to basic process.
Kakeibo is a system was developed in 1904 by a female journalist named Hani Motoko. Motoko is considered to be Japan’s first female newspaper reporter, and she founded a magazine for women called, Fujin no tomo, or Woman’s Friend, in the early 1900s. In 1903 Motoko created kakeibo as a simple way for women to manage their household finances.
At the heart of kakeibo is journaling or documenting your income and spending. Since the process predates smartphones and computers, it relies on old fashioned pen and paper technology.
Track your spending for a month
The first step in kakeibo, much like any mindfulness work, is to become aware of what’s actually happening to your finances. This means keeping detailed track of your spending for a set period. Tracking your spending and income gets at the heart of the kakeibo practice, which centers on four key questions. They are:
- How much money do I have or earn?
- How much do I want to save?
- How much am I spending?
- Where can I improve?
There are plenty of kakeibo journals, like this one, on the market that you can use to get started, or you can simply use a blank book that you carry with you. Like journaling, the idea is to incorporate the process into your daily routine. The very fact that this is a paper journal, where you physically write down all your expenses, makes the whole process different from how most of us live our lives these days. Writing down how much money you’ll have to work with each month, slowly and deliberately, gets you ‘in tune’ with your money. You do need to sit down on the first of the month and work ahead in to the coming month. This means predicting how much your income will be, which can be hard for freelancers and other business owners.
Oh gosh my first reaction is …. more work / more admin …. However I do admit I would like even more mindful spending – with all the shops closed here in Antwerp I am helped somewhat. Online spending on books is easy for me – clothes and accessories not so much thank goodness. Ok I am gearing up to giving Kakeibo a go – anyone else ?
