“Don’t be tricked by the saying, ‘You’ll regret it if you don’t buy it.’” Budgeting tips for otakus. / Thus Spoke Hijiki Isoflavone

Article by Hijiki Isoflavone

Dear readers, it has officially been ten months since my monthly column, Thus Spoke Hijiki Isoflavone, started. How time flies!

From today’s post onwards, I will be doing things a bit differently by incorporating the topics submitted to this column in my articles.

Since this is more of a space where I blather on about that month’s theme than an actual agony aunt column, however, I can’t guarantee I will be answering your questions properly... But anyway.

Today’s theme is “how otakus manage their budget.” If you’re an otaku, this topic is most likely one that is close to your heart, given that many of us are essentially broke most of the time.

Just look at the internet, and you’ll see people talking about collecting oshi badges, visiting collab cafes, going on anime pilgrimages, and attending every single stage adaptation of their favorite franchise as if they’re rolling in dough. So, how on earth does everyone find the money to fund these unmistakably expensive activities?

I’ve always struggled to manage my finances

As I mentioned above, many otaku tend to struggle with their finances, and I am no exception. Ever since I was a kid, I would buy games and manga secondhand or borrow them from my friends, often lending them something in return. Since every single penny counts, I would also skip the drinks they offered at my part-time job—50-yen paper cups filled with some sort of juice—and slowly save up money that way.

One day after school, however, while my friend and I were wandering around town, I found a video game soundtrack album I’d been dying to get my hands on for ages. As a broke student, I didn’t have enough cash on hand, but something came over me that prompted me to beg my friend to lend me some money on the condition that I pay them back the following day. Thanks to my friend’s generosity, I was able to obtain the album I had long sought.

As for my friend, they were completely taken aback by the fact that I’d made such a big purchase, given how tight of a hold I usually had on my purse strings.

Moreover, instead of being annoyed, they were actually relieved and told me, “I thought you secretly disliked me since you rarely say yes to hanging out together, but now I know you’re just genuinely broke from collecting otaku merch!”

By borrowing money from my friend and spending it all on a CD, I was able to revitalize my friendship with them. Talk about a core memory.

Now that I’m older, I would highly advise against students lending and borrowing money from each other. At the time, however, I was utterly desperate.

As illustrated in this example, otakus are sometimes forced to make difficult decisions to spend money, often without warning.

Lately, more and more otakus have been spending money on their health and beauty too, which makes obtaining money and sticking to a budget all the more necessary.

While I’m sure that this isn’t the case for everyone, otakus are often celebrated for spending all their money on what they love and neglecting to save any for themselves.

However, let me say this: if you can’t look after yourself, you can’t be expected to care for the things you love either.

Instead of resorting to a simplistic budgeting tactic such as refusing to spend a single penny on anything aside from your hobbies, it’s important—and much more sustainable—to figure out how to manage your spending overall.

My personal rules on budgeting

For starters, I try my best not to buy any merch or books that won’t fit in the drawers I have.

Since moving out of my parents’ house, my storage space has become limited, meaning any merch I buy that won’t fit under my bed or in my drawers has a direct impact on my living environment.

By deciding where to store my clothes and other necessities and how much space they’re allowed to take up, I also have a good indicator for whether I should buy something or not when I go shopping.

Additionally, I have several “no-spend” days a week where I forbid myself from spending even a single penny.

Barring certain necessary expenses such as transportation costs, I’m not allowed to eat out or buy anything on these days. The more you practice this, the easier it becomes to control your spending.

In my case, whenever I review my expenses, the biggest culprit tends to be impulsive purchases I make online. If I can keep myself from making too many said purchases, that should, in theory, result in me spending less money overall.

If you struggle with impulsive online purchases like me, these “no-spend” days can be incredibly useful since you’ll be forced to leave your items in your cart for a few days. By the time you come back to them, you might realize that you didn’t need them after all, thereby saving yourself from wasting money and tears.

One more thing I would like to mention is, don’t be swayed by the saying, “Better to regret buying it than regret not buying it at all.”

We otakus tend to be irresponsible and hype our fellow brethren up whenever they’re debating buying something, but at the end of the day, money is limited.

Of course, there will be times in your long otaku life where you’re likely to regret not buying a specific book or not being into a certain fandom at the same time as everyone else, but it’s this very fear of missing out that otakus use as an excuse to spend large sums of money on things they don’t necessarily need.

Even as I’m writing this column, I’m in danger of blowing an exorbitant amount of money on random merch for a stage play.

Currently, I’m in the midst of a dilemma: deleting items from my cart, re-adding them, and then deleting them again. Supposing I did buy this merch, would I be able to take them on trips with me or display them properly in my room...?

While the moment of purchase is sure to give a hit of dopamine, it’s important for us otakus to evaluate whether that joy is something that will continue even after our purchase arrives.

Certainly, most of these spending habits come from our love for our favorite series or fandoms. Regardless, we need to ask ourselves if the act of buying a specific item will make us happy or bring us joy in the long run.

Before I sat down to write this column, I decided to count just how many doujinshis I’ve bought in the six months since I moved. The result was a whopping 98 doujinshis in six months, which was a very alarming number to be confronted by.

Not only have I completely run out of space to store them, but I fell victim to the fact that doujinshis are the type of thing you buy precisely because they’re only available at certain times or events. Most of them were ones I purchased online too...

Well, I guess the good thing is that I don't regret buying them, but...

Anyway, sadly I’ve clearly not been able to put the things I wrote about in this column into practice at all.

I suppose if you end up spending too much money, your only option is to take advantage of that dopamine hit while you can to work hard and try to earn more to make up for it...

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