I left my job this past January, did a trial membership at an online money community at the end of February, and joined properly in March. I've been trying hard to manage our household budget ever since — but our food costs are stubbornly hard to keep down.

Japan used to have a TV show where the host would drop in on ordinary families at dinnertime. Honestly, I'd love that — I really want to know what other homemakers cook every day, and how they keep their grocery budgets under control. (Especially the food budget!!)

Why our food budget won't behave

Because I'm so bad at cooking, I lean heavily on ingredients from our co-op grocery delivery. Even so, to shave costs a little, I now order from the co-op only the things I can't get elsewhere, and buy some of the vegetables, meat and fish at a supermarket that's cheaper than the co-op.

I try my best, but once you add in the things my husband buys on a whim at the store, the sushi delivery on anniversaries, and birthday cakes, it all adds up to a scary total. Rice prices seem to have settled down a fair bit, but keeping food costs low is still a struggle.

On weekdays my husband and eldest son are at work and out of the house during the day, but my mother, my second son and I eat lunch at home every day — so I tell myself the higher grocery bill is just unavoidable… and yet it still weighs on me.

An honest look at our everyday dinners

I'm not sure there's any value in a not-so-great cook publishing her dinner menus, but here are some of our everyday dinners — with photos this time. (A little embarrassing, but here goes!)

Menu ① — Chicken night

• Fried chicken (karaage)
• Chicken & burdock rice
• Hearty consommé vegetable soup
  (sausage, cabbage, onion, carrot, corn, potato, shiitake)

Menu ② — Japanese-style night

• Akauo (rosefish) marinated in mirin & sake lees (deboned)
• Chilled tofu
• Simmered pumpkin
• Sliced onion salad
• Miso soup with cabbage, carrot, shimeji & fried tofu

Menu ③ — Light Chinese/Korean night

• Korean-style glass noodle stir-fry (japchae)
• Fried eggplant with grated daikon
• Chicken tender, cucumber & bean sprouts (poached chicken)
  served with the co-op's veggie-packed Japanese dressing

Menu ④ — Grilled fish night

• Grilled salmon
• Salad
• Chicken & burdock rice
• Miso soup with spinach, tofu & long onion

Menu ⑤ — Fried night

• Spring rolls
• Salad
• Japchae

Other regulars include cold ramen, simmered pork belly & daikon, buttered green beans, a three-color rice bowl with chicken soboro and scrambled egg (with daikon miso soup and a cucumber-carrot-burdock salad), and curry. I basically rotate through a small set of similar meals.

One meal costs about ¥1,500–2,000

Lately the heat has been at body-temperature levels, so standing in the kitchen is genuinely rough!! But I manage to cook anyway, and when I do the math—

First thing in the morning I get chores like laundry done, then spend time researching, studying and applying for remote-work gigs. The day flies by, so I always end up cooking in a rush.

In our house, breakfast and lunch are self-serve; the only meal I cook is dinner, once a day. And even that is exhausting to make every single day! When I think about my family's health, I always wonder whether my cooking is really nutritious enough.

My safety net: "komatsuna & baby sardine rice topping"

Even so, there's one make-ahead dish I keep coming back to, thinking "as long as we eat this regularly, we'll probably be okay!" — komatsuna (Japanese mustard spinach) & baby sardine rice topping.

Even a cook as hopeless as me can make it easily, and it delivers iron and calcium — two nutrients Japanese people tend to lack — in one go. It keeps about five days in the fridge, though in our house it vanishes almost instantly. For breakfast or a weekend lunch, just cook some rice and this alone makes a meal.

🥬 Komatsuna & baby sardine rice topping

※ We're a family of five, so I make a big batch at once.

Ingredients (our portions)

• Komatsuna — 3 bunches
• Chirimen-jako (dried baby sardines) — 40g (to taste)
• Katsuobushi (bonito flakes) — as needed
• White sesame seeds — as needed
• Sesame oil — as needed
• Salt — a pinch

How to make it

1. Wash the komatsuna, drain well, and chop into small 5–8mm pieces.
2. Stir-fry in sesame oil for about 3 minutes and add a little salt (go light — the jako is already salty).
3. Transfer to a large container and let it cool.
4. Mix in the baby sardines and bonito flakes.
5. Finish with a sprinkle of white sesame — done!

It's genuinely easy and delicious, so if you've never made it, do give it a try. It makes the rice disappear.

In closing

I truly envy people who love cooking and are good at it. If you know a way to make daily cooking more fun and less of a chore, or have a great recipe to share, I'd love to hear it.

Even though I'm bad at cooking, I somehow make dinner every day and keep going. If you're someone who also finds cooking hard but keeps at it anyway, I hope you'll feel: "There's a friend over here, too."