世論 What Japan Thinks

Having looked last week at how people are economising in general, today I’m looking at a survey from DIMSDRIVE Research into saving money on food.

Demographics

Between the 10th and 25th of June 2009 9,685 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.3% of the sample were male, 1.1% in their teens, 12.3% in their twenties, 32.6% in their thirties, 30.7% in their forties, 16.0% in their fifties, and 7.3% aged sixty or older.

My eating at home has definitely increased the last year, and most of the saving money has been from buying pre-prepared salad from the supermarket rather than from one of the delicatessans in a department store.

In the final question, bean sprouts coming out as the most common cheap food highlights how much people are struggling. I can understand tofu, chicken and cabbage being popular substitutes for more expensive ingredients, but bean sprouts suggests desperation to me.

Research results

Q1: Usually, about how often do you eat a home-made evening meal at home? Exclude cup noodles, other instant foods. (Sample size=9,685)

	All	Married N=6,158	Unmarried N=3,527
Almost every day	41.4%	50.5%	25.7%
Four or five days a week	11.2%	10.4%	12.5%
Two or three days a week	9.6%	6.2%	15.7%
One day a week	6.3%	4.9%	8.7%
One day every two or three weeks	3.3%	2.9%	3.9%
One day a month or less	6.9%	6.3%	7.9%
Don’t make evening meals at home (to end of survey)	21.3%	18.8%	25.6%

By family size, there was a significant difference between single people versus all other family sizes, 28% versus over 40% eating at home every day.

Q2: How often do you yourself buy ingredients for evening meals? (Sample size=7,393)

	All	Male N=3,119	Female N=4,507
Often	58.7%	33.1%	76.5%
Sometimes	28.1%	43.4%	17.5%
Rarely	10.1%	18.0%	4.6%
Never	3.1%	5.5%	1.4%

Q3: Compared to last year, how has your spending on evening meals changed? (Sample size=7,393)

Economising a lot	21.9%
Economising a little	51.8%
Not really economising (to Q5)	22.9%
Not economising at all (to Q5)	3.4%

Not surprisingly, the lower the salary, the more people economised.

Q4: Compared to last year, what aspects of your spending on evening meals have changed? (Sample size=5,449, multiple answer)

Choosing cheaper foods	76.0%
Eating out less, not any more	50.2%
Try buying foods on special offer	50.2%
Buying supermarket’s own brand (private brand)	42.3%
Shopping around	37.3%
Not leaving left-overs, buying too much	35.3%
Checking out special offers in newspaper advertisements	31.5%
Buying in bulk	30.6%
Making more dishes with left-overs	22.0%
Being aware of economical recipes	21.9%
Choosing items with a long shelf life	21.1%
Growing my own vegetables, etc	11.6%
Making a shopping, cooking plan	11.5%
Decreasing the variety in, number of dishes	11.2%
Choosing imported foods	6.0%
Other	1.5%
Nothing in particular	1.9%

Note that the final ranking question Q8 is also for the respondents to Q4.

Q5: To economise on your spending on evening meals changed, have you not just economised on shopping, but also been cooking economical menus? (Sample size=7,393)

Yes	49.7%
No (to end of survey)	50.3%

Q6: How does your family rate your economical menus? If you live alone, rate it yourself. (Sample size=3,141)

Very satisfied	15.2%
Somewhat satisfied	50.9%
Can’t say either way	29.0%
Somewhat dissatisfied	4.5%
Very dissatisfied	0.4%

Q7: What do you think is good about your economical menus? (Sample size=3,141, multiple answer)

Make more healthy cooking	31.8%
Become good at shopping	30.6%
Range of recipes have increased	30.1%
Family budgeting has become easier	22.8%
Become better at cooking	21.3%
Cooking has become more fun	19.9%
Preparation time has decreased	19.2%
Been praised by family	15.3%
Managed to lose weight	7.4%
Other	1.0%
Nothing in particular	17.7%

This final question was for those who save money on evening meals, the same group as answered Q4.

Q8: Compared to a year ago, what ingredients have you been aware of often using to economise on evening meals? (Sample size=5,449, free answer)

Rank		Votes
1	Bean sprouts	1552
2	Tofu (bean curd)	669
3	Chicken	295
4	Cabbage	269
5	Vegetables in general	258
6	Pork	186
7	Natto	139
8	Eggs	136
9	Onions	113
10	Potatoes	111