Hesokuri is pin money in Japanese. Many wives keep a hesokuri some running into the thousands. When we were burglarized, one of the things that was taken was my hesokuri. I had actually had some money set aside in my emergency earthquake bag. The first thing the police asked me when I told them what was taken, "can you tell us in front of your husband how much was taken?"
You may be wondering why they would ask this...Many wives keep their hesokuri secret from their husbands.
In most Japanese homes, the wives hold the purse strings. Unlike the States, most salaries are paid monthly. The husbands turnover their paychecks to their wives and the wives give their husbands kozukai (an allowance). The rest of the money is used to pay bills, the mortgage and everyday living expenses. Any money that is left, sometimes "finds its way" into the hesokuri.
This amount that the husband receives as kozukai is often the topic of some news stories. I think this year the going kozukai rate was like 30,000 yen (about US$300).
Anyway, my hesokuri does not come from the money I get from Satoshi (who holds the purse strings in our household), but from my lessons. Usually every month, I usually put some of the money into the bank and then keep some money aside to use or for emergency.
Some things I have used my hesokuri for: something for Christmas for Satoshi, candies for the children at our annual Christmas party, books, a few foodie adventures and more recently, the giveaway.
For Christmas, I bought myself this book with my hesokuri, "The Food You Crave" by Ellie Krieger. I love her recipes, they are relatively simple and very healthy.One recipe in the book was a pesto potato salad. Since this recipe is meant to be served cold, I changed it to a pesto mashed potato so I could serve it warm. I served this with a pan fried boneless pork chop and onions sauteed with apricot jam and a little ketchup.
Do you keep pin money? What do you use it for?
