Japanese mother of three Maiko Takahashi was never one to pinch pennies or accept hand-me-downs for her children even though circumstances for her single-income family have always been fairly modest.
But times have changed. Nowadays, she has no trouble with used clothes and her pursuit of bargains and scrimping on the most trifling costs borders on the obsessive.
"I've started to pay close attention to tips on TV shows, like minimizing the number of times you open the fridge to save electricity," said Takahashi, whose family of five lives in suburbs north of Tokyo.