How fukubukuro can actually save you money

As someone who tries to be fairly frugal, it might sound a bit counterintuitive to encourage shopping habits on here. Fukubukuro often seem like a bit of a splurge item, but I actually think they can be a decent way to save money if you pick the right ones.

My go-to fukubukuro are consumable ones (tea, coffee, food ones) because I know that it's likely I'll use everything in them -- it's a bit harder with ones that are fashion or accessories, for example, since I don't always know that what will be inside will be my style.

With most fukubukuro, the sale price is far less than what the individual total of the items would cost, so you're already getting a good deal. I also think they can be a fun option to try some new products without the risk factor of paying full price for them. I've often found things in coffee/tea/foodie fukubukuro that I've ended up repurchasing because I really enjoyed them, and I probably wouldn't have tried them if they weren't included in the bag.

I also think with fukubukuro there's a level of delayed gratification, or at least there was in the case of my recent Kaldi Coffee Farm one. These had to be applied for via a lottery system late last year, so it's not like I just turned up and spent money -- I thought about what I wanted, committed, and waited!

Did you get any fukubukuro this year?