# Mottainai (もったいない): What a waste

> Respect what you have. Small leaks sink big ships.

Mottainai is the feeling of regret when something useful is wasted: food, time, money, effort. It carries gratitude for resources and respect for the work behind them.

With money, mottainai shows up in small leaks: the daily delivery fee, the streaming service nobody watches, the third phone cover. Each looks harmless. Together they can cost more than a month’s rent every year.

Mottainai is not about being stingy. It is about using what you buy, repairing before replacing, and choosing quality that lasts.

## Try it this week

- Cancel one subscription you have not used this month
- Repair or reuse before replacing
- Check the yearly cost of a daily habit before keeping it

## How Ithuru helps

A waste detector that finds small repeating purchases, unused subscriptions and spending you tagged as regret, and shows their cost over a year.

Source: https://money.ideus.lk/guides/mottainai