[GoNative]

It really does depend on where you live I guess. Up here in a small country town in Hokkaido I find the cost of living to be very cheap. Much cheaper than living back in Australia. Partly because there's hardly anything to spend lots of money on here.
My wife and I use the internet to buy english books and DVD's and about once a month we head into Costco in Sapporo and buy up a whole lot of western foods we enjoy (like decent sized beef steaks!). We bought a dedicated freezer to store up the stuff we buy.
Clothing wise, well I hardly ever buy clothes. Maybe once a year I'll head into one of the big outlet malls in Sapporo or Chitose and buy a few things to last me out another year and I'm a big guy but can generally find a few things in my size.
We are lucky in that having two incomes makes a big difference and we fully own our home so no paying rent each month. Still I don't find the cost of living in Japan as a foreigner to be all that expensive at all. Thankfully I don't live in a megatropolis like Tokyo or Osaka! I'm sure that would cost me a hell of a lot more...