Working From Home & Saving On Costs

Hi there. In this post I would like to talk about saving on costs while working from home. During these lockdowns, many of us are working at home online for income. A neat plus with working from home is some of the time and cost savings from not having to commute to work.

Saving On Time & Money

I am not sure what the actual statistics on commute times and costs are but spending time and money to go to work does play a big part in routines for many of us. You have the money spent on bus fares, train fares, gasoline, parking fees and food. From the time perspective you have waking up early to get to work on time, waiting in traffic, waiting for the bus/train/plane/taxi and possible alternate routes to adapt to accidents.

Different places around the world have different transportation costs as well as time it takes to get to work. As someone who knows the Toronto area, I can share that commuting in Toronto is pretty bad. This article here from 2018 ranks Toronto as the sixth worst in North America. It says that Toronto has an average commute time both ways of 96 minutes. (Not sure what the sample size is but I can say that Toronto commuting in rush hour is very bad.)

Any time saved can be used for more sleep, more time with the family, more time for hobbies, more TV time or even cooking.

Money saved from reduced costs could go towards debt repayments, savings, gold/silver, cryptocurrency, home improvements, education, travel, etc.

Working At Home To Not Deal With Traffic, Busy Buses, Busy Trains And No Rush Hour Madness

Assuming a common 9-5 workday, working from home means avoiding traffic, busy buses, busy trains, rush hour madness and avoiding being too close to people in small areas. Avoiding commuting results in less stress.

Home-Cooked Meals As An Option

You could bring a home cooked meal to the office but it does take meal-prep time. With the time savings from not commuting the time that would have been spent on commuting can go towards home cooked meals. In general, home-cooked dishes cost less than their restaurant versions. You control what you eat when cooking at home versus having someone prepare food for you with ingredients that may be unknown/unhealthy.

Home Exercise Breaks

For the health and fitness minded, working at home provides the option of home exercise breaks. Home exercise can be used as a productive break from doing work. You can do inexpensive no-equipment workouts from Youtube, home yoga, jogging outside or use a home gym. Instead of paying gym/fitness membership fees why not exercise at home?!

Notes

Yes you do have pay more in electricity while working at home but it should not be that costly versus transportation costs and outside food.
Some home gym setups can be really expensive. It may be cheaper to pay gym membership fees for using a wide variety of gym equipment than buying many equipment pieces for home use.
Some may not save that much working at home if work is walking distance.
Working from homes provides financial benefits while reducing workplace distractions. (Don't get distracted being at home though!)

Thank you for reading.

Posted Using LeoFinance ^Beta