10 Ideas to Save Money at Work

Going to work is a fact of life. One thing that we don’t always think about is that work is expensiiiiiive. For all the time we spend at work making money, we rarely consider ways we can save money at work. After all, we go there to make money. So thinking about how we can save money while we are there is an afterthought. If you can even adopt a few of these, you will be saving hundreds of dollars every year.

Bring Coffee From Home

It’s a pretty simple proposition. Make your own at home will cost you 50 cents max (unless you’re using a premium Keurig cup) and a coffee at the local shop will be a couple of bucks. $1.50 of savings every morning works out to $390 of savings if you work the full 5 days a week all year long. Personally, I love my Contigo Coffee mug.

Buy a Thermos and Bring Your Coffee

If you are like me and need a gallon of coffee to get through your day, then you can really amp up your savings by bringing a thermos from home to the office and drink your own blend rather than paying for it. If you have 3 coffees a day (including the morning one) you could save upwards of $1,000 a year.

Simplify Your Work Outfit

One of the big issues with work is the costume (as my kids call it) or work attire that you must wear every day. Instead of buying a different outfit for every day of the week, but the same outfit and that way you cut down on your choices and decisions in the morning. Hey if it was good enough for Steve Jobs it’s probably ok for you too!

Pack Your Own Lunch

More of the “bring it from home” theme. A bag lunch will always beat buying your lunch at work. Don’t like making your own lunch? Come up with a standard lunch that you can make quickly and effortlessly every night. Or better yet, use last night’s leftovers or pre-make your whole week on Sunday when you have more time. Average savings are $5 a day, and $1300 a year.

Here are some lunch kits that go beyond the old brown bag.

Take the bus

I get it. Public transportation isn’t as nice as your own car. But the savings can be immense. Plus you have the added benefit of getting some time to yourself to read or listen to whatever you want while someone else does the driving. Between wear and tear on your car, parking and gas, you could easily save $10 a day. Which translates into $2500 a year if you are working 50 weeks a year. Think of what you could do with that extra money.

Car Pool

If you really don’t like the bus, or that just doesn’t work for your situation. Try carpooling to work. My father did it for 30 years. Imagine the savings of driving to work only half the time!

Depending on your commuting costs and factoring wear and tear on your car and maintenance, your saving could easily top $1000.

Better yet, you could Uber people to and from work and start earning money before and after your workday. See how you get started with UberrEats.

Drive the Fastest and Shortest Route to Work

If you are like me, you want to minimize the time in the car, with apps like Waze and Google Maps, there are easy ways to find out the quickest way to get to and from work. Less time in the car and less time travelled means money saved.

For instance, I used to drive the same way my whole life, then I played around with the Google Maps app, and found a way to cut out 12 km round trip.

Working 5 days a week that’s 60km saved, or 3000 km less a year. Which is half an oil change. 6 tanks of gas. Plus use less of my car. It’s huge savings, for taking the quicker route. Money saved: Varied (for me it’s about $400 a year.)

Park in a Cheaper Area and Walk

Depending on where you work, parking can cost an arm and a leg (awful expression btw), but do a little looking around, and you can probably find a decent area to park in for less money. Sometimes the lot across the street is a buck or two less. If you manage to save $2 a day, that’s over $500 a year in savings.

Work From Home

Obviously this won’t work for everyone but if you have a work environment that lends to working form home you can approach your employer for an ad hoc work at home situation. Or maybe even a permanent one if it works for your job. Even if you cut out 1 day of work a week in the office you are cutting your annual work costs by 20%. That’s a huge savings.

Work Compressed Hours to Cut Down on Days at Work

If working from home isn’t an option, ask your employer if you can work extended hours and see if you can cut down your days in the office. Perhaps you can switch your 5 days of 8 hours to a 4 days of 10 hours.

Not all jobs will have this option, but if your job lends itself to this you can ask to try out this way of working. If you could do this one day a week, it would cut your workday costs by 20%

Family Money Plan Recap: 10 Ways to Save Money At Work

• Bring Coffee From Home
• Buy a Thermos and Bring Your Coffee
• Pack Your Own Lunch
• Take the bus
• Car Pool
• Drive the Fastest and Shortest Route to Work
• Park in a Cheaper Area and Walk
• Work From Home
• Work Compressed Hours to Cut Down on Days at Work
• Simplify your work outfit to one style

Family Money Plan Action Steps

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• 8 Mistakes to Avoid When Buying A Used Car
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• Tips to Save Money On Your Car Expenses