You work hard each day, yet your finances don’t look as healthy as they should. Sound familiar? Reports estimate that the average working Brit loses more than £3000 per year due to work-related costs, whether that be transport fares, spending out for work outfits, or buying lunches. Here are five easy ways to ensure you’re taking home what you deserve:
1. Start your day with coffee at home
There’s really nothing quite like grabbing a salted caramel macchiato from Starbucks on your way to work, but have you ever considered just how much money these daily trips are costing you? The average price of a Starbucks coffee is £2.10, which equates to £10.50 over the course of the working week, or £42 per month.
Add the occasional croissant or cookie onto that, and you’re looking at well over £50 every four weeks. That’s more than enough to pay your monthly landline and internet bills, or your mobile phone contract.
Switch to whipping up an instant coffee before you leave the house – it costs on average just 0.09 pence per day, and that’s for the fancy stuff!
2. Packed Lunch still make sense!
Taking a packed lunch to work still makes sense, especially from a financial standpoint. You don’t even need to set the alarm early – simply make up some sandwiches the night before and keep them in the fridge, or box up some leftovers from dinner to reheat in the office microwave.
More than 62 percent of the population buy a sandwich on a daily basis, at an average cost of £1.66 a go.That’s £8.30 per week, or £33.20 per month, which can rise to over £40 when you add in crisps or a chocolate bar.
You can buy an 18 slice loaf of bread for £1.50 from a local supermarket, and 12 slices of ham for £3.00. At two slices of bread and two slices of meat per day, that’s just 0.41 pence per day.
3. Consider an Outfit Rotation
Unless you’re meeting with clients and need to seriously dress to impress, try to keep a solid rotation of ‘work’ clothes, rather than buying new outfits on a regular basis.
Trousers and jeans can be worn multiple times before needing a wash unless they’re noticeably dirty, and you can completely change your look each day by adding a different shirt or top to create a new combination.
4. Work from Home
No one likes the time it takes to commute to and from the office, but the biggest annoyance has to be the cost. It’s estimated that the average Brit spends almost £5000 per year driving to work and back, and getting the train isn’t much better, with annual costs averaging around £2550.
Assuming 252 working days per year, that’s almost £20 per day when you factor in petrol and car maintenance, or almost £10 for train fares. Requesting to work from home for just one day per week could see you saving as much as £1000 over the course of a year.
5. Remember the Expense Report
Many companies offer to reimburse the costs of certain business-related aspects, such as travelling to meetings or buying lunch for a client, but many forget to claim their expenses.
In fact, it’s reported that 68 percent of employees who exaggerate on their claims forms do so because they forgot to claim for expenses in the past. Don’t pay for things you shouldn’t have to pay for!
Don’t become one of the thousands of people across the country that spends a sixth of their hard earned wages on work-related purchases. Making a few small changes really can make huge differences.
Saving money is easy once you get into a routine and there are many sites which offer advice and tips to help with cutting down your costs. For example This site has a wealth of information on how to save money