How You Can Save Money When Remote Working: What You Need To Know

Coming towards the end of 2021, many businesses and workers in a variety of industries are turning to remote working as their main source of labour.

This is because business owners can save costs on workspaces, and workers can save costs on daily events in their life, as outlined below.

Save On Commuting And Transport

To begin with, one of the primary ways you’ll save money when it comes to remote working and working from home is that you will no longer need to pay for transport. Whether it’s filling up your car each week with petrol, paying a few quid for the bus or even purchasing a train ticket.

This money can be thousands of pounds a year in some cases. This is one of the key reasons many people are turning to remote working as a viable option compared to traditional working in an office space.

No Need To Pay Premium For Lunches

Some of the ways people spend the most money come with them purchasing their lunch every day when at work, or near work. They’ll do this as they don’t have time to make the lunches in the morning, or simply can’t be bothered to. Whilst some instead decide to make their lunches the night before, it’s still time that you don’t need to be using up, in the eyes of some.

When you work from home, you can make your lunch whenever you have time during the workday, using your kitchen and food. This saves you more money than you realise, as one sandwich can cost up to £8 in some places, and for £8 with home food, that could keep your lunches covered for well over a week, especially if you’re batch cooking.

Phone Data Costs

It’s more than likely that you currently have a phone plan in place for you to get on the internet when out and about, and speak to the people you care about. You may also be using your phone plan to work, or using your phone when bored at work.

As you can imagine, when you’re working from home, you’ll be able to cut down on this plan, as you’ll spend less time out and about on your data. That’s because you’ll instead be connected to your Wi-Fi, which allows you to use the internet and message people online without incurring any costs, or impacting on any data caps that you may currently have.

This means you can take a magnifying glass to your phone bill, and find a new plan that costs less, and gets you better value that doesn’t waste your cap. There will be a few different SIM-only deals that you can look at from providers such as Lebara, you can look here to compare different deals, and find one that works for you. 

This may end up saving you hundreds of pounds each year, or even over £1000 depending on the deal you currently have. You’ll find it won’t directly change the way you work and could make you less anxious about making business calls due to the fact you know you won’t need to worry about money as much.

Potential Tax Breaks

You may find that you can save some money when paying taxes too. Whilst your taxes will be automated in most cases through your employer, you can ask HMRC to change your tax code if you meet certain requirements. Recently, that has meant that those who work from home can change their tax code to reflect their working conditions. 

The purpose of this tax break is so that you can afford the increase in costs such as your electricity, as it's likely you’ll be using more when you’re home during the day. There will also be other tax breaks through either your business or through government schemes for working from home.

Gym Memberships

As you’ll be spending more time at home, you may no longer need the gym subscription that you pay premium prices for. That’s because you’ll be able to engage with working out from home, through stretches and yoga, to purchasing your equipment to do certain routines.

A lot of people usually hit up the gym on their way to or from work, which just adds to their commuting time. As you will no longer be commuting, you can save this time and get a little bit more sleep, before doing your daily exercise for work, or even after work. 

If you still wish to work with a personal trainer or engage with physical classes, then you can do this online through platforms such as Zoom. There will be free ones that anyone can come into, and there will be ones that cost a set price. In either case, likely, you won’t be paying anything as high as a gym membership, and you won’t need to pay travel costs associated with this.

Coffee And Drinks

You will also save money by not purchasing as much coffee when out and about during your workday. Depending on what sort of coffee you purchase, you may be spending way over £10-£20 on just coffee a week, and that’s if we assume you only have one.

In some cases, people spend hundreds of pounds on coffee each year, when they could save so much more money simply by having a cup of coffee at home before leaving for work. Of course, if you are working from home then that makes it even easier, as you can choose when to have your coffee during the day, and have more than you perhaps would have been able to beforehand.

It won’t just be coffee that can set you back, but drinks in general. Whether you always buy a bottle of water or a soft drink upon arrival at work, it is also something that can cost you much more than you think.

Haircuts And Makeup 

A lot of people put pressure on themselves based on appearances, especially when it comes to going to work. Because of this, they will not only spend money on new clothes and fast fashion from time to time, but they will spend money on cosmetics and hair treatments so that they can look their best and keep up with society's expectations.

With remote working, that pressure has been slightly removed. Whilst that’s not to say you have to sit in your pyjamas and not look after yourself, you don’t have to go all out either, and put a lot of effort into pleasing others. These days, people just want you to be comfortable, with no pressure on what you want to do, it comes down to personal preference.

Time Is Money

You may be familiar with the popular phrase, time is money. That phrase has become all the truer for those who work. Instead of spending hours of their day getting to and from work, they no longer need any time at all.

This free time can now be spent in whatever way they want. From working earlier for more cash, or using the time for self-care, and looking after yourself. It’s up to you how you use this time, it may be worth using it to look after your mental health in whatever way you can.