The cost benefit analysis of wfh
Discussion
With the increases in living now in full swing has anyone tallied this up?
My energy costs are now over 100% more than this time last month and I'm trying to see if there is any benefit to continue working from home
Of course diesel costs have also increased and with the cost of wear and tear factored in will I be better off just going to the office.
There is the benefits of convenience too and with school runs etc meaning the time in the office will only be from around 09:30 to 14:30 the impact to the working day and stresses of traffic etc.
How do my fellow work from home folks get on?
My energy costs are now over 100% more than this time last month and I'm trying to see if there is any benefit to continue working from home
Of course diesel costs have also increased and with the cost of wear and tear factored in will I be better off just going to the office.
There is the benefits of convenience too and with school runs etc meaning the time in the office will only be from around 09:30 to 14:30 the impact to the working day and stresses of traffic etc.
How do my fellow work from home folks get on?
I do not work from home to save money, I work from home to avoid all the incumbent crap that goes along with working in an environment like that (plus quite a few colleagues I would rather not see
I appreciate this does not necessarily answer your question OP but I do not look at WFH from a money saving perspective, more a mental health saving perspective.
Overall I would think you should still break even (and waste less time on pointless commutes).
I appreciate this does not necessarily answer your question OP but I do not look at WFH from a money saving perspective, more a mental health saving perspective.
Overall I would think you should still break even (and waste less time on pointless commutes).
Zlat502 said:
I do not work from home to save money, I work from home to avoid all the incumbent crap that goes along with working in an environment like that (plus quite a few colleagues I would rather not see
I appreciate this does not necessarily answer your question OP but I do not look at WFH from a money saving perspective, more a mental health saving perspective.
Overall I would think you should still break even (and waste less time on pointless commutes).
Yeah, and to be clear the reasons I work from home aren’t massively different but having to focus on savings directly is starting to make me think that dealing with some of nonsense is a better price to pay. I appreciate this does not necessarily answer your question OP but I do not look at WFH from a money saving perspective, more a mental health saving perspective.
Overall I would think you should still break even (and waste less time on pointless commutes).
My office is in London, I live in Windsor. I’m back in the London office once a week now, and I’m still saving over £200 a month against the old cost of my season ticket and parking when I had to be in 4-5 times a week.
How the costs of WFH vs. being in the office stack up will very much depend on how you commute to work…
That said, are the incremental costs of working from home that great, compared with just running a home anyway? The smart meter seems to think electricity costs me 2-3p an hour even running the monitors and laptops. I leave the heating on anyway at a set temperature, so wouldn’t incur much extra cost there…
I suppose if you let the house go cold during the day and go in to the office, things may swing the other way next winter!
How the costs of WFH vs. being in the office stack up will very much depend on how you commute to work…
That said, are the incremental costs of working from home that great, compared with just running a home anyway? The smart meter seems to think electricity costs me 2-3p an hour even running the monitors and laptops. I leave the heating on anyway at a set temperature, so wouldn’t incur much extra cost there…
I suppose if you let the house go cold during the day and go in to the office, things may swing the other way next winter!
Well I was spending c£400pcm on petrol pre covid - this would be a good step on from that too + I’d have burnt through another set of tyres
You have other aspects too
See your kids.
Pre covid honestly after putting them to bed Sunday evening I’d not see them again until Sat morning (where I’d want a lie in too).
I’d be up and left the house before they were up and with office working and commute back they would be asleep by the time I got home.
Covid has meant I’ve seen so much of the children and been able to help with drop off/pick up on occasion.
You have other aspects too
See your kids.
Pre covid honestly after putting them to bed Sunday evening I’d not see them again until Sat morning (where I’d want a lie in too).
I’d be up and left the house before they were up and with office working and commute back they would be asleep by the time I got home.
Covid has meant I’ve seen so much of the children and been able to help with drop off/pick up on occasion.
I WFH before Covid & do now so no difference. What did change is the amount of Business travel. I used to be away 2-3 days a week every week. That stopped instantly when C19 hit & is only starting back now. The miles on the car plummeted from 12K per annum to around 8K the 8 being mainly seeing my Mother who is 125 miles away and the outlaws in London.
I'm fortunate in that I work 20 minutes' walk from home. However, I did do some number crunching and concluded that if I commuted to my nearest city, where most of the jobs are, I'd need an extra £9k per year to feel that I'd broken even by the time the cost of commuting and the extra 40 minutes each way had been accounted for.
I guess in you are concerned about leccie etc - what did you spend on fuel etc travelling to work? To give an example, I would pay £100 a month or so on car parking in the station, fuel to and from the station, £30-40, train ticket of a few hundred a month..... THEN add in the most important thing, time. I don't have to leave at 6.30am nor get back home at 7.30pm..... That alone is worth any increase in leccie and gas.
Reduced milage = less fuel, less service and repairs, tyres etc. and a saving on insurance too.
Not working in the office also means less money spent on breakfast, coffee, lunch and drinks after work.
Had a long commute so saving for me is around £25 a day including the cost of the extra energy use and food cooked at home.
Not working in the office also means less money spent on breakfast, coffee, lunch and drinks after work.
Had a long commute so saving for me is around £25 a day including the cost of the extra energy use and food cooked at home.
Davie_GLA said:
With the increases in living now in full swing has anyone tallied this up?
My energy costs are now over 100% more than this time last month and I'm trying to see if there is any benefit to continue working from home
Of course diesel costs have also increased and with the cost of wear and tear factored in will I be better off just going to the office.
There is the benefits of convenience too and with school runs etc meaning the time in the office will only be from around 09:30 to 14:30 the impact to the working day and stresses of traffic etc.
How do my fellow work from home folks get on?
Not the biggest fan of WFH compared with those who are militant and die-hard about it. It's continues to cause a great deal of needless disruption and inconvenience and is often still being abused as a reason to restrict contact and communications.My energy costs are now over 100% more than this time last month and I'm trying to see if there is any benefit to continue working from home
Of course diesel costs have also increased and with the cost of wear and tear factored in will I be better off just going to the office.
There is the benefits of convenience too and with school runs etc meaning the time in the office will only be from around 09:30 to 14:30 the impact to the working day and stresses of traffic etc.
How do my fellow work from home folks get on?
Can you vary your working week to have a mix?
It helps to see others (not necessarily those whom you work with and potentially despise) and get a change of scenery and environment.
If you're going to be spending that much on your bills then why not spend some of it on working from the office if you can?
I am genuinely of the belief that long term, places switching and people sticking to a permanent WFH set-up is not a good thing. It does not help with people skills, not least where there are newer generations who will be joining the workplace and will not be familiar with or have any clue as to the old 'normal' / set-up that we have known.
They'll also be reliant upon having experienced colleagues to hand as opposed to cocooned in their 'leave me alone I'm WFH, drop me an e-mail or leave me a voicemail' bubbles.
There's a benefit there in being a colleague whom others know is physically available.
More so, having an online relationship with your new colleagues is leagues apart from actually knowing and interacting with them in person on a regular basis.
I can imagine that people having conversations with others whom they've only met for the first time at a Christmas do will be rife with awkwardness and would just generally feel unnatural: "oh look that's Jamie sat there on his own who started with us back in January. Shall we go and talk with him and introduce ourselves?"
"Hi, you must be Gemma. I'm Graham, we work in the same team. Nice to finally meet you but not virtually ahahaha."
Eleccy went from £150 to £280 (per month...2019 baseline vs 2020 outurn - both sent to WFH mid Feb 2020 and again against 2021 data, based on kWh, not cost) due to use of electric heaters in rooms usually unheated in the day turned into "offices".
Gas up a bit due to cooking and extra set of meals at lunch.
Mileage down, but due to school / nursery runs going half way to work when cars cold / lower efficiency, monthly dino juice fuel bill (non business) went from £230 pre CV to lowest £140 in the first lockdown then nudged back up to £200 by end 2020, £240 by end 2021 and despite WFH for three months 2022 now averages £270!
Saving £10 a day parking at work is the only highlight in this....but the car park was free pre Covid, the management agency of the office sold the office to the local council whom have a mandatory policy of charging for car park spaces. Twuntingspaffingesticles.
Gas up a bit due to cooking and extra set of meals at lunch.
Mileage down, but due to school / nursery runs going half way to work when cars cold / lower efficiency, monthly dino juice fuel bill (non business) went from £230 pre CV to lowest £140 in the first lockdown then nudged back up to £200 by end 2020, £240 by end 2021 and despite WFH for three months 2022 now averages £270!
Saving £10 a day parking at work is the only highlight in this....but the car park was free pre Covid, the management agency of the office sold the office to the local council whom have a mandatory policy of charging for car park spaces. Twuntingspaffingesticles.
Allegro_Snapon said:
Eleccy went from £150 to £280 (per month...2019 baseline vs 2020 outurn - both sent to WFH mid Feb 2020 and again against 2021 data, based on kWh, not cost) due to use of electric heaters in rooms usually unheated in the day turned into "offices".
Unless your house is very large it may well have been cheaper just to leave the central heating on all day.If it can be arranged, upstairs rooms stay pretty warm during the day.
The ability to see my child growing up since birth has been priceless. All I ever remember is my dad (mechanic) coming home from work knackered and wanting to sit in the bath in silence all evening, when all I wanted to do is play with him before I went to bed. Different times.
On a slightly less emotional part - I went from 40k a year driving to about 3k a year. Maintaining a mid life car for that mileage was taxing on myself and my wallet. Changing knocking roll bar links at 9pm needing to get up at 6am to drive 150 miles is not my idea of fun.
On a slightly less emotional part - I went from 40k a year driving to about 3k a year. Maintaining a mid life car for that mileage was taxing on myself and my wallet. Changing knocking roll bar links at 9pm needing to get up at 6am to drive 150 miles is not my idea of fun.
Sheepshanks said:
Allegro_Snapon said:
Eleccy went from £150 to £280 (per month...2019 baseline vs 2020 outurn - both sent to WFH mid Feb 2020 and again against 2021 data, based on kWh, not cost) due to use of electric heaters in rooms usually unheated in the day turned into "offices".
Unless your house is very large it may well have been cheaper just to leave the central heating on all day.If it can be arranged, upstairs rooms stay pretty warm during the day.
Just realised though some of the Elec cost increase my wife was no longer an EdF employee by late 2019 so we dropped off a really good employee preference tariff conflating the issue!
So much better WFH for me.
I've used the commute time to condense my hours from 5 days into 4, OK, i'm working longer hours Tue- Fri but that would have been time spent in the car driving the 90-120 mins per day round trip.
Work life balance is great with my weekend being Sat-Mon, and I can still go into the office 1 day a week if I want to see colleagues.
The saving on fuel is offsetting any Gas/Electric increases currently, so I'm not complaining!
I've used the commute time to condense my hours from 5 days into 4, OK, i'm working longer hours Tue- Fri but that would have been time spent in the car driving the 90-120 mins per day round trip.
Work life balance is great with my weekend being Sat-Mon, and I can still go into the office 1 day a week if I want to see colleagues.
The saving on fuel is offsetting any Gas/Electric increases currently, so I'm not complaining!
devnull said:
The ability to see my child growing up since birth has been priceless. All I ever remember is my dad (mechanic) coming home from work knackered and wanting to sit in the bath in silence all evening, when all I wanted to do is play with him before I went to bed. Different times.
On a slightly less emotional part - I went from 40k a year driving to about 3k a year. Maintaining a mid life car for that mileage was taxing on myself and my wallet. Changing knocking roll bar links at 9pm needing to get up at 6am to drive 150 miles is not my idea of fun.
Similar here, WFH has bought quality of life to us. Our son is 7, my wife is a teaching assistant in a local school, but not his school. She has to be up and out well before him, so I get to do wake up/breakfast/pre-school fun with him, before cycling him to school (uphill!) on a tag along bike which is great exercise for me. I then get to avoid a really stressful commute 1hr each way. I go to my office a couple of times a month if I really have to. It's a huge lifestyle improvement.On a slightly less emotional part - I went from 40k a year driving to about 3k a year. Maintaining a mid life car for that mileage was taxing on myself and my wallet. Changing knocking roll bar links at 9pm needing to get up at 6am to drive 150 miles is not my idea of fun.
I haven't really considered the financial cost/benefit of WFH. How much does it cost to run a laptop and a 24inch monitor for 8hrs a day and make 4 cups of tea? I don't have the central heating on, have bought a small oil filled radiator to put under my desk, only goes on for a couple of hours max, even on the coldest of days. I stick a jumper on if it gets cold rather than heat the whole house.
All of this extra domestic energy cost is surely offset by the savings on me not having to commute in an M3 on a 50 mile round trip commute in traffic where I was seeing 19mpg at best, plus all the incidental running costs that I save.
Besides, hasn't a lot of the hike in energy prices been on the standing charges? You've got to pay those regardless of whether you are WFH or not.
I must admit that I've not paid a huge amount of attention to the KW/h price increased, other than knowing that they are massive and that I can't personally do a lot about them right now. I'm on the best deal I can get, I keep telling my wife and son to stop wasting electricity, my WFH is a (relative) drop in the ocean in our bills.
Edited by PurpleTurtle on Tuesday 5th April 10:54
I have been wfh for about ten years now.
From a purely cost perspective it definitely saves me a lot of money. My company 'office' is in Cheshire and we live mainly on Anglesey. A daily commute is obviously out of the question - cost and time. Previously I commuted weekly and stayed locally during the week.
For me, there is a definite cost saving from the fuel/servicing. Mileage dropped from over 500/week to probably 50-100/week (purely for pleasure). When I do go to the office I get my mileage paid. Office equipment/furniture and fibre connection all paid for. There is likely a minimal cost from working at home - electricity mainly from equipment/lighting in winter. Heating is little different as it is off during the day. If you get cold, you light a fire.
I also have a time saving. Commute was an hour at either end of the day even when 'local'. Monday mornings/Friday evenings was a 2-2.5hr drive. Presently it is about 30s to my office. More time for me/us.
Most importantly is the improvement in wellbeing - mental and physical health is far improved. WFH we live in the countryside, have dogs, nice car (because it doesn't have to bought for the daily drudge), big house - lots of space, access to the coast yada yada. Being in a fit state to do things in the evening rather than too knackered to bother. I simply could not live here properly without working from home. I still get paid a salary comparable to Manchester/Cheshire and work in a professional environment - albeit remotely.
From a purely cost perspective it definitely saves me a lot of money. My company 'office' is in Cheshire and we live mainly on Anglesey. A daily commute is obviously out of the question - cost and time. Previously I commuted weekly and stayed locally during the week.
For me, there is a definite cost saving from the fuel/servicing. Mileage dropped from over 500/week to probably 50-100/week (purely for pleasure). When I do go to the office I get my mileage paid. Office equipment/furniture and fibre connection all paid for. There is likely a minimal cost from working at home - electricity mainly from equipment/lighting in winter. Heating is little different as it is off during the day. If you get cold, you light a fire.
I also have a time saving. Commute was an hour at either end of the day even when 'local'. Monday mornings/Friday evenings was a 2-2.5hr drive. Presently it is about 30s to my office. More time for me/us.
Most importantly is the improvement in wellbeing - mental and physical health is far improved. WFH we live in the countryside, have dogs, nice car (because it doesn't have to bought for the daily drudge), big house - lots of space, access to the coast yada yada. Being in a fit state to do things in the evening rather than too knackered to bother. I simply could not live here properly without working from home. I still get paid a salary comparable to Manchester/Cheshire and work in a professional environment - albeit remotely.
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