Turns out working costs me a lot...
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Anonymous
Why wouldn’t they just cut your pay by that amount if you exercised the work from home option arguing that park of your compensation was already an offset for those expenses. Same as with employers that pay HCOL salaries to remote employees residing in LCOL areas considering adjusting down. Lots that has to be thought through when this calms down and I wouldn’t just expect it could only break your way. |
Anonymous
Good luck with that. Even CA, which has stricter rules regarding what expenses are reimbursable, doesn’t go nearly that far. And it would be pretty perverse public policy to subsidize more expensive commutes, since that generally means car not transport. |
Anonymous
Better use of your time would be think about how those meaningful and formerly well paid but now off shored jobs can be brought back to the U.S. |
Anonymous
This. My actual take-home pay after taxes and working expenses is nothing compared to what I thought it was. |
Anonymous
| We have saved so much money that I’m planning to quit my job if my employer forces me back to the office too soon. |
Anonymous
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Not all that much. My commuting costs were covered by work (metro card) and I don’t spend much on dry cleaning. Didn’t have a dog walker or house cleaner or anything. We paid for the full month of aftercare in March, but now that’s done-which is my big savings. But I split that with my ex, so it’s only saving me about $300 a month. I would buy lunch and a fancy coffee at work maybe once a week (~60/month), and we usually got weekend lunch out or takeout once a week (~200/month). Grocery bills have gone up so the actual savings is probably about $100.
In March my random spending was almost zero, which was awesome for my budget. In April I had to buy a new iPad (the screen on the old one shattered) and I donated to a bunch of charities so I’ve averaged out to about normal. |
Anonymous
| My husband always worked from home and was reimbursed when he drove anywhere, so he's not saving any money on a commute. Mine was only 20 minutes and my car is pretty fuel-efficient but there's still some gas plus wear and tear on the car that we're not seeing, I guess. We're still paying our nanny and maids even though they're not working, so to me it seems like we're losing money since I still see tons of money going out the door while we're getting nothing in return (other than helping people out that we care about, obviously). |
Anonymous
Yes, but what I am realizing is that a lot of the stuff I spent money on was completely unnecessary and bad for my life style, so I won't be going to back to it. |
Anonymous
| We don't have much savings either. We had short commutes. Still have the nanny. Coffee and lunch out sure. But now we spend more on takeout and bigger tips to help some local restaurants we love and as a break from cooking 3 meals a day. |
Anonymous
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My biggest savings is the $295 per month that I pay to park downtown. Also saving on gas. I stopped buying breakfast/lunch long ago, so that wasn't a factor.
More broadly, I haven't been impulse buying clothes/shoes that I "need" for particular events. That's resulted in a ton of savings. |
Anonymous
| I realized that cutting my own hair isn't as difficult as I thought. I have curly hair so as long as I maintain the basic shape that I had, it's fine. That's already saving me a ton (and I also wonder why I've been paying so much for so long!). |
Anonymous
I'm really wondering how things will be once we return to normal, as this has broken me of many habits I used to do in the past. |
Anonymous
| We still paid for full daycare in March and April which is $3500 PER MONTH. With a large expense like that, I don't worry about the occasional Starbucks coffee or take out. Next month, our daycare will charge $500 per kid, and that's a saving of $2500! I feel like I won a small lottery. |
Anonymous
You know, I've "broken" many habits for a while due to lifestyle change (ex: pregnancy) and found that they creep back in unless circumstances or something about me stays changed. Maybe it will be different for others. |
Anonymous
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Back when I worked in an office, I noticed my metro costs were $1200 a year.
When I started to WFH and not pay for transit, it was like getting a raise! |