The real cost of working from home – Brits could have saved up to £19,372

The costs include (average per person):

• Average cost of commute per year £1,738
• Cost of a daily cup of coffee per year – £720¹
• Cost of daily lunch at work per year – £1,200²
• Annual cost of gym membership – £480
• Annual cost of cost of childcare – £9,594
• Mobile phone data per year – £60
• Average eating out annual costs – £1,040³
• Average going out annual costs – £840
• Average costs of spending on clothes – £1,200
• Average annual cost of holidays – £2,500

With some people now working at home for over a year, and some now doing so indefinitely, we wanted to look at how much could be saved. We worked it out to be a staggering £19,372, on average. Little things such as the daily commute, buying a cup of coffee every day and going out for drinks over the course of a year can mount up to a surprising amount.

Obviously not everyone will have been able to work from home, or take advantage of all these savings, but it just goes to show how costs can soon add up. For those looking to save money, even making a small change to a daily routine, such a making lunch at home, rather than buying it, can soon add up to a saving of £1200 over a year.

One other point to note, is these figures also don’t take into account where people may have needed to pay out more – for example, extra utility bills, extra food bills and even swapping work wear costs for lounge wear costs for the extra time at home.

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¹ £3 x 5 days x 48 weeks
² £5 x 5 days x 48 weeks
³ £10 per meal x twice a week x 52