Cost of Working

[disneychrista]

I don't have to wear anything special for work. I wear the same thing on weekends that I do to work.

Food/Lunch - I go home for lunch every day (I live less than 2 miles from work).

Gas - Maybe $30 a month, including personal errands.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Besides daycare I have perhaps monthly car insurance increase of $15 a month, parking $50 and perhaps gas. But then if I stayed home I would probably be driving around just as much so don't really count that.

As for clothes we are pretty casual at work. I wear black dress pants and a nice shirt. Usually I wear the shirt in the evening too. So maybe if I didn't work I woudn't buy so many dress pants but would buy more jeans and sweats.

I take a sandwich or leftovers for lunch. No extra cost at all. Chances are I would spend more money eating out if I wasn't working as I would have more free time.

Either husband or I are home before 5 so easy to prepare something simple for supper so I would never think we spend more on supper due to me working.

Over and above my earnings is the money paid to my work pension plan and my CPP (Canada Pension Plan). Not working and contributing to those would be a huge financial hit for us even if we can manage on one income.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

DW & I are 10 & 12 miles from work (in opposite directions) respectively. DW spends a small fortune on clothes for work. My work wardrobe consists of all the clothes I have that are no longer fit to be worn in public. We have no daycare costs.

 

[MickeySP]

My biggest work expense is Union dues about 450 a month.

I get a car, they pay gas, uniform paid for. I do lunch out about 3 days a week so maybe $20.

When I was younger daycare was huge lol. My mom watched my DS but I paid her, she didn't want it so I opened her own account & put it in. When she quit when DS was 15 she had a great rainy day fund.

 

[IDoDis]

With both DH and I being teachers, I'd estimate we typically spend $1500-$1800 combined total per year on our classrooms. I just spent $100 last weekend on some classroom necessities, supplies for my students, and $40 on a new teaching book that just came out on Amazon. When you walk into a classroom and see all of the "stuff" in there, know that the teacher paid for it. There are several new educational iPad apps that I also want to buy soon. Don't even ask me about spending on the Teachers Pay a Teachers website! I'm trying not to look or else it will cost me.

Now that DH is getting his administrator's license, the expenses will go down. However, this semester he is interning as a principal at a school that is 40 miles round trip from home, so the money spent on gas for his truck (plus wear and tear) will go up substantially because he normally works at a school that is 2 blocks away from the house and he could walk to work.

 

[CdnCarrie]

And I agree with some PP on the loss to not working. If I had quit to be a SAHM it would have been hard to get back to the same level of position I had. So not only would I have lost out on contributing to couple pension plans I would have taken a pay cut when I decided to go back to work. It may have taken years to get back to where I was.

I think someone mentioned an emotional cost. For me it was easier to go back as we had a one year mat leave. If we only had 6 weeks it would have been a bazillion times harder.

 

[disneychrista]

My biggest work expense is Union dues about 450 a month.

Your dues are really high. Where I work for the most one pays is something like $50 month. Does these dues cover things like medical insurance, cover the cost of your car/gas?

 

[MickeySP]

Well it covers all. it covers LTD, if I become deceased, also college if I am unable to continue my profession.

 

[disneychrista]

Well it covers all. it covers LTD, if I become deceased, also college if I am unable to continue my profession.

That makes more sense.

 

[tvguy]

Gas for my commute, about $15 a week. My auto insurance costs more because I drive to work. Maybe $100 a year there. About half the miles I put on my car are getting to and from work, and in a typical year I spend $500 on upkeep, so half of that would be $250.
So rough estimate, I work 1 week per year to pay for all the costs associated with working.

 

[FINFAN]

as has been stated, the "office gifts/outings" are culprits here. You have to participate, just bad juju if you don't~and gas are biggies . If you work in the city, you used to be able to negotiate your train ticket or parking into the salary somehow, not so much now. Where I'm at that is about 160 a month and then bus or cab, El, Uber, bus, whatever you may need to get from train to office. If I was gone so much as to needing to hire out stuff? Like the maids my neighbors have or a handyman for everything? I may still be coming out ahead but not by much lol. It's all in where you cut corners working or not.I think for 2 income households where the 2nd income is not above 18 grand a year, it can go one way or another when after expenses you may not have much left over. It is really hard to get up and go every day and NOT add some conveniences to deal with being in the rat race. To those who have little to no expenses, awesome, you are one of the lucky ones!Basically , don't live like the CEO if you are the mail clerk. Not financially wise to accept a low paying job that will cost a ton to accept/be at daily.

 

[Juliet25]

A cleaning service seems pretty common amongst WOHM I know. Just saw my neighbor's service by this morning. I don't know what that costs -- $60-80 a week? Obviously it's not a set cost of working, but the working moms I know who don't have that service are in a minority.

 

[sharona]

When I commuted to Boston the cost was $10/day for parking and train plus the office was more formal so more money spent on clothes and dry cleaning. Now I work very close to my home at a very casual office and I have free parking so my current cost to work = $0. I save money by working since I would be out using my car and shopping or spending money on movies/parking at the beach/hobbies/yoga if I were home every day.

I do choose to pay for a cleaning service that I would cancel if I were home and had the time to do it myself. That's $160/month. I guess that would sort of qualify as a cost of working.

 

[aprilchem]

No gas here - I live 1 mile from work and can easily walk. I wear the same clothing weekday and weekend, so no special wardrobe costs - nearly all of my clothing is thrifted anyway, for environmental reasons. And I either eat a packed lunch at my desk or eat at the College's dining hall, which is probably cheaper than packing myself at $1.85/meal. So the only work-related expense I can think of is 2 day a week after school care for my 3 kids (the other days I get them off the bus). That costs me $170 a week.

In terms of the benefits of me working, in addition to my salary my employer pays over $1000 a month in healthcare costs for my family. They match 9% for every 5% I put into my retirement funds. We get free gym membership and free use of the college's pool and exercise classes, plus free admittance to all sorts of sporting events and cultural events. And I get free college tuition for all 3 kids at my institution or a number of others.

 

[cluvsdisney]

My only work only expense is my train ticket which is $220 per month. If I didn't work, I would probably drive more so maybe add an extra $50 for gas so the net cost would be $170.

 

[DebbieB]

I pay $135 a month for parking in Downtown Pittsburgh (pre-tax). It's only 6 or 7 miles each way, so less than a gallon of gas per day.

My healthcare coverage is around $135 a month so considering what it would cost me for my own policy, I am ahead there. That is what is going to stop me from an early retirement. A coworker retired and the cheapest policy she could find was over $500 a month.

 

[powellrj]

Its fun to read about others experiences. Almost all the moms I know are working outside of the house moms and I don't know anyone who has a cleaning service or maid! All the women I know with household help are stay at home moms with big houses!

15 years ago when I first started at my last job, we had wonderful perks and benefits that made working worth it. Once I retired it cost me almost as much to work as it did to not work. All the perks and benefits were gone and they were asking more and more out of us. My husband still works in the same field as I did just a different company and I am seeing his company taking more and more things away just like my company did.

20 years ago someone would almost have to die to get a job at DHs company, they hired that rarely, but now they have a hard time finding people and the ones they do find assume its like the old days and quit when they find out it isn't.

Working while the kids were growing up was really hard. It seems like all I said was hurry, hurry, hurry and we were always in a rush to get things done and to get places. Now they are older and we talk about the old days and they don't remember like I do so I am glad about that.

If I hadn't worked, we would never been able to afford all the things they were in and did and those things were really important to them.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

I just went back to my school job today. I'm a special ed. teaching assistant in the K-8 district where we live. My school is less than 2 miles from home, so I use very little gas to get there. I don't have special work clothes. I wear khakis or jeans and the same type of shirts I wear when I'm not working. I pack my lunch everyday, since the only alternative is cafeteria food. I eat pretty much the same thing whether I'm home or at work. In fact, I think I save money by going to work since I'm not out and about during the day. I always go through spending money faster during summer break. I might meet my sister for lunch, go shopping with my mom, take the kids to the movies, etc. Besides bills, most of our spending will happen only on the weekends now. My kids are 16 and 20, so no daycare required. The younger one just got his license and started driving to school this week. I need to keep working to pay for his insurance!

 

[Missy1961]

I was thinking about this thread and I was trying to figure it out.

I was downsized about a year ago. I worked in midtown Manhattan, so I commuted via LIRR only. I live with my widowed dad, so he'd drive me to the train station. But the train ticket cost $276 a month.

I worked in a casual office - we could wear jeans - so I didn't have dry cleaning charges. But now I can do laundry less often, since I can wear whatever I want.

I'd have a cup of coffee every morning - not Starbucks, or even Dunkin Donuts, but even 75 cents a day adds up.

I tried to bring my lunch to work as much as I could, but I really don't like all microwaved food and I'm not a fan of cold meat. So I'd often run out and get lunch for somewhere. Now, I eat leftovers because I can warm them up in an oven. I can't think of the last time I had any of my usuals - Panara, Wendy's, pizza - because I can cook anything I want.

Also, because I'm home, we eat out a lot less. I have time to make almost anything for dinner.

So all in all, it's actually costing me less to not work. However, I am trying to find a job. I hate being unemployed, but damn, it's hard to find a job when you are over 50, and the industry you spent 30 years in is almost dead.

 

[Squishypig]

I'm lucky in that I am splitting the difference between being a SAHM and a working mom. I work for my company part time from home. I figured it out and I am am bringing home about the same as I was when I commuting and working twice the hours. I commuted about 50 miles round trip so I was filling up my car 1-2 times a week, I was on the road a lot for meetings (got mileage for that) so I ate out a lot, work clothes, cleaning person, daycare, dry cleaning, etc. I swear I was getting my oil changed every other month and putting tires on my car all.the.time. We bought my current car brand new about a year and a half ago and I just had my third oil change earlier this week! I would also spend more money because there were days I needed to get out of the office so that usually meant a trip to Target. I also had a lot of mom guilt that I tended to make up with "things" because I just didn't have the time in a typical day with my daughter.

Now I eat at home, fill up my car with gas maybe every 2-3 weeks, clean my own house, iron clothes, able to coupon more, do free activities during the day (because face it, there are tons of free stuff to do with kids during the day, not so much after work), wear more casual clothes, don't have daycare expenses, able to get on my DH's insurance without penalty for less than what I was paying (and it is better so less out of pocket medical costs), etc. I still get 401k match and eligible for the annual bonus.

The biggest "savings" though is just my time. I no longer spend almost two hours commuting a day in addition to working a full day. I wake up and can be logged in and working within 10 minutes. I can work around my schedule so if that means before my kid gets up or when she is in bed, that means it is super easy to make my hours and get my work done AND still have time to essentially be a SAHM. It isn't unusual for me to be "done" with work before my daughter wakes up for the day. It's nice that everything like errands and shopping is done during the day so nights and weekends are family time doing whatever.