The hidden costs of working!

[Snog]

I lost my job due to ill health this year.
Fortunately DP is working, but we have taken a big hit on income. I have always worked full time so not working is very new to me. Life does seem to be significantly cheaper without the expenses related to working. I am past the stage of needing childcare, however
I no longer spend:
£60 a month on lunches at work
£10 a month on work cards and gifts
£100 a month on work clothes
£60 a year on work meals out
£100 on xmas gifts for my team

On top of this I no longer need to spend as much on other things as I have time to shop around and don't need to do stuff at peak times eg can shop at Aldi

What savings do you make by not having a job?

Travel (not exactly a hidden cost).

However, you might find that your heating bills and water bills go up as you are in more.

I have storage heaters which are crap but don't cost any more and unmetered water which is also crap but doesn't cost any more!
I cycled to work so no savings there really but prior to cycling I used to drive and then have to pay to park at work!

Other work-related costs I can think of, off the top of my head:

Requests from colleagues for sponsorship
Drinks after work
Afternoon treats to get you through the day (cake, chocolate etc.)
Dry cleaning
If you're going away for a weekend, having to buy expensive Friday evening train tickets

The freedom to shop around was a real money saver for me on Maternity Leave - three carrier bags of fruit and veg from a greengrocer for about 7 quid, for example.

Time to cook in bulk and freeze rather than a quick "shit we dont have abything in" dash to the supermarket.

£100 a month on work clothes!!!! What on earth were you doing?

are you on the right tariff for your storage heaters?

You also still need to eat when you're at home. There might be a saving if you used to buy sandwiches or go to a cafeteria but I always take food from home so there wouldn't be any saving there for me.

I need to review my supplier for electric, thanks for the reminder.
Clothes were for a professional managerial role in a formal dress environment.
Now I just wear jeans or pyjamas!

I pay 600pcm for wrap around care for dcs, dog care and cleaner.

These are the ones that I can actually count that I wouldn't pay for if I didn't work. Travel and clothes etc would also add in to that.

Why £100 a month on clothes? Were you not allowed to be seen in the same outfit twice?

Not a saving as such, but not working gives more time to do things like answer surveys for money.

Dress £80
Shoes £80
Cardigan/jacket £60
Jewellery £20
Tights £10
Coat £150
Bag £60
Total £460 for one outfit - I probably had 6 or 7 different dresses for winter and the same for summer so no not exactly a different outfit each day.
Very normal for my kind of job, I needed to dress seriously and fairly formally.

Lots of people had far more expensive jewellery and bags than me!

Chessie good thinking I can enter some competitions too

Milk, coffee... Surprising how often it seems to be my turn to bring in the milk!

Bloody leaving dos, birthdays etc. They really add up.

Still dont see how or why you had to spend £100 every month on new work clothes, once you've built up a formal work wardrobe it's not essential to spend on that every month

Yea I hear you we seem to be doing remarkably well whilst on maternity leave, travel is the biggie for us and a Costa breakfast every morning

Surely that's optional.
I don't spent £1200 a year on clothing and footwear for myself. I have two work wardrobes the smart and the everyday. I don't buy a new coat every month. I bought a classic coat 3 years ago for around £60 (sales) and still wear.

You choose to spend x on lunches. You could do what a lot do, take from home. Like cook extra dinner and have left overs for lunch.

You choose to spend X on cards and gifts.

Piss up and works do are optional.

Christmas gifts for team.. Spent a fiver on secret Santa.

The only cost of working is childcare and travel. The rest is what the person chooses
To spend.

Make up and hair savings.When I worked I'D spend lots of money on product to tame my frizzy curls, to look more professional. Now I just leave conditioner in, or wear a bun. Don't bother with makeup if staying home or meeting people I feel comfortable with so it lasts so much longer.

We saved a lot on food when I stopped being a 'professional'. I couldn't face cooking when I walked through the door after 7 so we had lots of convenience foods. As s SAHM I could go to Aldi for fresh stuff and cook from scratch. We saved between £60-£70 a week on that. Still manage to maintain that now I'm in a local minimum wage job and am home by 5.15!

Whoever listed "drinks with colleagues" as a work expense - I think that if I were at home all day I'd want to spend an evening out just as much if not more than if I'd spent all day in work (at least then having an evening at home would be a chance of scene).

£1200 a year doesn't sound like an unreasonable amount to spend on work clothes given the description of the workplace. Yes, she COULD have done it cheaper, but she's listing what she did spend, not the minimum necessary.

But again, you might find after a while that you want to wear nice things even when not at work, and so need to spend some money building up a "not-pyjamas non-work wardrobe".

I am not really sure about the savings..

Savings I noted in the past: about £100 petrol. More time to find reasonable priced food and clothes, therefore a saving in those areas too. Childcare being a big one too.

Having said that... I spend less money when I'm at work, as I don't suffer from cabin fever and have no time or energy left to spend the money that I earn.

I don't think the clothes thing is so unusual - my sister was told which brands to wear and to have lots of them!

Yes, work is expensive!

I think the clothes estimate is less than I was spending about 15 years ago, so definitely believable.
2 pairs of work shoes per year £200
2 suits per year £1,000
5 blouses per year £150

Add in tights at least £10 per month

I used to travel in early and have a 2nd breakfast at the office of coffee and danish so that was about £4 per day

Thought of another saving!
Alcohol, I was spending £150 and now spending zero as no need to use/abuse alcohol to unwind after work!
I think that for me the cost of going to work was around £400 a month and when I used to drive to work a couple of years ago it was an extra £100 a month for petrol and parking.

I have noticed I have saved money on

A cleaner
Childcare
Travel
Work clothes

Have more time to shop around for food & everything else.
Spend much less on convenience foods & takeaways.
Used to bring lunch with me often but still bought lunch 2 or 3 times a week.
Used the corner shop a lot more when I was working.

There are also costs to not working other than the loss of salary. I am out and about with the children and spending money on coffee shops, soft play, toddler groups, kids' classes, farms, swimming, entrance fees etc when I could just be sitting at my desk not spending anything.