What are your work related expenses per week/month?

gettingready

I hate the coffee they sell here so refuse to pay £3.00 per cup that is yukkkkkk.

I sometimes get iced costa coffee from Sainsbury's in the mornings so it is 2 for £2.00 or similar frm M&S and that is £1.80 for one.

I do nto eat meat so findin a decent veggie s/w or luch is a cha;enge but I do not mind paying if I enjoy it.

I do not live to work, I work to live....


Bit curious about this one:

£5 per day wear and tear on the suit and shoes

??? How?

bugslet

Transport costs me nothing:D, work clothes, probably about £5-600.00 a year. Mostly I wear work supplied polos, with my own jeans and trainers, but I need a couple of suits and smart tops and/or dresses. Food, is packed lunches, I only drink water out of preference and use tap water.

I think it's only clothes and even then I do use them for other things than work,s o even that figure is a bit hazy.

gettingready

I am away from home from 7:30 am till 6:30 pm, commute 1.5 hour each way so 3 hours per day in total.

Do not eat much at home so I guess overall it is still reasonable for what I eat.

Hmmmm

scooby088

I pay £10 per week travel, foodwise is whatever I have in the cupboards at home but I say about £5 pweek thats about it.

Pennywise

I'd find it hard to say I spend anything at all. I either walk or cycle to work as it's only a mile away (my choice to work locally for lower pay than I could earn in the nearest city to avoid travel time and costs). I can't remember the time I last bought any shoes or clothes solely for work - I tend to buy clothes that can be used for many purposes, for work, casual and social - only last weekend I was doing the gardening in a suit I used to wear for work that I originally bought for a wedding! As for food and drink, it costs me nothing more than I'd spend if I was at home, i.e. I take in a jar of Nescafe or Kenco to make my own, otherwise I use tap water. For food, I just buy something to make up a packed lunch along with my household shopping, i.e. a bit of extra fruit, extra yoghurt, salad/bread/filling to make a sandwich, etc.- I'd be doing that anyway on days when I'm at home!

I think it's a throw back from my first job which was woefully poorly paid (less than £1 per hour) just down the road from where I lived at that time. I couldn't afford drinks, food or clothes, so got in the habit of living on the cheap.

I went through a phase of working my way up the career ladder, working miles away, which led to not having time to make my lunch nor have breakfast before leaving home, so I ended up buying sandwiches and junk food on the road. The fuel costs, W&T on the car, and food/drinks were simply not worth the higher pay, not to mention my own health and sanity.

BillJones

gettingready wrote: »

Bit curious about this one:

??? How?

Clothes wear out, and need to be replaced. Even at a conservative to £500 per suit, you probably get well less than 200 wears before each one needs replacing. £350 per pair shoes, times four, each pair needing a £100 refurbishment once per year, and replacement after a few years.

Shirts, £100 each, washed each wear, and you'll be lucky to get 50 uses from one, and so on.

It all adds up.

Edited to add, yes, I know that I could wear a £50 suit from Asda, but I'm not going to want to start doing that.

reehsetin

Weekly
Travel £80 ish for the train
Food sometimes slightly more, sometimes food from home, normally around £18 a week but it's fairly healthy m&s food normally
Clothes/hair maybe £10 a week
so over £100 a week - eek!

Sinhanada

BillJones wrote: »

Clothes wear out, and need to be replaced. Even at a conservative to £500 per suit, you probably get well less than 200 wears before each one needs replacing. £350 per pair shoes, times four, each pair needing a £100 refurbishment once per year, and replacement after a few years.

Shirts, £100 each, washed each wear, and you'll be lucky to get 50 uses from one, and so on.

It all adds up.

Edited to add, yes, I know that I could wear a £50 suit from Asda, but I'm not going to want to start doing that.

Wow now that is an expensive suit! I usually buy mine from Burtons on a store card and pay if back over two to three months. The interest on that is pennies and no suit ever costs me more than £110. I've had most of my suits for more than two years and they last fine - the pockets go a bit shiny from sitting on my wallet but that's it.

My shirts, I prefer double cuff and struggle to find these, but generally no more than £25 from Debenhams.

[Deleted User]

I'm surprised Bill doesn't go to get a bespoke suit made up abroad... my dad had a tailor that would take orders (given measurements taken in a shop) then make them up in Thailand, and post them over.

I tend to just for M&S since the clients I see aren't especially bothered if I'm wearing Savile row. I've got a 'good' £250 suit that I rarely wear, and about 3 £100-£150 'work' suits.

I just got a bargain in the John Lewis sale .. a nice pair of brown shoes for £32.50 http://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-harrison-leather-derby-shoes-nut/p481185. I normally spend about £75 on a pair of shoes (Quite like Jones the bootmakers)

Working at home does mean that nice clothes last a lot longer but oddly, my socks do wear out quickly

BillJones

Sinhanada wrote: »

Wow now that is an expensive suit! I usually buy mine from Burtons on a store card and pay if back over two to three months. The interest on that is pennies and no suit ever costs me more than £110. I've had most of my suits for more than two years and they last fine - the pockets go a bit shiny from sitting on my wallet but that's it.

My shirts, I prefer double cuff and struggle to find these, but generally no more than £25 from Debenhams.

Yes, you can get reasonable enough suits for less, but I like the ones that I wear, and I tend to get them adjusted to fit, too, as off the peg rarely sits quite right.

What is appropriate depends on the environment in which you want to wear it, of course. It makes no sense to blow a month's salary on a fitted suit if everyone else at work wears a short-sleeved shirt and chinos, but similarly, I would not be comfortable wearing something that looked conspicuously cheap when the people around me are all very well dressed.

I've tried lower-priced ones, but really haven't liked them.