Working from home expenses

[Deleted User]

It does depend on circumstances, but for me I am saving roughly £100pcm in petrol, with a bit more on wear and tear, tyres etc. On top of that about an hour and a half of commuting time a day. The costs of working from home are minimal, electricity and water usage are up a minimal amount. In the winter it would cost more if one needed heating, but I live in a new build and only put my heating on twice the whole of last winter. Broadband is unlimited and I would have it regardless, the same for mobile phone calls. 

I worked out that my additional costs for working home are around £3 pcm, the savings are around £110-120. I can not really see people having costs much higher than mine as I do not know anyone without unlimited broadband and mobile phone and energy to power a laptop would be a kwh a day at most at around 13p a kwh even if they worked every day of the month including weekends that would only cost around £4.

People complaining about huge costs of working from home are being delusional, the costs are marginal at most and for anyone with any kind of commuting costs they will be making a net saving.

macman

Novice_investor101 said:

I am working from home & not saving anything on commuting or food etc as I walked to work & took my own lunch. I also never went for after work drunks &we still do the birthday kitty electronically. 

I won’t be bothering claiming the £1.20 tax relief but my employer is looking at paying the £6pw. 

I am now running a laptop & two screens & charging a mobile phone everyday, whilst also cooking more at lunch time. I wear the same clothes at home or at work. I’m happy to just over those costs, but I am genuine concerned about heating costs in the winter. I can’t afford to run the central heating all day, 7 days a week. I will soon be going back to the office for 3 days a week, which will mitigate it, but a lot of people may be in the same position (I live alone, so heating is off from 7am to 5pm everyday). 

You don't have to. Just heat your working area for the 8 hours you would have been at work. One rad. Or use a cheap 2kW electric heater instead of the CH.

Jeremy535897

macman said:

Novice_investor101 said:

I am working from home & not saving anything on commuting or food etc as I walked to work & took my own lunch. I also never went for after work drunks &we still do the birthday kitty electronically. 

I won’t be bothering claiming the £1.20 tax relief but my employer is looking at paying the £6pw. 

I am now running a laptop & two screens & charging a mobile phone everyday, whilst also cooking more at lunch time. I wear the same clothes at home or at work. I’m happy to just over those costs, but I am genuine concerned about heating costs in the winter. I can’t afford to run the central heating all day, 7 days a week. I will soon be going back to the office for 3 days a week, which will mitigate it, but a lot of people may be in the same position (I live alone, so heating is off from 7am to 5pm everyday). 

You don't have to. Just heat your working area for the 8 hours you would have been at work. One rad. Or use a cheap 2kW electric heater instead of the CH.

I live in the North, and my solution is a jumper. In the days when the diesel froze in the lorries' tanks I remember the office I worked in getting down to -5C, and it was a bit difficult to hold a pen and write properly.

[Deleted User]

I have no heating in my home, (apart from the plug in little heaters) and my cat saw to proving my front room heater unit was not ever probably connected when she managed to bring it off the wall during lockdown no. 1.
I'm told I can work from home again in the Autumn. So there is always the need to prepare for second wave. 
 

KJK_2

For some of us we didn't spend very much on commuting as I only live a few miles from work and I took my own lunch in. However as I live in an old property with no insulation I estimate it will probably cost me an extra £20 per week to heat my home over Winter. I am on a very low income to start with and so this is a lot of additional expenditure for me to find. Yes I am appreciative that I have a job but at this rate I will have to borrow to pay my energy costs to get through the Winter which hardly seems fair when I work for a highly profitable company.

Thrugelmir

KJK_2 said:

For some of us we didn't spend very much on commuting as I only live a few miles from work and I took my own lunch in. However as I live in an old property with no insulation I estimate it will probably cost me an extra £20 per week to heat my home over Winter. I am on a very low income to start with and so this is a lot of additional expenditure for me to find. Yes I am appreciative that I have a job but at this rate I will have to borrow to pay my energy costs to get through the Winter which hardly seems fair when I work for a highly profitable company.

Then ask to work in the office to minimise your costs. 

Iamdebtfree

I've been working from home since mid -March. Saving about 60 quid a month in commuting costs.

 I thank my lucky stars and all things saintly for the luxury of  just going to my living room for work. I've wanted to work from home all my life and this literally is a dream come true to me.

I count my blessings every day and won't be claiming anythig heating related - my company pays for my super fast WiFi and even for my eye tests  and new glasses - that'll do me just fine, thank you!!

Those of us working from home on full pay are truly fortunate when half the country have lost their jobs and the other half would kill for the luxury of remote working!!

unholyangel

KJK_2 said:

For some of us we didn't spend very much on commuting as I only live a few miles from work and I took my own lunch in. However as I live in an old property with no insulation I estimate it will probably cost me an extra £20 per week to heat my home over Winter. I am on a very low income to start with and so this is a lot of additional expenditure for me to find. Yes I am appreciative that I have a job but at this rate I will have to borrow to pay my energy costs to get through the Winter which hardly seems fair when I work for a highly profitable company.

An extra £20 a week to heat one room for 40 hours? Where the heck are you living, buckingham palace? 

Is it maybe time to upgrade the heating system? My bills dropped dramatically when I upgraded mine. Although apparently my boilers top end, or so the gas engineers who service it keep telling me. But it made a huge difference to my bills. More than halved them, and my old boiler wasn't even bad to start with! 

mattyprice4004

KJK_2 said:

For some of us we didn't spend very much on commuting as I only live a few miles from work and I took my own lunch in. However as I live in an old property with no insulation I estimate it will probably cost me an extra £20 per week to heat my home over Winter. I am on a very low income to start with and so this is a lot of additional expenditure for me to find. Yes I am appreciative that I have a job but at this rate I will have to borrow to pay my energy costs to get through the Winter which hardly seems fair when I work for a highly profitable company.

If you shut the door in whichever room you're working and run a 1Kw fan heater for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week it'll only cost you around £6 extra per week; most of that will be saved by not commuting even if only a few hours. 

kev1960

I  would not normally  get involved with chats like this as everybody has different opinions i.e saving on commuting covers the extra cost or is it worth claiming it etc. and no one will ever win.
 In my opinion it is not a question of cost versus  savings,  it is the fact that the entitlement is there, so it is your right to claim.
There are plenty of unscrupulous  employers out there who have abused the furlough system and in the long run it will be  legitimate tax payers who will be expected to refill the government coffers.
If you don't want the money then don't claim but don't vilify those that do,
or alternatively you can always claim it and give it to charity.

I do have one query though, does working from home  affect your home insurance policy as one of the questions normally asked- is your home used for business purposes? which normally would be no if you don't normally WFH but it may be construed by the insurance company that this is not the case if you are WFH.