Is it cheaper to travel 25 minutes to the office or wfh

g_sarah80

I work about 25mins from the office so is it going to be more cost effective to go to the office to work 1-3 times a week or work from home.  

Bear in mind if I go to office I may need wraparound childcare which is £20per day per child = £40 pd

I have 1.2 SEAT Leon.

Thanks

Brie

So childcare is being paid whether you WFH or not so that's a constant.

But you "may" need wrap around care at £40 a day which is quite a cost.  3 days a week £120.  Add to that the cost of petrol.

I assume that if you WFH 100% you still need a car so can't reduce any costs there - you are equal on cost of the car, MOT, insurance (very slight deduction if listed as "social only" rather than "commute and social") 

Chances are if you go to the office you may also need to buy lunch or coffee.  (assuming you don't brown bag it all)

The only extra expense at home would be heating and electricity for your pc & phone.  Nothing extra needed for broadband as you would already have that.  

So you need to check the change of energy use for a day at home and a day at work - just the actual energy not the standing charge.

Quite frankly even with the crankiest of new tariffs this year in the cold mid winter I can't imagine that you might be spending in excess of £120 (or more likely £140 when the other costs are included) on energy when working from home.  So I would suggest that WFH is cheaper.   

But you'd need to get the numbers out and do the maths.

matelodave

Does not wfh imply that you should actually be working rather than baby sitting. Just a thought

[Deleted User]

Hi,

do you get extra to go to office, travel allowance?

Does that help to cover your child care?

Cynderella

matelodave said:

Does not wfh imply that you should actually be working rather than baby sitting. Just a thought

My daughter WFH and works through her lunch hour so she can do school pick up. Her daughter then has snack and does a sticker book or whatever until 4.30pm when she's allowed 'screen time'. Maybe OP has a similar system. Not saying it's ideal, but it's a definite advantage of WFH if you have a child or children who can be trusted to play with minimal supervision for an hour.

YellowStarling

In addition, isn't wraparound childcare referring to before and after school clubs?  Maybe the OP is not suggesting they will babysit rather than work if WFH but is instead referring to the 25 min commute and/or possibility that they could be caught late at work preventing them from simply being able to open the door to their returning child/children.

markin

The actual mileage is needed, and is is stop and go traffic or a steady speed. You must know how many litres of fuel you needed to top up weekly?

Then the the type of boiler and controls you have for heating? would that be on anyway if you had a babysitter?

lohr500

Stay at home. It's a no brainer, especially with childcare.

born_again

Personally WFH all the time. The fuel & food savings alone make it worthwhile. Home is heated all day anyway. Nevermind the not having to sit in car to & from work. Just get up, breakfast & start work. Finish work & enjoy the rest of the day. It's a no brainer for work homelife balance.


But in Op situation, what do they do on the other days? Do they work more than 1 to 3 days?

Mstty

Just out of curiosity what job do you do at home that doesn't require some basic arithmetic to work these things out?

On the face of it home is cheaper.