5.04.2009

Get that TV out of your pajamas!


With an 80-plus-mile commute to and from work every day, I'm pretty lucky to have a boss and company that allows me to work from home one day each week.

OK, let's think about this. My car gets 22 miles to the gallon. If you divide 80 miles by 22, you get that I use roughly 4 gallons of gas each day. With gas at around $2 per gallon, I save $8 a day, or $32 a month, or $384 each year. Just think, back when gas was $4 per gallon, I would have saved twice that—$768 in a year!

When you take those savings and factor in wear & tear on your vehicle, dry cleaning costs for dress clothes, and any number of other factors, that's a big difference. So, not only are you saving money, you're impacting the environment in a postive way by not burning fuel or contributing to air pollution.

With the economy in its current slump, this is actually a good time to ask your boss for the opportunity to work from home. During a time when many companies are experiencing salary freezes, employers may be willing to
negotiate a work-from-home day each week, especially if you're a responsible worker bee.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're very lucky to have a boss that allows you to work from home. I have never understood why so many companies are scared to allow this. It makes sense any way you look at it. And if the boss is worried his/her employee won't be working, perhaps s/he needs to find another employee.
Also, about the dry cleaning, you may want to look into alternative ways to wash those work clothes. Dry cleaning chemicals are some of the worst around.

Mandy said...

Thanks, Stephanie! I can count on one hand the number of times I've been to the dry cleaners since Alex and I have been married (ususally it's because of a stubborn stain). But that's a great point. Thanks for the advice!

Jessie said...

I've worked from home for 8+ years. I used to have to go in once a week, but now, I only have to go in for the monthly meetings. The savings is huge! Wardrobe ( I work in my jammies), the money for food at work, the gas to get there, (47 miles one way) and the wear and tear on the car. We save over 400 a month, by me working from home and that doesn't include the clothing savings.
Plus, w/so many of us working from home, the space we occupied is now being used for something else in the hospital. It's a win win situation for both the organization and the employee.

Anonymous said...

and P.S. I really liked the cartoon! Forgot to write that before.
And I didn't think you were a "Dry-cleaner" person, thank goodness! :-)