We all know the saying “it takes money to make money”. It’s true. No matter what, there is a cost to making money.
Some of it is transportation; some of it is mileage. Some is the attire required to look professional, or even just the time, paper, and work required to get the job in the first place.
Say MPG – miles per gallon – for an average car is 25 MPG. The average commute to work in Canada is 30 minutes one way, according to a StatCan study. At an average speed, this would be about 25 km. This is about 15.5 miles, so we’re looking at .6 of a gallon per trip.
Since gas costs about $1.35/litre right now, we’re looking at about $5.10 per gallon. $5.10 per gallon * .6 of a gallon = $3.06 per trip. Since you have to get home, too, that’s $6.12 per day, just to get to work.
If you have a truck, SUV, or even just a lot of stuff in your car or poorly inflated tires, you’re looking at more money.
My commute is about 45 minutes each way. It costs me about $8/day to get to and from work, since my car burns about 25 MPG.
$8/day * 20 (work days – average) = $160 to get to work.
This is about right for my commute. Say you have a $6.12 commute – you’re looking at about $122.40 per month to get to work .
This is like taking $0.75 off of your pay each hour for an 8 hour day (in my case, $1 per hour).
I’m not complaining. I love my job, and at least I have work! So many people do not. But this is definitely something to consider (provided that my math is right, which is unlikely) when thinking about where you want to work, and negotiating a wage.
Granted, it is nice to have a car for purposes besides work, as well. I love the freedom that being able to drive grants me.
It costs money to make money!
How much does it cost you to get to work each day? Would you consider taking a pay cut to work closer to home? How do you reduce your transportation costs?
Nothing on days I walk – otherwise it’s $1.50 one way on the bus, or maybe a few cents in petrol on the rare day I drive. (Although those are usually days I have to travel to meetings/interviews as well, so probably more than a few cents.)
I did take a pay cut and now work closer to home, but those things weren’t correlated – I took it for better worklife balance and fulfilment; the shorter commute was just a bonus.
It costs me nothing on the days I walk, and 3 dollars each way when I take the bus. But I also made the decision to live close to work, which happens to be in the downtown core and rent is super expenive. A busspass costs over $100 where I live, so I always add that cost onto the renting costs of any apartments that are not withint walking distance to work. So even though it doesn’t costs me much, if anything in terms of actual transportation costs to work, it is a costly factor in my overall financial picture.
I honestly don’t know how much it costs me. I spend about 1 gas tank a week, which is about $55 right now, but that also covers the weekends, and we use my car only on the weekends.
I want to move closer to my job (I currently only have a 20 minute commute) but if we moved closer, I could essentially bike to work, or at least save a ton of money on gas, which would help since my husband will now be commuting an hour.