Here's a quick math problem for you: Take a guess at how much money you spend every morning just getting to work. Morning coffee and newspaper? How about gas? Do you pay for parking? Take the train? Now multiply it times two hundred and fifty -- five days in a work week, fifty work weeks in a year -- to see how much your morning commute is costing you every year. (If it's easier, try multiplying times 1000 and dividing by 4). Personally I'm pushing around $14/day. That's $3500/year.
The sad fact is, you're never going to get this down to zero unless you start a business out of your home and get rid of the morning commute altogether. So the best we can hope to do is know where we can improve the bottom line a little bit. I'll try not to resort to the old cliches like "bring your coffee from home" and "read somebody else's newspaper when they're done with it" since I'm assuming you've seen those all a million times.
- Find out what benefits are available from your company. On that first day on the job everybody gets the same set of paperwork about health and life insurance, 401k, and long term disability. But did you pay attention after that? Because chances are that the HR person kept talking. Many companies offer various forms of commuter benefits, including subsidized train passes and parking reimbursement. Do a little research and find out all the details. You might blow this off too soon. "Reimbursement" brings to mind the stress of saving months' worth of receipts, just to get back your two dollars a day. Have you checked to see if the plan requires receipts? Some don't.
- Choose the option that's right for your situation. As an example, take the local lot where I park and pay $2/day. Recently they began a montly pass program where you could pay ahead for $40/month to save the trouble of having to bring two dollars with you every morning and stick it into that little machine that records your space and gives you your receipt. Neat idea, right? The problem is that on average there are about 20 workdays in a given month, so you're not saving any money. On the contrary if this is a month with holidays, or you're sick or on vacation or otherwise not going in to the office, then you're going to lose money. (Meanwhile, I've discovered that the lot also offers a debit card program where I can put as much money as I want onto the card and just use that every morning. That doesn't save me money either, but at least I've got the convenience of not having to dig around for two dollars every morning).
- Don't pay for benefits you don't use. Where I commute, if you subscribe to the train pass you also get "free" rides on the subway. Naturally they're not free, they're built into the cost of the yearly subscription. I don't mind this, since it gives me the flexibility in bad weather (or off schedule days) to jump on the subway instead of walking across town. However, a coworker who is on the same train as me opts for what's called the "12 ride" ticket where he basically buys 12 rides up front and gets a paper ticket that is punched whenever he uses it. You see, he's in production support and several times a month he's likely to be called into the office on off hours, in which case he drives rather than takes the train. So he's only paying for what he knows he'll use. As a bonus he told me his little summer time secret -- the train gets so crowded (standing room only) that often the conductors won't even bother checking tickets. One of those 12ride tickets will last him over a month.
- Walk more. It's hard to find an example here where walking saves you money. For most situations where you're driving or taking the train, the distance would be too great to walk. But what about the subway? I could take the subway across town in 20 minutes, or I could walk it in 25. In all but the worst weather I walk across town and get my exercise.
- Alter your schedule. Could you work four 10hr days a week instead of five 8hr days? Have you asked? Do you have the sort of job where you could work from home periodically? If you can cut one day/week out of your commute, you've just saved yourself 20% right there.
- Drive less. Cars are inherently expensive to drive - gas, maintenance, mileage. If you've got a spouse who has his/her own car, maybe you can get a lift? Even if that is a lift to the train station. We've already discussed altering your work schedule to save a day by working from home. Carpooling is an option that's not as popular now as it was a few decades ago due to the prevalence of flexible work schedules. It's very hard to find someone who has the same schedule as you and the same geography that's willing to share the ride on a regular basis. But it's not impossible! It never hurts to ask. The advantage to car pooling is that the other guy saves money too, so you're not exactly being a leech about it.
- Find the best route. I love when people ask me if I drive or take the train to work, because I do both and I get to explain my logic. My nearest train station is still about 15 minutes across town, and then it's almost an hour ride in to the city. However, if I drive 25 minutes down the highway I catch a train that's only a 25 minute ride, so I end up getting to work (and home) sooner than if I took the closer one. The train ticket is much cheaper, too. Of course, the downside is more mileage on my car. The point is that you've got to be open to the various combinations of getting yourself to work and pick the one that works for you. If I drove closer into the city, say more like 45 minutes, then I could skip the train altogether and take a quick subway ride over to my office. However that's more mileage on the car, plus traffic starts to factor in and I'm sure I'd spend days stuck in it. I choose not to go that route, but some folks like it better because it's one less leg of the journey.
It all comes down to what's going to work for you. You might like sitting in traffic because it's more time to relax and listen to the radio. Or you might not want to walk any great distance because your good shoes would get ruined. Pick what works for you. And if you really want to save some money, stop buying that five dollar cup of coffee every morning!
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