Work From Home vs. Working in an Office: What’s the Cost?

Picture this: Instead of commuting for an hour in the morning, you sleep in. You have a leisurely breakfast and scroll through social media for a bit. Then, relaxed and ready, you finally crack open your laptop to check out your inbox.

It sounds ideal, but one question remains: What are you really spending?

Some of the typical costs involved in working from home include:

• Utilities (i.e. gas, water, electric)
• Internet service
• Office supplies
• Meals and snacks

Then, of course, there’s your rent or mortgage payment. And if you have young children, you might be shelling out for daycare or someone to watch them in your home while you work. 

Let’s do some math, using averages for some of the spending categories mentioned here. Here’s what you might spend to work from home, using average estimates from the Energy Information Administration, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Move.org:

• Utilities: $115/per month
• Internet service: $60/month
• Food at home: $412/month
• Housing: $1,784/month
• Childcare: $936/month

Based on these average costs, working from home could cost you right around $3,300 per month. 

Now, let’s think about your home office. If you already have a space where you can work, this might not cost a dime. But on average, it can cost $3,500 to furnish a basic home office, according to Fixr.com. 

On the flip side, there are some things you might not be spending money on at all. Some of the biggest cost-savers associated with working from home include:

• Meals or drinks out with coworkers
• New clothes for work
• Coffee
• Transportation expenses

Let’s look at commuting, for example. Say you drive 25 miles to work one day in a car that gets 26 miles per gallon. If you pay $3 a gallon for gas, work 22 days per month and pay .454 cents per mile for maintenance, insurance and taxes, then your monthly commuting costs add up to $626.32. That’s $7,515.84 per year, money you could save by working from home instead.