Is Your Job Costing You Money?

Photo by L. Schamess via RedKid

I had an epiphany the other day. It was small, so I took two:

1. Jobs cost money! (Told you it was small.) 

2. The perfect "nut" I'd have to make to quit my job should be reduced by the money I'd save staying home.

Let's see...

Transportation: Gas, occasional Metro using my SmarTrip card, a portion of car upkeep, and parking costs ($12 to $18 a day in DC's commercial garages, not counting the parking tickets you get when you try to scam the Man)

Fashion: Clothing intended to create the false impression that I have grown up; drycleaning and alteration of same (I'm short; there are always alterations of same); decent shoes that look great and stand the test of being on my feet all day (I am a teacher; I am on my feet all day). I can also say that if I did not leave the house for work I would never, ever need to buy hose, but that's just me.
What else?

Learning: Those of us who love our jobs or even just want to be competitive know that staying abreast costs money. Umreimbursed books, DVDs, subscriptions, memberships, networking...you name it. Teachers actually get a $250/year tax deduction in recognition of this.

Still, I find myself losing receipts and eating the costs of everything from a few dry-erase markers to a marvelous movie like A Small Act, which I bought on impulse for my students and have written about just a few days ago. And while I do put in for reimbursements, there are a lot of things I buy for my work that are also for my personal use.

I love what I do; the line is fuzzy.

Incidental Materials & Experiences: Just today I got fed up and decided to buy a package of dry erase markers to avoid another last-minute hassle at my second gig, a university where I am a lowly adjunct instructor. Sure, I keep the receipt and I  intend to itemize it...but do I? What about when we go on a field trip and one student doesn't have money for a bottle of water or the Metro? What about ... you can fill in the blank from your own daily experiences on the job. The devil is in the details.

Personal Appearance & Lifestyle: I know we all need haircuts and showers whether we want them or not. I am  not suggesting that working at home would cut down on soap purchases for you. It would for me, but that is between me and my showerhead.

What I am suggesting is that personal appearance and other lifestyle choices may be the single most hidden cost of working of all time. It's not just purchased and outsourced services like haircuts, mani-pedis if that is your thing, and so forth. I am suggesting that our work inhabits us in ways we may not even anticipate. Would you really have a gym membership if you had time to walk or bicycle every day? What about your water and heating bills if--horrors!--you showered three or four times a week instead of five? Dare I suggest that you wear some of the same clothes from day to day. What?! You're not already doing that? Get on the Clue Train, man! Or rather: Get off!

"Stresspenditures": I was having the $9 burger at Luna Grill, with the sweet potato fries that call my name every day at 11:00 a.m. (Urban Bohemian, CAN I GET AN AMEN?), and I thought to myself, "Man. This blows. If I worked at home I would never have to do this."

(No I didn't. I thought, Mmm, po-ta-toes ♥)

Anyway. April Dykman of Get Rich Slowly writes about the relationship between job stress and burning money to "treat yourself"--and how to stop--in "Five Free Ways to De-Stress." I'm trying a few remedies. For the past two years, for example, I have tracked my single-cup coffee purchases (most of them during the workday).

More recently, I started a campaign to match my shame every time the daily grind sends me to Heritage India for the buffet. That still leaves the ugly truth: I am spending money I might not have to.

Time: This one is so obvious. It's also so painful that I avoid contemplating it at times. Every day we spend money because we had no time and "had no choice." The problem is, cultivating that choice is a long-range project in a short-term world. Stephen R. Covey first articulated this around 1990 as the now-famous dilemma of the Important versus the Urgent. Although the world has changed a lot in 20+ years, and the verge between important and urgent is an ever-moving line--as the elusive and sorta spooky guys at Level Grinding point out--it still rings deeply true.

I have this fantasy that if I worked at home again, I'd could bake fresh bread in between Skype calls with my clients in Paris who will pay me in Euros.

Well, no. But I do know about working from home. I did it from 1995 until 2000, pretty happily. No Paris clients, but I saved a bundle on haircuts.

What is your job costing you?