Working from home, even two or three days a week, can save a surprising amount on travel, lunches and work clothes. It also adds some costs, mainly heating and electricity. This guide shows how to work out your own figures, with a worked example, and how to make sure the money you save actually ends up in savings.
What commuting really costs
The biggest saving is usually travel. A rail season ticket into a big city can cost thousands of pounds a year, and driving adds fuel, parking and wear on the car. HMRC's approved mileage rate of 45p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles is a rough guide to the full cost of running a car per mile, not just fuel.
On top of travel come the smaller daily costs: a bought lunch, coffee on the way in, snacks, office clothes and dry cleaning, and after-work drinks. None is large on its own, but over around 220 working days a year they add up. Time matters too: an hour a day of commuting is more than 200 hours a year.
Calculating your personal WFH savings
Work through each category using your own costs:
- Transport: daily fares or fuel, parking and tolls, multiplied by the days you no longer travel. If you drive, include a share of servicing and wear.
- Food and drink: the difference between a bought lunch and coffee and what you spend at home.
- Clothing: office wear, shoes and dry cleaning you no longer need as often.
- Extra costs at home: heating, electricity and any equipment. Subtract these.
A worked example
This is an illustration, not an average. Someone working from home full time who would otherwise spend £10 a day on travel, £5 more on lunch and £3 on coffee saves £18 a day, or £3,960 over 220 days. Add £300 a year on clothes and take off £300 for extra heating and electricity, and the net saving is about £3,960 a year. Working from home three days a week out of five would save about 60% of that, around £2,376.
Use our budget planner to plug in your own numbers, and our packed lunch savings guide to see what lunches alone add up to.
Tax relief and employer payments
Employee tax relief for working from home was abolished from 6 April 2026. If you were required to work from home in earlier years and did not claim, you can still claim for up to four previous tax years (2022/23 to 2025/26) on gov.uk: the old flat rate was £6 a week. Your employer can still pay you up to £6 a week tax-free towards extra household costs, so it is worth asking. If you are self-employed, you can claim business use of home, including simplified flat rates of £10, £18 or £26 a month depending on hours worked at home.
Making the savings count
Savings you do not move tend to disappear into everyday spending. A few habits help:
- Move the money on payday. If you work out you save £250 a month, set a standing order for £250 into a savings account.
- Keep energy costs down. Heat the room you work in rather than the whole house, and check your tariff; our energy saving tips have more ideas.
- Buy equipment gradually. Start with what you have and buy second-hand desks, chairs and monitors.
- Watch for snack and delivery creep. Meal planning and batch cooking keep food costs down.
- Use the commute time well. Cooking, exercise or a side income can all add value; see our side hustle ideas.
The long-term impact
Working from home can make it possible to live further from expensive city centres, keep working through caring responsibilities, and put more towards long-term goals such as a mortgage overpayment, pension or investments. The key is to treat the saving as real money from the start. If you like a daily habit, SYM tells you how much to put aside each day and one tap logs it, which suits a "virtual commute fund" well.
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