One positive point of business travel that was overlooked…I used to do quite a bit of business travel and always collected points through the airlines, hotels, car rental agencies, etc. for every trip. Got some wonderful perks – like enough airline miles for my family of four to fly to Europe free twice!!! Plus free hotel rooms while we were there. My kids were older when I traveled so I didn’t feel like I was making as large of a sacrifice and we all loved our trips to Europe (plus some other free trips as well).

Whatever though, these are valid tips on cutting down work related stuff for others who have jobs that cost them in small ways.

Anyway, congrats on the weight loss — that is going to save a lot of money on health care in your future, and you are already enjoying a higher quality of lif.e

To decompress I change clothes the moment I get home. My wife gets me a dry martini and… sorry, I was channeling my Dad. Once I change we go for a walk before dinner. It helps us both unwind and we get the exercise points on Weight Watchers. I lost 40 pounds last year and want to keep it off. Before I used to just pull on running shorts and watch TV.

I also have a mix and match wardrobe. Most of my shirts are white Polo buttondowns (bought either at Costco or at the factory outlet store for under $30). I also have pastel yellow and blue shirts as well. Both of which match my blue or khaki dockers. My office is business casual. I might wear a suit twice a year. I do have my shirts drycleaned (and my wife’s blouses) because it is more cost effective (79 cents a shirt, $1.25 a blouse).

I brown bag nine days out of ten. In addition to my sandwich (or leftovers from the previous night) I add fruit (apples, grapes, bananas) and vegetables (cut up carrots, radishes, bell peppers). Part of it is the Weight Watchers thing, but the other part comes from me being a heart patient. I want to keep my cholesterol down. The one day out of ten I eat out is usually a departmental lunch (once a month) or a friend’s birthday. Not too horrible.

My wife does the same work clothes things although her wardrobe is a lot more colorful. She does mix and match when she can. Her office is a bit more formal than mine.

And as I said, if he’s written a post that said, “I’m actually cutting my expenses by a whole lot more than I thought I would, and here’s why,” that would have been one thing. But to say, as he basically does here, “Wow, I had NO IDEA that I’d spend less money on gas by not driving to work every day,” kind of insults the reader’s intelligence.

The commute – I ride a bus for free. Walking to and from it gives me more exercise than I get on weekend days, and I get most of my reading done on the bus.

Decompressing and escapism – I do this reading on the bus. I do work-related stress eating during the day which costs me money and calories, and this is where all my savings would be. Maybe $20/month.

Clothes – I wear slightly different clothes for work than I would otherwise, but they cost the same amount at the thrift stores where I shop. Pants, slacks, jeans, or shorts–they’re all $3. I don’t wear make-up, either. I just don’t have the kind of job where you have to spend a lot of money on your appearance to be taken seriously. In fact, my whole city is fabulously casual (you can wear short to the Four Seasons, for example.)

Meals – I eat breakfast at home and bring my lunch and snacks. I don’t have the kind of job with work-related lunches except that there are some professional associations, paid for by my employer, that offer free lunch or breakfast every month. I actually save a little money here by working.

Social events – all my work-related social events are during work hours and most involve free lunch.

Health – I definitely have more stress than I would not working and less time to exercise. However, I also have free health insurance that’s quite good and forced walking to and from the bus stop and between offices at work. Yes, sometimes I get paid to walk (walking to meetings across campus). Love that.

Travel – on the rare occasions when I travel, it’s all paid for. If we’re going someplace cool, I’ll take adjacent vacation days off, switch to a cheaper hotel, and get a cheaper-than-usual vacation out of the deal. Again, this one saves me money.

Missed moments – I don’t have any kids, and most of my friends work the same hours I do. However, there are a lot of activities going on during the day that I wish I could be doing instead. (Fortunately, most of them are free and won’t hurt my budget when I retire.)

I’m afraid that keeping me busy forty hours a week doing things that don’t cost me money, and staying in the free air conditioning all day instead of cooling off my house saves me a fair amount of money.

1) Stopping at a book store is hardly work related spending.

2) How many times are you going to re-hash the same post? I realize you’re churning out a lot of stuff, but enough with the save money @ work stuff.

My husband can NOT decompress while driving. He is trying to optimize his trip home, decide on the fastest moving of the possible routes, determine whether to move to the left lane here and risk not being able to exit if there’s a backup around the curve, etc. He’s not a reckless driver by any means, but he is not a passive driver either.

He gets home faster, but I got home decompressed and ready to go and he gets home needing down time – so in the end I made more efficient use of my time.