If you live quite a few miles away from your place of work you have no option but to commute there and this can end up costing you quite a bit of money, particularly if you travel by car every single weekday. The more miles you clock up the more money you have to spend on fuel, while you cannot escape the other costs of running a car such as tax and insurance. In the end, you might be better off finding a job that’s closer to home but pays less, just because you spend so much on the journey to and from work.
That is always one option to avoid the expense of commuting to work – get a job somewhere closer. However, if you live in an isolated area where there are very few jobs available as it is it might be a struggle to find work, although this is the case in most places since the economy is still pretty weak. Thus, you may have to stick with the job you have even though you spend a small fortune on travel.
You could always decide to car share so that instead of driving to work alone you share the four other seats in your vehicle with fellow workers. They could either pay a contribution to fuel costs or you could all take it in turns to drive. You’re all heading in the same direction, anyway, so why not share the financial burden?
If you can’t get your colleagues to sign up to this idea or you don’t live close enough to anyone you work with you might want to think about getting a pushbike. Clearly, it depends how far you have to travel as to how feasible this is, since if you have to cover over a hundred miles you are unlikely to reach work on time. If you only have twenty miles to go, however, cycling could save you quite a bit of money.
When you have a long way to travel you could always think about using public transport, as it often works out cheaper to use a bus than to go by car. Plus, if you purchase a season ticket you could save yourself even more money. There is always the option to combine walking with the use of public transport so you walk some of the way there and use a bus for the rest of the journey.
Ultimately, if you’re looking to save yourself some money, reducing your commuting costs is a good place to start, as you often don’t realise just how much money you spend on something that comes to be considered as essential.