working from home is offcially awesome

After much moaning about how much my work was sucking my will to live, I quit last October and started on my own as a consultant.  I landed a lovely little contract that pays me well enough to live on (even though it's less than what I used to earn) and lets me work from home.  LETS ME WORK FROM HOME.

I love working from home.

I'll say it again in case you missed it.

I love working from home.

Some people have told me that they couldn't do it - they'd be too distracted or wouldn't be disciplined enough.  I have none of those worries.  Having worked in offices for many years, I can truly appreciate just how brilliant this is, and therefore I am not stuffing it up by losing focus or taking it for granted.  I do have some discipline - I must have logged on to the email by 8.30am, and need to be out of my pajamas by 10am.  I thought if I set myself easy goals, then I'd achieve them... and I've yet to break either of them, so good on me.

The benefits from working from home are two-fold - I save money (which I'll catalogue later) but best of all, I have at least three more hours in the day to work on my house, or do other things. 

For example, I can be at home whilst the builders / plumbers are here all day and I don't need to use up my annual leave to do so (I need to be here or the dogs go mental.  Not because they want to attack the people in the house, they just want to play).   Because I don't have to get ready in the morning, then walk 40 minutes to work, I get an extra hour or so in the morning to do things like have breakfast, wash the dishes and walk the girls - things I never had time to do before work previously.  It also means that on breaks I can weed the garden, bake bread or cakes or put something on to slow cook for dinner.  In December, I painted my doors and window frames during my breaks - it was perfect because it allowed for drying time.   I can visit the bank / dump shop / garden centre / supermarket / op shop at lunchtime, rather than when everyone else is there.  At 5pm (or whenever I finish for the day) - that's it, I'm finished.  I don't have to walk home or get the bus and be grumpy and shitty about that... I just switch off the laptop (or put on Ellen) and I'm done.  I'm not tired or grumpy and home at 6pm and hating everything.  At 5pm I can go back into the garden or do some decluttering or WHATEVER.

I was worried when I left regular income that I'd be pressed for money, but you know what?  I reckon the amount I save by working from home makes up for it (and I'm not even counting the tax deductible stuff like office space rent / power / phone either, just purely things that I no longer spend money on.  I was thinking about it today (as I drove out to Mitre 10 Mega in Petone at lunch to pick up a towel rail)... I no longer spend money on:

• Breakfasts at work.  I wasn't usually big on breakfast, but I reckon I averaged 2 coffee and muffin combos at $5 per week.  Each week = $10
• Lunches at work.  I probably bought lunch 3-4 times a week.  Seriously.  I'm a little embarrassed by that now.  Each lunch would probably average around $10.  Each week = $35
• Snacks at work.  I would probably noms a chocolate bar or strawberry milk or coke or coffee (or get something for someone else) maybe twice a week.  Each week = $5
• Drinks out after work.  I tried to avoid this, but sometimes it's impossible.  Who knows?  Let's say each week = $10
• Fast Food because I couldn't be arsed cooking in the evenings after work.  Each week = $10
• Two loads of laundry each weekend.  I just realised as I hung out my washing today, that it had been a week since I'd last done any, and it was only one load.  So, that's not two drier loads and one whole less wash.  Each week = $5
• Stockings.  I bought the thick ones from the supermarket, the cheapest brand, but still $12 each.  I don't need to buy them now, the ones I have will last for the meetings I go to for ages.  Perhaps this saves me each week = $2
• Showering!  Don't hate me but now I don't need to shower each morning.  Maybe this saves me 50cents each time?  Each week = $1.
• I used to have two phones - a personal one and a work one.  I needed to charge the work phone at home all the time.  Each week = 50cents.
• Buying random crap.  Because I was working and hated everything, I would literally buy random crap to make me feel better.  It never did.  I'd buy wii games, stuff I didn't need from one day sale websites, shoes I'd see on sale, whatever.  It's hard to put a price on this per week, but I'll be conservative and say maybe each week = $20

So, that's about $98 a week I no longer spend by not physically going into work. 

But, I know I have to factor in other "at home costs" too, so that I can get a more accurate picture.  So...being generous:

• I have plunger coffee each morning, which I never did when I as heading out to the office.  A bag costs $6, I reckon it lasts me about a month.  So, let's be generous and add in powdered milk ($10 for a kg) and energy costs.  Each week = $2
• Breakfasts and lunches at home.  It's weird, now I usually just have one meal sort of at 11ish.  It's leftovers or homemade bread or toast, or soup or pasta or something cheap or out the freezer.  Each week = $4
• Electricity - computer, TV, oven... who knows?  Let's say each week = $5

So, that's $98 - $11.  I reckon by working from home, I'm saving $87 per week. I'll be adding in that amount each week to my running total, that's for sure!  I wish I could put a dollar value on my mental sanity, the total would be a heck of  lot more.