Five Ways To Save Money At Work

Posted on June 4, 2009 by LJ Earnest
Categories: Lifehacks

Photo by pfala Everyone is looking to cut back on expenses these days. Here are five ways to save money at work (and no, they don’t involve stealing office supplies!)

Bring your lunch. Packing a sandwich or salad can save you big bucks during the week. If you eat out every day and spend $6.00 per lunch, you will be spending over $1500 per year! Pack a sandwich, leftovers or fruit to offset this. Bonus: bought lunches are usually filled with salt and fat, so bringing alternatives from home can give you a health benefit.
Skip the vending machine. Vending machines stocked with candies and chips can be a major financial drain. If you eat one candy bar per day, at $0.75 per bar, that works out to be almost $200 per year. Who needs to pay that much money for something that is nutritionally void? I never realized how much I put into vending machines until I started work for a place that didn’t have any. If you have to have snacks, stock granola bars in your desk or bags of individual healthy snacks.
Drink water. Soda and coffee are not the best substances for your body. Skip the coffee club and drink water, and avoid the soda machine. Bonus: most Americans are dehydrated. Water brings you back in line with your hydration needs.
Have stain stuff ready. Spills happen. Save yourself the extra dry-cleaning bill by having a stain-removal solution at hand. I have used both Shout moistened wipes and Tide To Go. Catching stains when they are fresh make them much easier to deal with, and can often mean you get an extra wearing out of the clothes before they have to be cleaned. Bonus: skip dry clean only clothes altogether. By wearing what you can wash, you will cut back on your laundry expenses and give the environment a boost, too.
Charge at work. If you are using company-owned electronic devices (like cell phones) or your own devices to get your work done, let the company pay for the charging. Get extra chargers and keep them in the office. Just make sure to unplug unused chargers, as most still draw electricity even when not charging.

These are five quick ways to save yourself money while working. Do you have any favorites?

Photo by pfala