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Ways to Cut the Cost of Commuting
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Commuting is one of the biggest costs people working outside the home have to worry about. The Internal Revenue Service calculates the deductible cost of driving your car as 58 cents per mile. If you commute 20 miles round trip, five days a week, 50 weeks a year, that’s $2,900 a year disappearing into your car.
Finding ways to trim that cost, even a little, can be an enormous savings. Even a 10% reduction in that cost adds up to $290 a year.
Thankfully, there are many easy ways to cut into that commuting cost if you drive to work each day. Here are eight things you can do to significantly trim commuting costs without taking radical steps:
- Telecommute.
- Carpool.
- Take mass transit.
- Ride a bicycle or electric scooter.
- Rethink your route.
- Buy gas from a warehouse club.
- Stick with your car maintenance schedule.
- Think ahead and streamline your tasks.
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Read on for more about each strategy to reduce the cost of commuting.
Telecommute
Talk to your boss about the possibility of working from home one or two days per week, particularly on days when there are no meetings or in-office events you have to attend. If you can cut just one day a week out of your commute, you’ve cut your commuting costs by up to 20%.
Carpool
Find out whether there is a co-worker who lives near you, or a neighbor who works by your office. Discuss the possibility of carpooling, even on an infrequent basis. If you’re able to hitch a ride with someone else one day a week, you’re still cutting your commuting costs by up to 20%.
Take Mass Transit
Most large cities have robust public transit systems that can easily take you from a spot near your home to a spot near your workplace, with your legs finishing the task. If you live in a distant part of the city from your job, you might be able to drive to a train station and take a commuter train. In either case, you’re saving significantly on fuel and maintenance costs and potentially eliminating the cost of parking near your workplace.
Ride a Bicycle or Electric Scooter
Many cities offer bicycle or electric scooter rental services that can help you traverse several miles across downtown quickly. To use one, stop by a rental kiosk, pick up a bike or scooter and ride it to your destination, then repeat it on the way back. Most one-time electric scooter and bicycle rentals cost just a dollar or two and are easily activated by a smartphone app. If you find yourself doing this daily, look into getting your own bike or electric scooter, particularly if you have a secure place to store it at work.
Rethink Your Route
Many people choose a route to their workplace and never revisit it. Often, that route is not the most efficient one. It’s worth your time to reassess the path you take to and from work. Can you avoid toll roads? Is it the shortest trip to your workplace? Does it frequently see a lot of traffic when you’re commuting, slowing you to a crawl while your engine idles and burns fuel? Use Google Maps and identify different routes. Try to stick with the one that keeps things shortest in terms of time and money.
Buy Gas From a Warehouse Club
While it can be useful to use an app like GasBuddy to identify the least expensive fuel options along your commute, if you want a consistently low-cost option for fueling up, check out your local warehouse club like Costco or Sam’s Club. They consistently beat local prices by 5 to 10 cents per gallon, so if you’re commuting and always fuel up at your local warehouse club, you’ll easily make back the cost of the club membership and more just from buying cheaper gas.
Stick With Your Car Maintenance Schedule
One of the most surefire reasons car breakdowns happen frequently is because owners skip required maintenance. This ultimately interrupts your commuting and adds a lot of extra cost. Look in your car’s manual for the car maintenance schedule and stick to it, getting the maintenance done by a trusted mechanic or doing some of it yourself. It’s a sequence of small costs and minor inconveniences that will keep huge expenses and major inconveniences at bay.
Think Ahead and Streamline Your Tasks
Plan ahead for your commute, so you don’t have to run home and immediately leave again on another errand. If you like going to the gym after work, for example, start taking your gym clothes with you. If you go to the grocery store after work, make a list the night before and take that list with you. If you can save yourself an extra outing in the car, particularly when that location is already close to your commute, then you’re saving fuel costs and wear and tear on your vehicle.
Taking a few simple steps like these can drastically reduce the cost of commuting without much time and effort.
