Post by Velar Fricative on Oct 26, 2020 10:45:37 GMT -5
I keep mixing up these threads I created! Deleted this from the election thread.
Yes, it really does cost more for a lot of people to work from home during pandemic. Several @ mentions in the article, but also several items that aren't entirely @-related (increased utilities, groceries, electric, etc.), but try to keep the @-specific discussion to a minimum in this thread or please remember to tag it.
In any case, I know there are perks but I hate the idea of sacrificing space in my home for work. We didn't buy this house to accommodate a home office and I'm not about to move from a house I love for an added expense that I don't even want (thankfully, there's no plan here for everyone to work from home forever, so I know this is temporary). So, I stay working at my dining room table because I'm not about to buy a bunch of new furniture for this or give up space.
Post by breezy8407 on Oct 26, 2020 11:32:51 GMT -5
Now that we've had to turn the heat on, I've been trying not to turn it up to our "at home" temp. But in the past, we would turn it down to 60 when no one is home for the day. So yeah, that alone will cost us more. Also thinking about increasing our internet. We keep going over, but they've not been charging for overages due to Covid. I think that will be ending soon.
I save money on lunch, clothing/shoes (normally I would have bought myself tons of new fall and winter clothes), and gas but only a little. My commute was incredibly short at about 10 minutes.
I already had a decent office set up. I volunteered to work from home for about 2 months in 2018 because my office ran out of space for our increasing staff, so I have a nice chair and large monitors from work. I totally lucked out on that one.
@@@ My kids school district is getting free breakfast and lunch through a USDA grant I think related to Covid, but I am not sure I didn't search too deep for details. Unexpected for sure, so that is saving us some money.
Post by Velar Fricative on Oct 26, 2020 11:39:32 GMT -5
One place I didn't expect to see an increase was in our home insurance premium. We just renewed. While we see incremental increases each year, the increase was much higher this year. When I called the insurance company, they mentioned how one of the major reasons is the pandemic - parts needed for repairs are just more expensive these days. That's relevant to homeowners directly but also to renters since those increases will surely be passed down to them.
We did shop around but it was still the best rate we could get.
This doesn’t surprise me. We saw what I thought was high turnover just after he was elected. We had 10% leave without other jobs lined up. Things like moving to be with family and going to grad school. All valid reasons, I just thought it notable and figured it was election related (first 6 month of 2017).
There was additional monitors, cameras, and headphones. And a computer laptop station for myself. We already had a home office for DH, and I feel bad for those that don't have a home office.
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We've also had to hire a nanny to manage elearning/ hybrid, and that will be an extra 10K until January, and I have no idea what we will do after January because I am sure we will still be hybrid then and still need childcare at least 3 days a week.
RE: costs going up - ours haven't, and I guess I should count myself lucky. We had room for an office. I just went and compared a years worth of utilities and they're just about the same. @@@@@@@@@@@@ We were already paying for childcare. @@@@@@@@@
We haven't changed the heat/cooling schedule, so I wonder if that's a big part of it. I also didn't have to buy any office supplies other than a $20 webcam.
We bought a $$$ house after H’s work announced he could wfh indefinitely. We spent money upgrading computers for our new needs, along with furniture and tons more printer ink. We are extremely fortunate we were able to move, since our 2 bedroom apt wasn’t cutting it with everyone home all day.
Oh, spending a lot more on food since we have more meals at home, and we’re paying to have everything delivered since we still don’t have a car (which is another unplanned $$$ expense this year!)
Oh man, our water bill went way up with everyone home flushing the toilets.
We're renters, and we rented this place with the plan that I would WFH, but the 1600 sq ft definitely feels a lot tighter with two adults WFH and @@@an elementary school kid doing virtual school@@@.
Since this started, I bought a desk and chair plus a new laptop. We wouldn't have needed the laptop so soon if we weren't in a pandemic.
Gas: Down a lot at first, now back to normal since we’re all working out of the home
Food: Overall cost of groceries has gone up, but we are saving by eating out less.
Entertainment: Has gone way down, since we are homebodies. We added a few streaming services, but that’s maybe $15/mo instead of the $100 or so we were spending on going to the cinema/mini golf/whatever
Utilities: Up a bit, but hard to tell how much is normal seasonal change vs. pandemic related. I suspect our usage went up maybe 10% above a similar period last year, but haven’t gone over it with a fine-toothed comb.
@@@@@ Child expenses: Way down. We are no longer doing aftercare or sports, so that’s saving us about $300/mo. School lunch is provided by C would rather pack lunch, so no net change there. We are spending more on at-home activities like LEGO sets and switch games, but we are still way down.
Post by mrsukyankee on Oct 26, 2020 12:43:43 GMT -5
We're spending a LOT less on commuting to work and my H already worked from home on occasion, so we are probably ending up about even with it all (I did get a new desk for my work, but my office sent me a laptop and headphones to use).
I think we are coming out the same, but where our money is going has completely shifted. That is why I don't buy the whole "the economy is coming back." The things we aren't spending money on is service based.
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Childcare continues to not even be an option we can pursue. We paid for one camp this summer and it was the city camp. Our after school program is not running. I mean think of how many people those options would employ.
Entertainment is way down although we do splurge on take out at least once a week. But we aren't going to concerts, jump parks, movies etc. We aren't lingering over a bottle of expensive wine in a restaurant.
Vacations- we have rented two airbnbs but then spent no extra money on top of that as both vacations were just nature based. And these were paired down from what we planned.
Groceries are WAY up. Which made the news that Hyvee CEO (our local chain) is basically scaring employees because TAXES. Fuck that guy. They are making huge profits over all of us having to stay home. Now that Aldi has partnered with Instacart for pick ups I can avoid Hyvee again. It is expensive anyways.
We have splurged on some home items which makes all of this stuff flush. Things we have wanted to buy for awhile and decided to do it now. Outside projector for movies, kayaks, heater for our deck etc. Plus we have been doing more home projects.
I am too lazy to look at utilities but since my H hasn't complained I am guessing we are coming out pretty similar.
We already had nice computer equipment and paid for high speed internet so no difference there.
I'd say that we are definitely falling on the side of saving money, but we're finding other ways to spend it. Like, H and I use to be in a bowling league that $32/week, I no longer commute so $80/week in gas is now more like $80/mth. Our grocery bill may have gone up slightly, but only because costs have increased, we've always packed lunches. Our electric bill stayed pretty steady over the summer, but I expect it to go up in the winter as my office is in the basement and so I'll need to run the heat during the day, which we don't usually do. Fortunately I use to work from home full time, so I already an office set up, so we didn't need to put out any money for that. The money that we're saving in commute costs, lack of entertainment, and no vacations we're putting in to our home instead and doing some minor renovations. Of course, I realize that we are very fortunate in that neither my job nor my H's were negatively impacted by Covid.
I don't think our costs have gone up, just shifted. Food is probably more, but I'm also shopping at Aldi more because I find that less crowded than Kroger.
DH and I each bought real desk chairs and I splurged on a standing desktop from Costco.
DH would love to WFH forever. I want to go back to work. I go in 1-2x a week for my mental health.
Post by gretchenindisguise on Oct 26, 2020 13:53:48 GMT -5
Paying out of pocket for the best matched therapist, who doesn't take insurance, has significantly cut into any of our alleged covid savings. It's going to be downright tight again when student loan payments restart.
Now that we've had to turn the heat on, I've been trying not to turn it up to our "at home" temp. But in the past, we would turn it down to 60 when no one is home for the day. So yeah, that alone will cost us more. Also thinking about increasing our internet. We keep going over, but they've not been charging for overages due to Covid. I think that will be ending soon.
This is making me nervous too. I try to keep it as close to our "away from home" temp but I am FREEZING.
I do not have much to compare because we moved into our house at Christmas last year, but our electric bill has been high all year. I think it is from working from home daily.
Post by ellipses84 on Oct 26, 2020 14:04:56 GMT -5
Our water and electric bills went way up. We also get compared to all of our neighbors for energy efficiency but have more people who live here, so we even got a penalty excess energy usage charge one month. I’m now self employed so at least there are some deductions I can take, but I feel like there should be some coronavirus relief / tax breaks related to the extra expenses. I had to get a desk and a better office chair. Also, employers should be providing equipment or an allowance for people. I know it may be hard to ask right now if you workplace isn’t profitable and facing setbacks.
A reminder to everyone to update your commuting miles with your auto insurance if you haven’t already, since it is probably reduced.
Paying out of pocket for the best matched therapist, who doesn't take insurance, has significantly cut into any of our alleged covid savings. It's going to be downright tight again when student loan payments restart.
Truth. Not making SL payments has been huge for us, and it’s going to be really painful to start that back up again....
We were doing this back in May/June...though it was never announced or publicized.
We straight up ran out of CRRT dialysis supplies for several days. Pts have clotting issues and our sets went down much more frequently than usual patients. One set costs about $1500, we were going through 4 a night when each should last 96 hours in the absence of clotting issues.
There were patients we couldn't set back up because there were no sets left in the hospital and we had to wait until more could be sent the next day or two.
As of right now, we are not having to do this, but I wouldn't be surprised if it happens in again.
Now that we've had to turn the heat on, I've been trying not to turn it up to our "at home" temp. But in the past, we would turn it down to 60 when no one is home for the day. So yeah, that alone will cost us more. Also thinking about increasing our internet. We keep going over, but they've not been charging for overages due to Covid. I think that will be ending soon.
This is making me nervous too. I try to keep it as close to our "away from home" temp but I am FREEZING.
I do not have much to compare because we moved into our house at Christmas last year, but our electric bill has been high all year. I think it is from working from home daily.
I know. I keep adding layers. We have a small space heater that I might put next to my desk. :/
I saw this over the weekend, and my first thought was “wow, we really are still in March.” This is a huge fear amoung my cancer friends. Some are stage IV/terminal, but not about to die now. Yet, to see it in black and white that you are valued less is a lot to swallow.
Post by eponinepontmercy on Oct 26, 2020 15:00:38 GMT -5
I do laundry more often now that we are all home all the time. I also realized how much sugar I'm putting in my tea since I'm not using the sugar in the kitchen at work. I'm the only one who uses the sugar bowl and I have to refill it more than I should. We go through a lot more toilet paper, too.
Our utilities increased, but they probably would have a bit. DH started a 100% WFH job the week before this all started.
I saw this over the weekend, and my first thought was “wow, we really are still in March.” This is a huge fear amoung my cancer friends. Some are stage IV/terminal, but not about to die now. Yet, to see it in black and white that you are valued less is a lot to swallow.
Awful. I'm so sorry your friends have to go through this. It makes me angry that this shit is happening AGAIN when we have now had two major surges. Why are we so incapable of learning from very recent history? Oh yeah, political bullshit.
I do laundry more...We go through a lot more toilet paper, too.
Our utilities increased, but they probably would have a bit. DH started a 100% WFH job the week before this all started.
I workout twice a day now since I have the time so I’m Doing way more laundry. But also since I’m home all day, and I pee like every 40 minutes, I have really been shocked at how much TP I go through!
Also we broke our ice maker on our fridge from over use. Wah wah
We had to get a new fridge about a month ago. Love the new one so far. Frigidaire Professional with ice and water in the door. The house had an RO system hooked up to the fridge when we moved in, so it got hooked up to the new one. The water is painfully slow. It takes me over 3 minutes to fill my 32oz water bottle. Yes, I counted.
Our water softener is also on the fritz, and the company I called also services the RO system. I am so excited to have a person come to my house and hopefully fix my water situation. I will get so much time back. At the office, we have water coolers/drinking fountains that also have bottle fillers. It took 10 seconds to fill my 32oz bottle. Working from home problems.