Commuting: the £50,000 you spend going to work

New research reveals how commuting can be a big drain on time and money over your working life. Here’s how to save on both.

A city commuter will spend an average of 10,634 hours (that's 443 days) and £50,000 over their lifetime just travelling to and from work.

That’s according to new research from investment management firm Nutmeg.

In February earlier this year it surveyed over 2,000 adults that travel to work across ten major UK cities: Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow City, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Sheffield and Manchester.

The average monthly cost of getting to and from work in these cities and the average length of time it took each day was extrapolated over a working lifetime, for someone starting the daily grind at 18 and retiring at 65.

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Commuting hardship

Below are the results of the survey.

Source: Nutmeg

As you can see London workers will spend the most time and money over their working lives.

Commuters working here rack up an average of £66,407 and 13,097 hours to travel to and from the office every day over a lifetime.

On the other hand Glasgow City workers were found to have the cheapest commute at £35,000 over a lifetime, while Liverpool workers spent the least time on the move totalling 7,532 hours.

The research also asked commuters to reveal their top bugbears when commuting.

The cost of travel was unsurprisingly cited as the top complaint with a third unhappy with this element of their commute followed by traffic jams (32%), delays (30%), bad drivers (27%), length of journey (17%), overcrowding  (17%), loud personal music (13%), bad commuter etiquette (12%) and cyclists (11%).

Get cashback on your commuting costs with the Santander 123 Credit Card

How to fight back against commuting costs

We travel to work to make a living but it costs us dearly in time and money. However there are plenty of ways save on both. Here are some ideas.

Review your journey: You may not be taking the most time effective route for your journey or there may be parts that could be walked or cycled instead to save money. You could for example walk to the station in the morning instead of driving and paying to park. Take a look at your route and have a think about what you could change.

Cycle to work: After reviewing your journey you may find you can actually cycle to work instead. If you don’t already have a bike, your employer might be able to help out thanks to Cyclescheme a Government initiative to help people cycle to work. You pay for the bike and gear through salary sacrifice so payment is taken each month through your gross pay.

Be more flexible: Depending on your employer and the type of work you do, you could try to arrange to work from home for part or all of the week, which will save you time and money. Alternatively your employer may allow flexible working hours, allowing you to avoid busy periods on the roads and trains. That way your journey will be quicker and you might be able to take advantage of off-peak fares.

Cut down on fuel costs: If you drive to work you could try car-pooling to spread the cost of the fuel. All it takes is a few of you who work together or live near each other to share a car for your journey into work. Making sure you get the best deal on fuel will also cut the cost of driving into work; read our guide on how to cut your fuel costs for more.

Make rail travel savings: If taking the train is the big factor in your commuting costs, there are a number of ways you can save. A rail discount card for example can get you a third off your journey (should you qualify), while split ticketing, which allows you to buy multiple tickets for your journey on the same train, is another alternative. For more check out our guide on how to cut the cost of rail and coach travel.

Get cashback on your commuting costs with the Santander 123 Credit Card

More on commuting:

The most expensive commuter towns and cities

Train delays and cancellations: how to claim refunds and compensation

Tesco, Waitrose and Asda to offer Click and Collect services on the London Underground