How much do I save by working from home?

People type this into search every day: how much do I save working from home.

The usual answer is “gas and lunch.” That is the right pile. You still have extra heat, extra power, and the chair and screen you bought in January. Housing does not move in this model. Time in traffic is left off the card on purpose.

This page is a labeled example. It is not a tax refund, and it is not a claim about your lease.

The commute cost post already used the $3,144 default as a sidebar. This is the full walk.

Daily commute and food, minus home costs, minus equipment

The working-from-home savings calculator uses:

(commute saving + food saving − extra home cost) × home days × weeks − annual equipment

Housing cost is unchanged. Time saved has no cash value. Those are the tool’s assumptions.

The published $3,144 year

Here are the calculator defaults:

• commute saving per home day: $22
• food saving per home day: $8
• extra home cost per day: $4
• annual home-office cost: $600
• home days per week: 3
• working weeks: 48

Daily net before equipment: 22 + 8 − 4 = $26.00

Home days: 3 × 48 = 144

Gross saving: 26 × 144 = $3,744.00

Net annual saving: 3744 − 600 = $3,144.00

Average month: $262.00

Saving per home day after equipment: 3144 ÷ 144 = $21.83

Across 144 days the four cash lines are:

• commute saved: 22 × 144 = $3,168.00
• food saved: 8 × 144 = $1,152.00
• extra home cost: 4 × 144 = $576.00
• equipment: $600.00

3168 + 1152 − 576 − 600 = $3,144.00 again.

The $22 commute field is a planning input. It is not the $25.44 default on the commute calculator. More on that below.

The week count is most of the year

Hold $22, $8, $4, $600, and 48 weeks. Change only home days.

• 1 day: 48 home days. Year $648.00. Month $54.00. Per home day after equipment $13.50.
• 2 days: 96 home days. Year $1,896.00. Month $158.00. Per home day $19.75.
• 3 days (default): 144 home days. Year $3,144.00. Month $262.00. Per home day $21.83.
• 4 days: 192 home days. Year $4,392.00. Month $366.00. Per home day $22.88.
• 5 days: 240 home days. Year $5,640.00. Month $470.00. Per home day $23.50.

The $600 equipment bill does not grow with extra home days. That is why the first home day is only $13.50 after equipment, and the fifth day has already spread that $600 thinner.

One extra home day on this path adds 26 × 48 = $1,248.00. That is the gap from 1 to 2, from 2 to 3, from 3 to 4, and from 4 to 5.

Forty-six weeks instead of 48, same 3-day default: 26 × 3 × 46 − 600 = $2,988.00. Month $249.00. 138 home days. Per home day $21.65. Two unpaid weeks cut $156.00.

The formula subtracts the whole $600 up front. A real year pays for the chair in January and the commute days as they happen. The card still prints the year total.

Paste $25.44 if you want the two commute tools to match

The commute cost calculator default day is $25.44: 42 km at $0.32/km plus $12 parking. Four office days and 48 weeks are $4,884.48 a year. Five office days are $6,105.60. Two office days are $2,442.24. One office day is $1,221.12.

Type $25.44 into the WFH commute box and keep food $8, extra home $4, equipment $600, 48 weeks.

Daily net before equipment: 25.44 + 8 − 4 = $29.44

• 2 home days: $2,226.24. Month $185.52.
• 3 home days: $3,639.36. Month $303.28. Per home day $25.27.
• 4 home days: $5,052.48. Month $421.04.
• 5 home days: $6,465.60. Month $538.80.

A labeled hybrid: five office days used to cost $6,105.60. You now stay home 3 days and go in 2.

Home-day saving at $25.44: $3,639.36

Remaining office days: $2,442.24

Those two numbers do not add to $6,105.60, because the home path also spends $576 of extra utilities and $600 of equipment, and it keeps $1,152 of food you no longer buy on those 144 days.

Old 5-day commute: $6,105.60

New cash on this labeled split: 2442.24 + 576 + 600 − 1152 = $2,466.24

The difference is 6105.60 − 2466.24 = $3,639.36, which is the WFH card.

Do not subtract $3,144 from $4,884.48 and call that your hybrid. Those two published defaults use different commute dollars and a different number of office days. Run both tools on the same day and the same rate.

What is the true cost of owning a car? is the year that still runs when the car sits. Insurance and depreciation do not vanish on a Tuesday at the kitchen table. Only the $22 or $25.44 you typed as a commute saving leaves this card.

Food is a saving only if the lunch actually stops

Hold the 3-day default and change only food.

• $0 food saving: year $1,992.00. Month $166.00. Per home day $13.83.
• $8 default: year $3,144.00.
• $12 food saving: year $3,720.00. Month $310.00. Per home day $25.83.

$8 × 144 = $1,152.00. That is the whole gap from $0 to the default. If you still buy the same sandwich at home, type $0.

Extra home cost the other way:

• $0 extra home: year $3,720.00. Month $310.00.
• $4 default: year $3,144.00.
• $8 extra home: year $2,568.00. Month $214.00. Per home day $17.83.

$4 × 144 = $576.00. Double it and you lose another $576.00.

Equipment:

• $0 equipment: year $3,744.00. Month $312.00. Per home day $26.00.
• $600 default: year $3,144.00.
• $1,200 equipment: year $2,544.00. Month $212.00. Per home day $17.67.

The $600 default is a chair, a monitor, lighting, or a slice of a fit-out. I am not going to invent a national home-office basket.

A home week can cost money

Commute $10, food $4, extra home $8, equipment $900, 2 home days, 48 weeks:

Daily net before equipment: 10 + 4 − 8 = $6.00

Home days: 96

Gross: $576.00

Net: 576 − 900 = −$324.00

Month −$27.00. Per home day −$3.38.

The short commute did not cover the kit. Type your own numbers before you treat $3,144 as the answer.

Set commute to $0 on the published 3-day defaults and the year is −$24.00. Food still saves $1,152. Extra home and equipment spend $1,176. The commute line was doing the work.

Home office deduction is not the $3,144

The WFH card is cash you stop spending. A tax deduction is a share of eligible home costs, and only if you qualify.

The home office deduction estimate calculator uses:

office area ÷ home area × business-use share × eligible home costs

Eligibility and allocation rules vary by country. The office area and the costs have to satisfy local requirements. The tool says that.

Defaults:

• dedicated office area: 12 m²
• total home area: 100 m²
• eligible annual home costs: $24,000
• business-use share of office: 100%

Allocated share: 12 ÷ 100 = 12%

Potential allocated expense: 24000 × 0.12 = $2,880.00

Unallocated eligible costs: $21,120.00

12 m² displays as 129.2 ft². 100 m² displays as 1,076.4 ft². The $24,000 is an input, not a typical mortgage.

IRS Publication 587 (2025) is the US booklet for business use of the home. You generally need exclusive and regular use as a principal place of business, or a place to meet patients, clients, or customers, or a separate structure. Exclusive use fails if the family also uses that space. Their example is an attorney whose den is also the family recreation room. That den does not qualify.

The 2025 Form 8829 instructions say an employee cannot deduct these expenses on a personal return. Miscellaneous itemized deductions for employee business expenses stay suspended. The IRS simplified-option page repeats that, and sets the simplified method at $5 per square foot, maximum 300 square feet, so the cap is $1,500.

A labeled comparison, not the calculator output: 129 square feet × $5 = $645. The regular-method share on $24,000 is $2,880.00. Those are different methods. The card is the share method.

Publication 587 also points at Publication 463 for transportation. If the home office is your principal place of business, daily trips from that home to another work location in the same trade or business can be deductible. Ordinary home-to-office commuting is generally not. I am not going to decide which one you have.

The $3,144 cash saving and the $2,880 allocated expense can both be true, or neither. Do not add them.

Time is still off the card

The commute post already walked the Census ACS 1-year commuting charts. The 2024 mean one-way travel time is 27.2 minutes for workers 16 and older who did not work from home.

The salary to hourly defaults are $37.50 per working hour. 27.2 minutes each way is 54.4 minutes. 54.4 ÷ 60 × 37.50 = $34.00. That $34.00 is a stacked example from the other post. It does not belong on the $3,144 card.

144 home days × $34.00 would be $4,896.00 of time, if you accept both labeled inputs. The WFH assumptions leave it out.

A bicycle year is the other way to skip the car

The bicycle commute savings calculator is avoided kilometres minus bike costs. Its published default is $1,636.80 on a 24 km round trip, 210 days, $0.42/km, and $480 of bike costs.

That is a different route and a different rate than the $22 WFH commute field. A home day and a bike day can both skip the same parking lot. They cannot both claim the same $22.

Open the working-from-home savings calculator with the commute you actually skip, the lunch you actually stop buying, and the extra power you can see on a bill. Open the commute cost calculator for the days you still go in. If you are self-employed and the room is exclusive, use the home office deduction estimate against current official guidance, not as a second copy of the $3,144.