A look into office workers' spending habits

With many corporate workers returning to the office post COVID-19, a new survey dives into their spending habits and financial standings.

The survey was commissioned by ResumeBuilder.com and conducted online by the survey platform Pollfish, and included 800 respondents who were employed full-time with at least 11 employees at their company.

Instead of eating at home or packing a lunch, at least three times a week, a large number of workers (71%) say they purchase lunch, with 10% saying they buy lunch five days a week, and 25% saying four times a week. Nearly half (48%) say the average cost per lunch is $20 or more.

Six in 10 (60%) of workers say they buy breakfast at least three times a week, and 10% say they buy breakfast everyday. More than four in 10 workers (44%) say they spend $15 or more per breakfast.

During the workweek, many workers are also purchasing coffee, with 21% of workers saying they buy coffee everyday, and 90% buying it on a weekly basis.

Nearly two-thirds of coffee purchasers spend more than $5 on each coffee, and many corporate office workers say they buy more than one coffee per day.

Despite regular spending on food & beverage, 75% of workers surveyed said having an additional $250/month would make a difference in their lives. Additionally, among those who don’t agree an extra $250/month would make a difference, 60% say $500/month would.

Nearly half of workers are worried about their financial situation, and 25% say it’s difficult to keep up with monthly expenses. Half of workers have some type of debt, and one-third have credit card debt specifically.

“It’s often the small, daily expenses that we overlook when budgeting. It’s because we don’t see these expenses as significant – for instance, seeing your balance go down by $5 for a cup of coffee seems negligible compared to larger expenses like rent or car payments,” Ricardo Pina, founder of The Modest Wallet, said in the survey summary. “However, these small purchases can really add up over time and impact our overall financial situation.”

The full report can be found here.