The Cash Value of Misc Perks From Work

The other day I was getting a free lunch at work. I thought to myself that I get a few free 'perks'. I'm not thinking of my actual pay or benefits like medical insurance. The 'perks' I'm thinking of are just the various miscellaneous free things that I get from my place of work.

Free perks at my job include:

Free lunches : I get free lunches on occasion at work. Sometimes its just as a perk like we have a 'going away party' for someone retiring and other times it is because I'm in training all day and they feed us. I bring my lunches from home usually so they only cost me around $2 or less. I get free lunches probably around 10 times a year so this perk is worth around $20.

Rewards : We have a program at work were if you do something good then you can get nominated for a small recognition reward. The rewards are in the $10 to $100 range and come in the form of gift certificates. I usually get around $100-$200 in these rewards per year.

Printing: My employer is pretty giving with the printing services here at work. If you occasionally want to print out a webpage or something that is not work related then they don't care. Of course if you abused it then we'd lose the privilege. I might print 1 page a week so maybe 50 pages a year give or take. At 10¢ per page thats worth about $5.

Software: I get some software at work for free. They give us a free copy of virus scan and some other stuff. The software is worth over $20 a year. But I wouldn't necessarily pay for it if I didn't get it free.

Clothing: I occasionally get free clothing from work that has our company logo on it or I might get a free shirt from a customer on occasion. I don't really like being a walking billboard but if nothing else I can use the t-shirts under a sweater. While I might get 1-3 shirts a year they don't have a ton of value to me since I don't really use them. I could however donate them to charity and take a writeoff. I'd say I get $5 or more per year this way.

Total benefit I get in these misc. perks is in the $150-$250 range.

I doubt most people get all these kinds of benefits but on the other hand I'm sure many if not most employers have some sort of perks in this kind of category. Sure $5 here and $20 there over the course of the year may not seem like much but it adds up.

How Much Do People Spend on Clothes?

From the Consumer Expenditure Survey data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics we can dig in and find how much the average household actually spends on clothing.

In 2007 the figures for what the average household spent on apparel were:
Apparel, men and boys = $435
Apparel, women and girls = $749
Apparel, children under 2 = $93
Footwear= $327

Added up thats $1,604 per year. The average household has 2.5 people so this comes to $641 per person on average spent on shoes and clothing.

The figure for clothing spent on children under 2 seems a bit high. Keep in mind this is the average and most households do not even have a child under the age of 2. I'm wondering if the figure includes the amount spent on diapers. I wouldn't be surprised if it did. That would account for it being that high on average.

But keep in mind this is the average amount and its skewed high with the higher spending people. Typical spending is better represented by people who have middle income level. So I'll look at the spending of people who make the middle 20% income level.

The 3rd quintile spends:
Apparel, men and boys = $356
Apparel, women and girls = $673
Apparel, children under 2 = $83
Footwear= $322

Thats $1,434 total for the middle income households. With 2.5 people per household that is $573 per person annually spent on apparel and footwear for middle income earners.

Best of blog posts for week of June 12th

Bargaineering takes a look at the Cash For Clunkers Program

Trent at The Simple Dollar talks about Gift Registries: Tactics and Good Taste

JD at Get Rich Slowly has advice on Eating Organic on a Frugal Budget

Good Ebates deals on major name stores

I'm increasingly liking Ebates.

Here are some major stores / brands that have decent rebates from Ebates:

4% at Target
4% at Sears
4% at JCPenny
5% at Home Depot
8% from Starbucks Stores
6% at Petco

To find other online vendors that have offers from Ebates go to the site and click on the 'Stores' tab. Or you can just use their search box to find a specific store name.

These discounts only apply to online purchases and you have to go through Ebates to get them. But if you would have bought something through one of these sites otherwise then why not save yourself an extra 4-8%?!

For more on Ebates see my previous article on them.