My bank statement from 2019 tells me I used to spend £3 a day commuting 45 minutes on the bus.

Six years and a house move later, it now takes me 55 minutes and costs me £8 to get to work on the tube . If I went to the office from Monday to Friday, this would mean forking out £40 a week. £160 a month and £2,000 a year. It’s enough to make me miss 2019; a mystical pre-pandemic time where our problems felt frivolous and coffees were £3.15.

Since March 2025 alone, tube and rail fares in London have increased by 4.6 per cent, while a study by SpareMyTime has found that the cost of commuting is rising 3 per cent faster than inflation.

Right now, no matter how hard I try to save, leaving the house can feel as if money is simply evaporating from my hands. And yet, my commute is positively f

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