Saving Money As a Consultant By Siddhartha

Siddhartha is a senior supply chain consultant at Capgemini. All views are his own.

So you're planning on going into consulting? Here are ways you can save money:

Live at home

I know this sounds crazy, but hear me out. With most consulting companies you’ll travel Sunday night or Monday through Thursday, or, if you’re unlucky, through Friday. Let’s take the best case scenario; that means you’ll be asleep in your own bed 2-3 nights a week. You can do the math there, but you would be spending a lot of money on a place you don’t really live in. Fly home or go visit a new place each weekend and you'll save on rent and gain in experience.

Take advantage of alternative travel

A lot of new consultants are hesitant to take of advantage of alt travel, but if done carefully, it is the best perk of consulting!

• Get a general feel of your company’s culture and how people feel about alt travel. Many consultants already have families, so they go home every weekend, but that doesn’t mean they look down on alternative travel (going somewhere else instead of your home location)!
• One of the most important rules is to not let alternative travel effect your work. If the client expects you to be available during a deployment weekend, don’t alt. travel to Vegas. Sometimes the client will not allow for alt travel (since they are technically paying your travel and stay); there’s nothing you can do about that.  
• Be respectful of your client’s money. It’s tempting to spend a couple of hundred bucks extra to go somewhere cool every weekend, but that’s how you get on the clients’ bad side. Instead of flying home sometimes, you can use the cost of the ticket to go somewhere else and just pay your accommodation and local transportation.

Don’t buy a car

Do the math. Cost of a car/10 years (however long you think you’ll have a car) + gas/month + insurance/month and figure out what your monthly cost is.

• Avg. Car $20k. Lets say you keep the car for 10 years. $2k/year, $167/month
• Insurance ~$100/month
• Gas ~$40/month
• Other car stuff (oil changes, repairs, chargers, etc) ~$30/month

TOTAL: ~$340/month

Can you use public transportation, ridesharing, and rental cars to spend less then that when you’re home? Your transport will be paid if you're at a client site during the week. If so, this piece of advice is confirmed.

Pick your credit cards/airline/hotel strategically

If your company forces you to use your corporate card, there’s not much you can do. If your company is more flexible and allows you to use your personal cards, you can really save money! For instance, the Chase Freedom card gives you rotating rewards where you get 5% cash back and one categories is restaurants. When this happens, offer to pay for your colleagues’ meals and expense it. You get reimbursed for what the receipt says and a month later, Chase give you 5% back in your account! There are ton and tons of credit cards and rewards programs you can join, but I suggest you do your own research and find out what’s best for you! Hotel and airline rewards cards can also be great. When traveling each week, the company will pay for your travel while you can benefit from the points. Make sure you take advantage of that option.

Dinner when traveling home

When traveling for work, you will likely be given a per diem for food. Dinner expense are fairly generous and I always love spending my dinner allowance on the night I go home on groceries. Sometimes you get home late and the stores are closed, but I usually tell the people I’m staying with to buy stuff earlier in the day and I expense it later (if you don’t have to use a corporate card!). If you alt. travel to a friends place, its always nice to feed them over the weekend too. AKA: there are always ways to spend your food money to get the maximum outcome. Be smart about it and work on eating out and exploring new restaurants while also stocking up on groceries.

Siddhartha graduated from Georgia Tech with a bachelors in Industrial Engineering.