While true, it’s a bit more nuanced than that. They can absolutely have requirements in the contract that will put you on site. For instance, they can have you being the one to set up the conference room for the morning meeting. They can also categorically say that their VPN access is only for FTEs.
But as an independent business negotiating a contract, you just haggle these terms away. It’s still a good idea to document expectations, including work hours and locations.
Other people have suggested the broader ideas of saving, but I’m going to get into the details of how to spend less money.
I follow the PERK system, and have found it to be very helpful. It takes a lot of effort initially, but becomes easy once you get to a routine. There are a bunch of explanations on this, so here is the first one from Google:
https://lifehacker.com/give-your-budget-a-tune-up-with-the-perk-method-1748020270
(To find others, I had to search for “Perk postpone eliminate reduce keep”)