today\u2019s story<\/a>, one woman finds herself in this exact situation and decides to follow the policy and treat herself.<\/p>\nHere\u2019s what happened.<\/p>\n
Back in the early 2000s, my mom worked for a company that was a subsidiary of a now-defunct telecommunications company, we\u2019ll call NDJ.<\/p>\n
NDJ\u2019s travel expense policy provided a $50 per diem meal allowance.<\/p>\n
The thing was, in the long run, she\u2019d spend less than $50 per day.<\/p>\n
She worked as a network administrator, and sometimes she\u2019d fly out to Miami, Los Angeles, or other locations in the U.S. with a data center to help set up or repair networks and other systems.<\/p>\n
She would often book a room in an extended-stay hotel, the kind that often advertised its rates as being per week.<\/p>\n
These extended stays often have a kitchenette.<\/p>\n
Usually, they\u2019d have a microwave, a fridge, and a small, two-burner stove, perfect for cooking up some \u201cbachelor food.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was saving them money, but they didn\u2019t care.<\/p>\n
My mom would stop at a local grocery store, such as Publix or Kroger, on the day of arrival and pick up a week\u2019s worth (or however long she needed to stay) of food.<\/p>\n
She\u2019d get frozen dinners, sandwich fixin\u2019s, frozen or fresh fruit, yogurt, and a few pints of Ben & Jerry\u2019s ice cream.<\/p>\n
The total bill might come to $100, but it would last her the entire week.<\/p>\n
One day, when she submitted her receipts and expense report, the accounting department ripped her a new one over the $100 grocery bill.<\/p>\n
They told her, \u201cYou\u2019re only allowed to spend $50 per day, no more.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019d argue, \u201cThat was food for the entire week. I saved you money!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDoesn\u2019t matter. $50 a day.\u201d<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take long for them to realize her method was better for them.<\/p>\n
Okey-dokey, she thought. You want $50 a day? You got it, buck-o!<\/p>\n
The next time she took a trip to Miami or elsewhere, she spent exactly $50 a day. She\u2019d stop somewhere cheap like McDonald\u2019s or Burger King for breakfast, get something out of the break room vending machines for lunch (peanut butter crackers and Diet Coke), but it was \u201ctreat yo\u2019self\u201d night every night.<\/p>\n
Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Pappadeaux\u2019s (fairly pricey Cajun restaurant), or anywhere else that guarantees a bill of at least $25 per person.<\/p>\n
She\u2019d get the whole shebang: appetizer, entree, dessert, and a cocktail. I\u2019m pretty sure the bill ran upwards of $40-$ 50.<\/p>\n
As long as she stayed within her means, she enjoyed herself. Every. Single. Night!<\/p>\n
They didn\u2019t bat an eye, but when they saw that and compared it to what it would have cost on her old system, they told her she could go back to her old system if she so desired.<\/p>\n
Wow! It seems like they didn\u2019t think that one out at first.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s see what the readers over at Reddit think about what happened.<\/p>\n
This person had a similar experience.<\/p>\n
![\"Per](\"https:\/\/twistedsifter.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/lazy-load-0.7\/images\/1x1.trans.gif\" "\\"Company")
<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a manager that had no limits.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
According to this reader, their company is being weird about plane tickets.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
That worked out well.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what most people would do!<\/p>\n
If the company doesn\u2019t care to listen, they deserve this.<\/p>\n
If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pexels\/Reddit Sometimes, trying to \u201ccorrect\u201d someone\u2019s money-saving habits ends up costing you a lot more. What would you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,3117,3118,3119,147,530,2067,250,1867,3120,3121,3122],"class_list":{"0":"post-2603","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-fancy-meals","10":"tag-malicious-compliance","11":"tag-per-diem","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance","14":"tag-picture","15":"tag-reddit","16":"tag-top","17":"tag-wasting-money","18":"tag-work-drama","19":"tag-work-trip"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}