'A lady from accounting called': Traveling worker spends $30-$40 per meal after accountant refuses to reimburse small expenses

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Sep 4, 2024 11:00 AM EDT

While on a work trip to the Big Apple, this person decided to do some fancy dining on their workplace's dime. That's quite the perk if you can get it! 

The food in New York is truly incredible, as any visitor or resident of the city can tell you. You've got to try the pizza of course, but there are tons of sandwich shops and ice cream parlors and a dizzying array of other foods that are delectable. You really can't go wrong! This person was traveling to the city's Theater District, which is full of fine-dining restaurants meant for tourists. Tourists want to be dazzled by city views and Instagrammable food, but it's not always the best food. Sometimes the food is gorgeous and super pricey, but when you take that first bite, it's just… okay. It doesn't feel worth $30 or $40 per plate when you know there's a $5 cheeseburger at the burger place next door that would bring you tears of joy.

This person was actually trying to be frugal, but their workplace had a different view on it, as you can read in u/upaboveitall's story below. 

Up next, this savvy shopper managed to buy 1,400 packages of cookies in order to finesse a rewards program before they were stopped by the company. 

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10398500608
    via John Cameron on Unsplash
  • 02
    I was forced to eat at fancy restaurants for a month $$$ Many years ago, I got put on a work assignment for months that required me to travel to New York City and stay every Monday to Friday. I was assisting a company manager with a project and my hotel was near his regular office in the Theater District.
    via u/upaboveitall
  • 03
    If you are not familiar, the Theater District is heavily built for tourists. Restaurants are generally kind of fancy and expensive. There were really not any quick and cheap options for dining in that area. The company had a generous meal policy of up to $30-40 meal for travel expenses. I did use that for a bit, but the food got to feeling too indulgent and kind of ridiculous given it was an extended assignment. Also I was working really long hours and did not want to go sit in restaurants- I ju
    via u/upaboveitall
  • 04
    So after the first week or so, I instead went to a grocery store on Monday night. I bought some basics for cereal, sandwiches and snacks, and some frozen meals I could microwave for lunch in the office. It cost about $60. I then took a few cans of soda from my hotel fridge to make room for my weekly food purchase, and returned them before checking out at the end of the week. And that was it for food costs, with an occasional meal out here or there. I did the same the next four weeks, submitted m
    via u/upaboveitall
  • 05
    A lady from accounting called, and refused to reimburse my expenses because $60 is more than $40, the max allowance for a meal purchase. I explained that had covered 5 days of food but was told it didn't matter.
    via u/upaboveitall
  • 06
    I then spent the next month trying all the food in the neighborhood. There really were not any cheap options. I went out to eat a few mornings, lunch whenever I found time, and dinner absolutely every day. I could have bought a few installments of groceries but the once/week shopping convenience was part of why I'd wanted them. It had also seemed wasteful for me to go out for an expensive meal every night for long term travel, but now I'd been told that was preferred by accounting to my grocery
    via u/upaboveitall
  • 07
    The next month, I got a call from my NYC manager asking how I'd run through more budget every week of the month than the entire month before combined. I explained the grocery situation, and he thanked me and hung up. About 10 minutes later, that same lady from accounting called me to tell be they'd pay my still-not- reimbursed grocery bill and any going forward as long as the daily amount averaged for the week was under the aggregate meal allowance. I happily returned to a more reasonable diet.
    via u/upaboveitall
  • 08
    Siguard in my line of work, we get paid the max per day allowed. If we use it or not that was up to us. I travelled for almost 3 years straight, so the hotels I stayed in regularly bumped up to the suites with kitchens. I would spend months on the road. When I flew out to assignments, I'd just buy tupperware, plastic knife/forks etc. I ended up getting an additional 300$ a week beacuse id only spend 100 a week on food.
    via u/Siguard
  • 09
    Dear_Analysis_5116. So busy counting the beans, they forgot the soup.
    via u/Dear_Analysis_5116
  • 10
    jnewton116 Company I used to work for had a max dollar amount that could be spent per bottle of wine or booze when entertaining clients. On a night out with a client my coworkers bought magnums instead of regular bottles because it cost less per glass. For once in their lives they were actually trying to be "good stewards of the company dime." Guess how that worked out? The accounting rep berated them on the dealing floor. From that moment onward they spent every moment trying to use the company
    via u/jnewton116
  • 11
    Xanza My company tried to do the same with fuel. I get a $250/wk allowance. One Sunday morning, after working a 15h night shift from Saturday afternoon, I stopped to get fuel Sunday morning on the way home. I had a day off on Sunday, and was back to work by Monday. They refused to reimburse me for the fuel because I "had Sunday off" and the company will only reimburse for fuel accrued on a day that I've worked.
    via u/Xanza
  • 12
    I now submit 2 fuel receipts per day. One from before shift, and one from after, each totaling a little less than ~$5/each. I've been asked to stop constantly and have refused citing the previous incident, which they still stand behind. I went from submitting about 98 fuel receipts per year to almost 700. I told the woman from the finance department that if it happens again, I'll make it 3x a day.
    via u/Xanza
  • 13
    whoisjakelane We have this on the railroad where I work. If you work 11 hours, the company either has to provide a meal, give you time to go get a meal, or pay you an extra hour overtime and you expense your meal you get after you get off.
    via u/whoisjakelane
  • 14
    Guys wanted to just get a few groceries sometimes, yeah it usually was more than a meals worth, but cheaper than going out. Company didn't like that so guys started going out for 40 or 50 dollar meals. The railroad didn't like that but they wouldn't take any receipt from a grocery store so that's just the way it is
    via u/whoisjakelane
  • 15
    radioactivebeaver Why don't companies just cut the per diem checks ahead of time? That's what a place I used to work for did. You get your money so you can actually use it rather than wait to be reimbursed.
    via u/radioactivebeaver
  • 16
    HRHSuzz Math is our friend if we just use our brains! I got into a similar fight with attg. Worked at an Ad Agency-policy was you could order dinner delivered if you worked after hours and get a cab home. I was almost done with my OT task and was getting hungry. I knew it would be faster to take the train home and stop at the grocery store and get something from their deli - just wanted to get home and eat and call it a day. They
    via u/HRHSuzz
  • 17
    denied both receipts as I was only supposed to be reimbursed for food eaten while at work and actually in the office. So I should have stayed later getting more OT, paid more for food and more for a cab? Seriously it was like $2 for the train and $8 for the deli. I told my Head of Production and he picked up the phone and suddenly they were reimbursing my $10 worth of receipts.
    via u/HRHSuzz
  • 18
    Jedi_in_Disneyland This was the golden perk of a 3 month training at a former employer. Any new person coming into the role had to report to Corp HQ for a 3 month intensive training camp. Accounting was notorious for denying anything outside of the "rules".
    via u/Jedi_in_Disneyland
  • 19
    The teachers learned this and on the first day spent about an hour going over exactly how to submit your receipts and what the individual totals needed to be. ANYTHING outside of the rules on one line would cause your entire expense report to be rejected and it could take 6-8 weeks to get it revised.
    via u/Jedi_in_Disneyland
  • 20
    I went with any other guy from my location and before we left the last guy who went gave us a "cheat sheet" of all the local restaurants and how to make "special orders". These restaurants were close to HQ and knew of us trainees. Al hol was not allowed to be written off, but if you ordered "special combo #5" at the sushi bar they knew it as a bottle of sake and it looked like any other roll. When we got back we passed the sheet to the next guy with all of the updates.
    via u/Jedi_in_Disneyland
  • 21
    00 ivanthemute Expense reporting and reimbursement goons are among the dumbest, least flexible potatoes in accounting. An example for me: I live and work in Columbia, SC, and my company has a major ops center in Albany, NY, and another in Syracuse. When this story happens, my daily driver was a (then) brand new KIA Rio hatch, 37 mpg highway, and the company paid the IRS standard $0.56 per mile when using a POV for business. I'm salaried, so it didn't matter on hours.
    via u/ ivanthemute
  • 22
    Was given 48 hours to prep for a 12 day trip, Columbia to Albany to Syracuse and then back home. Flight from CAE to ALB, then rental car, drive to Syracuse, drive back to Albany, then back home. Round trip flight, Delta was the required airline, Hertz required rental (medium sedan,) Hilton Garden was the required accommodation, etc. Because of the short notice, the economy seat flight and one checked bag was $973.41, rental was $611.03, gas and tolls cost an additional $99.57. Transportation cos
    via u/ ivanthemute
  • 23
    Had I driven, the mileage paid would have been about $1030, plus another $12.20 in tolls. For me, gas plus an oil change when I got back (was at about 4k miles, manual says 7500, close enough) would have run me $250 or so. Personal profit, about $800. Savings to the company, about $650. Win-win, right? "No" because "POV usage can potentially lead to employees abusing the system for personal gain, and cost the company more." Never mind that it would be a savings for the company...
    via u/ ivanthemute
  • 24
    thrilliam_19 This happened at the last company I worked for! For out of town expenses the company booked and paid for my hotel, but I could buy food and expense it. The wording in my contract was something like "reasonable meals you'd regularly eat at home" or something. Basically "we'll cover your meals just don't eat steak and lobster every night." I was at a job for two weeks at a remote ski resort. Closest town was 30 minutes away. For lunch break there was one restaurant at the resort and i
    via u/thrilliam_19
  • 25
    cheap. Kinda fancy and knew it was the only dining option around so they took advantage of that. I ate lunch there the first day and it was close to $50 with tip. So when I drove back to town for the night I hit a grocery store and bought a pack of buns, some deli meat, a pack of sliced cheese and a case of bottled water. Ate that for lunch for the rest of the week and it cost me like $20. I submit my expenses when I go home Friday and when I'm back out there Monday my boss calls me to remind me
    via u/thrilliam_19
  • 26
    what I did and he says it doesn't matter. I ate lunch at that restaurant every day that 2nd week and probably spent $300. No complaints from my boss or payroll or anyone. I couldn't believe it.
    via u/thrilliam_19
  • 27
    Mr_Mojo_Risin_83 I have this exact same story. Was told "we are buying your meals, not your groceries. Well, I'm like 3000km from where i would put my groceries away in my house, soooo.... Anyways, yeah. Convinced them to let me buy bread and meat and stuff.
    via u/Mr_Mojo_Risin_83
  • 28
    SilverRoseBlade They tried this on me too while I was living abroad for work for a while. Luckily the manager was the one who gave approvals and added a note to finance that I went grocery shopping for a week's worth of food at a time rather than eating out every single meal.
    via u/SilverRoseBlade
  • 29
    Gorf_the_Magnificent ⚫ When I was on business travel in NYC in the 1980's and 1990's, I would eat a hotdog for dinner from a street vendor, then race to the TKTS booth and spend the rest of my per diem on a half price ticket to a Broadway show.
    via u/Gorf_the_Magnificent
  • 30
    akshaynr Man I have seen the same . I bought a $100 weekly tiffin service instead of spending $35 per day. The manager was upset. I explained to him and he at least was sensible enough to understand and processed the expenses.
    via u/akshaynr

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