Expense policies are supposed to keep spending in check, but that’s not always what happens.

What would you do if your company refused to reimburse you for going over your meal allowance by just 50 cents, even though you saved them money elsewhere? Would you just do as they ask and move on? Or would you make sure to use up every last cent from that moment on?

In the following story, one freelancer found themselves in this exact predicament and opted for the latter. Here’s how it all went down.

Reimbursement bounced for going over by cents? Cool, I’ll spend 20x that

Worked as a freelancer in a job that almost always required travel.

The per diem amount allotted for meals was actually pretty generous, which is needed when traveling: airports, hotel room service, and touristy areas, if you happen to be stuck there with no other options, are pricey.

But it was not a true “per day” amount in the sense that you could spend however you wanted per day.

You got a certain amount for breakfast, for lunch, and for dinner, but could transfer the amount between them ONLY if you were buying all three meals in a day.

Understandable, since you shouldn’t get to spend a full day’s amount on one meal if you didn’t fly out for the job until late.

Tracking one meal and three meals was easy, but two meals were a bit more challenging.

One meal was easy – the amount allotted for that meal.

Three was easy – can transfer between the three to use the full day’s amount (BUT you did have to literally have three receipts to prove it – if you knew you were going to be on-site and miss lunch, for example, we found you had to go buy a bag of chips or a banana or something for as little money as you could and claim it to be a meal to “unlock” the rest of the meal amount to use later.)

Two meals is where it got hairy.

You could only use the amount for that meal and not transfer anything between them since you didn’t use all three meals, hence needing to buy something random above if you were truly there all day.

This policy doesn’t exactly make sense.

I was at the airport at 5 AM and went to the only place open (a bar/restaurant). I got an omelette and a drink or something, and not wanting to stiff the server (in the US), I tipped appropriately for that region and spent about 50 cents over on breakfast.

At my next layover, and since more places were open, I got cheap fast food and spent $10 under on lunch.

When I submitted the reimbursements, it was bounced for going 50 cents over the policy for breakfast.

When I pointed out I went $10 under for lunch, they said that was the policy, and to remove 50 cents from the expense report in order for it to be paid.

In a policy meant to save the company money, I was penalized for saving $10 because I went over 50 cents.

The expenses are about to go up.

Fine, I thought, take your 50 cents.

From then on, I tried to spend every last dollar of the per diem amount, even if I wasn’t hungry.

I’d hoard snacks and things from the airport and take them home to eat later.

I’d rather start spending a few dollars of my own money beyond the per diem to make sure I used every last cent of theirs.

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Bravo! What a ridiculous policy.

Let’s see how the folks over at Reddit relate to expense policy issues.

This person works for a reasonable company.

These people were given per diem upfront.

Here’s someone who’s had company credit cards rather than reimbursements.

Intersting perspective.

Policies like this are just silly.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.