As I mentioned in my last post, my husband is TDY right now, which is military-speak for a business trip. I don’t envy him being in West Texas in August! Although it hasn’t exactly been roses and rainbows up here in Ohio, either. Blech.
Military Per Diem: Excuse to Spend? Or Opportunity to Save?
When John goes TDY he typically receives some kind of per diem, depending on the place and the purpose of the trip. He was rather surprised to learn that he was going to get, like, $35/day per diem for this TDY. After all, he’s attending a class on a base with a chow hall. But within 24 hours of arriving, John figured out that a lot of wining and dining is expected as part of this course: networking and all that. There goes the per diem — and then some, if you’re not careful. Right away he started thinking about how much mandatory fun he could get away with skipping out on. One other guy in the class was like-minded, so he wasn’t the only one doing the math.
But it didn’t take long for others to notice, as he wrote in an email just a couple of days after his class started:
“Ok, so today already I ducked a lunch engagement AND another dinner. And someone asked me if I was poor. I just said no, but some simple math told me eating at fancy restaurants twice a day for $25-30 a pop was far in excess of the $35 or so they were giving us per day.”
Knowing him, he’s paraphrasing what he actually told the guy (I’m assuming it was a guy). But these aren’t fast food restaurants these people are going to here, and they’re not sitting down and ordering off the appetizer menu and sipping ice water, either. Just the booze alone for some of these guys eats up their per diem, I’m sure. And while I’m all for going out and enjoying yourself now and then, and I totally get the professional-social networking thing… Every Day?
Easy Come, Easy Go
His situation reminded me of a friend of mine whose (military) husband always over-spends his per diem and makes no apologies about it. He goes TDY often, and she actually factors in more spending in the budget when he’s away then when he’s home. “He’s eating steak and ordering out a few beers almost every night.” That adds up. But he feels like he works hard and so he deserves it. This is not uncommon.
There is the bit about how it costs money for them to eat when they’re in their own home, too. There is that. So it’s not like going over your per diem should break the bank, assuming you’re spending less on groceries while you’re spouse is away. But I’m just trying to keep things simple here.
John’s about half-way through his TDY now and I just ran some numbers. So far, he has spend roughly $377.13 on food. (This is not an exact calculation as I am going by his debit transactions, and all of these may not have been for food.) That averages out to about $27 a day. So he’s managed to do pretty well. Some of this was for start-up, too: he got a few grocery items to keep in his room for a few easy meals, so those dollars will of course stretch further. (Farther? I have never understood that rule.)
Of course it’s nice to “make money” when your husband goes TDY. And some manage to do that every time. But I know so many who don’t. Sometimes it’s mindless, and sometimes it’s more purposeful. I’m going to go out and enjoy myself and not worry about the cost.
How about you and yours? I know there’s a lot of military peeps out there. Does your spouse watch his spending while he’s TDY? Or is he “on vacation”? Those who aren’t military but your spouses (or you) travel a lot for their job: is it all reimbursed? Or do business trips really wear on the budget?
There can be a lot of pressure out there, to wine and dine and schmooze and act like it’s nothing to drop $50 on a meal and a few drinks. That guy who asked John if he was poor? Oh, I’m sure he said it in a joking way, but just his asking says so much about the judgment he was making… about John, perhaps. But I’m thinking even more about how her perceives others would view him if he were to make the same choice.
***
Addendum: Thank you guys so much for your comments and input on the previous post. I plan to respond to you each individually. Alas, it is very late, and a pile of laundry is not going to fold itself and is threatening to fall on top of this laptop as I type. I will be getting back to you all shortly. You’ve given me a lot of food for thought. I sorely appreciate it.
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
My DH travels about an average of a week per month and on a full 5 day trip we normally make $250 “profit”. He expenses all the normal fixed costs (flight, hotel, car/taxi) but the extra is all related to the meals and miscellanous per diems and costs avoided at home. He normally stays at a hotel which includes breakfast and it’s common for the client being audited to have lunch brought in so there is no expensing or tracking there. Regardless of the actual cost, he is supposed to expense $35 for dinner, but most nights he eats simply and spends under $20 ($15/day profit). In addition, he is expected to expense the $17/day for “miscellaneous”. Unless he has to replace forgotten toothpaste or something, that’s all profit too. So assuming all things are normal we “make” about $30/day this way. In that same week his car remains parked and he doesn’t pay for the bus commute into downtown (another $40 saved on gas and $25 on bus fare). I’ve never calculated the grocery savings when he’s gone for the week, but there has to be more saved there. All in all, I figure a typical week long business trip nets us $250. Since he averages one trip a month over the year it really adds up ($250 x 12 = $3000). I don’t include this as anticipated income in our budget but treat it as found money and use it for extra mortgage payments.
Since all my husband’s travel expenses are charged back to the client, I guess they’ve been quoted a fixed amount based on him using the full per diems in all cases, so he’s just been told to charge the full amount. They’ve already approved what they’ll be charged for the audit and aren’t expecting him to come in under budget. Making $3000 in travel profit is like earning nearly $5000 more in salary. It may not last forever, but in the mean time we’re loving it!
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jolyn Reply:
August 25th, 2010 at 9:04 am
You guys are doing an awesome job of tracking your expenses! I just started a post on tracking spending so your comments seem so apropos.
As per the reply I left on your previous comment, we need to get a good credit card to use for when my husband travels. The gov’t gives you a card but we HATE it. I finally put my foot down and told him not to use it anymore; their admin was so terrible, they would actually hassle you about paying the bill BEFORE IT WAS EVEN DUE. (Can you tell it still ticks me off?
And I always felt like we were giving the gov’t a free loan, b/c the due date didn’t change even if the military member was still traveling and hadn’t been reimbursed for any of it yet. Grr. At least we could use our own credit card, we thought, and get points for it.
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Not in the military, but I one of my freelance jobs I was blessed with a nice per diem and really struggled to spend it. Which was a nice break for a change
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I could write a long rant here on my husband. LIKE for example when they all go to RUTH CHRIS STEAKHOUSE and his meal ALONE for ONE night is (sit down ok) 80.00!! I complain to him that HE needs to MAKE MONEY. This is work or school but still lots of the times for US …we end up with out of pocket expenses which would NOT be the case if he would STOP to consider that THIS is WORK and normally every night at HOME HE would not be EATING STEAK!
I have to stop because this is one area that we have major marriage issues over. Plus the next couple of weeks he will be gone and well I will see if he makes extra money or if we will be spending more out of pocket for his school. ARGH!
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jolyn Reply:
August 25th, 2010 at 9:07 am
Oh, Tam, I feel your pain! A friend of mine finally resigned herself to her husband spending so much when he’s away that the per diem is moot and she’d rather be cooking for him at home. My husband has never been terrible about it, but he didn’t always look at it as an opportunity to “make” money, either; but rather a vacation he was on so he could splurge a little.
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Mr. BFS and I aren’t in the military and don’t do a lot of business travel, but when I was sent to California once, I barely managed to stay beneath my laughable $30 a day per diem. Luckily, one of the supervisors with a rental car was also trying to stay under budget, so we ate a lot of fast food (Subway, burgers, etc) and I pocketed about $75 after the 7 day trip. California is EXPENSIVE – in Houston, TX, I could easily get by on $10 or less a day on fast food alone (not to even mention just buying some bread and peanut butter and jam…).
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My husband recently decided that since we’re on the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace Program, that he would work harder at “making money” on his TDYs. He’ll be taking a trip soon and we’ll see how well he does…
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I’m not in the military, but I do work for the government (I Really can’t Say which agency, *wink) and we call it TDY too. My position calls for me to travel at least two weeks a year. I get reimbursed at the OPMs per diem rates. Almost everyone I travel with makes it a goal to come out ahead. My last trip was in June and I managed to save $230 for a five day trip. I consider it a perk of my job. Don’t get me wrong, I love to eat out. But the per diem is so much it’s almost impossible to spend it all.
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My husband gets everything expensed on trips – anything the client wants is covered so he’s good. BUT – if he were TDY I can easily see him thinking he works hard and deserves it. He could easily fall into either boat.
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That is a tricky situation. $35/day seems very low to me. My husband’s per diem is $52/day which is on par with the Canadian Federal Government. But he isn’t staying on a base with meals provided.
Sometimes they have to buy breakfast, lunch and dinner and the per diem is stretched. Here we have a full kitchen and even with lobster and fancy seafood we won’t spend it all. And it’s feeding the whole family this time not just Ken.
When Ken travels by himself he eats pretty cheap and splurges on beer and scotch and brings the scotch home.
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G-man is federal gov’t, so I get the whole TDY thing.
In general, he only has to take 1 trip a year, and we typically fall into the “make money” category. He is very uncomfortable social networking (unless you count Facebook!) so he tends to go back to his room after class.
That being said, on the the trips where he made “friends,” there was alot more spending. He usually skipped breakfast (or if he was lucky, the hotel provided it). Lunch was fast food. And he would blow a bunch on dinner….steak, apps, etc.
I wish I had a job that I got to travel! A night alone in a hotel sounds lovely.
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