Work trip - no food in hotel!

Maybe you should look for another job?
If they don't care why work for them?

You could get all the good things about your current role AND a decent company.

You're being used.

@Boxingshibes I just wanted to say thanks for coming back to the thread. So many OP’s don’t. You sound like a hardworking person and I really admire you for supporting your family the way you do. Good luck for the future!

What the hell! Surely you just present the receipt, what business of there’s is it whether you bought it with a credit card or a debit card?

Sorry to hear that. It’s maybe worth going to citizens advice and seeing if your company legally should have a duty of care for stuff like this. They’ll also advice on whether your partner is claiming absolutely everything he’s entitled to, as he might not be.

Sorry to hear that. I think work need to know so they can make some sort of allowance for you. It seems selfish of them to make you go on these trips away if you struggle to afford food upfront and have caring responsibilities at home. Next time it’s maybe worth taking a couple of pot noodles, not great but there as an emergency and usually hotel rooms have kettles. Surprised if work know your situation they’ve not offered to try and help you with a pre paid card or something.

It’s maybe worth your partner going for UC and the LCWRA element if entitled. You’d get an extra seven hundred a month if you are entitled to both.

Hopefully they get the amount of AdP/PIP they are entitled to as well as UC to make a contribution. OP should inform work if her caring responsibilities and outgoings means she struggles to buy food on her work trips maybe they can make some sort of allowance for her, or not insist she takes these trips leaving a disabled partner at home

i am disabled and ensure I get all I am entitled to so I can hand some in and pay my way. They may have to rein things in if they’re struggling like this it’s not feasible long term for her to risk being stuck on work trips without money for food

The OP has said in an earlier post that her partner is disabled, so very probably unable to get their arse into gear.

Why are you the only one working? Are you a single mum?

if you have a partner I’m afraid they need to get their arse into gear

You need to talk to HR about this.

If you're away for half of every month, there is no way you should be forking out up to £500 of your own money and then waiting to claim it back.

It doesn't matter if you're earning £30K pa or £300K pa. Everyone has their own personal expenses and the fact you 'need' the money to pay your rent is irrelevant. It's the principal.

You need a company credit card.
Have you asked?

I travel 1-2 weeks a months so am always paying around £4-500 a month on expenses which I do get back quickly but as soon as I get them I need to use it for the next month if that makes sense.
@Boxingshibes - but there must be a better way, this way you are subsidising your employer for the honour of working for them, it’s absolutely unfair on you.

@Boxingshibes if you are travelling monthly for your job then I would expect your employer to give you a company credit card!!

I've seen a lot of businesses give staff a "float" up front to use for expenses.

If, for example, your employer gave you a float of £500 now that you held separately in a different account, you could spend from it, then claim back the spends for them to top it back up to £500. If you went over it, then you'd claim back the excess too but at least you'd be less out of pocket.

There would have to be an agreement in place that you'd repay it in full if you leave, but they could deduct it from a final pay.

The key would be to make sure it's definitely ringfenced and not mistakenly used for anything else, but it would ease the burden.

I'd definitely try and get something arranged in advance for next time. What if you didn't have the money available to spend? What would they do then??

You really need a credit card OP. Then you wouldn't have to worry about budgeting family money if you've got no wiggle room.

Op, I’m glad you will have a nice dinner and if I’ve missed what you’ve said about not being given expenses up front from your employer - why can’t the pre pay you for your trips?

It might be like where I work. They won't reimburse spending on a personal credit card. Only cash or a debit card.
Whoever wrote the policy has no clue about cost of living and not having lots of spare money at the end of the month.

I got that impression too. I think it may be that money is tight, so credit isn’t an option they want to take on.

I agree, but I have a feeling from something the OP wrote that she is unable to get a personal credit card for some reason? I might be wrong, and if so, that is indeed the obvious solution, in case of future hassles, a credit card which she uses only for work, and pays off monthly immediately she is reimbursed.

You have never lived in a rural village have you?

I can think of several where this would be an issue and the taxi has to be booked well in advance. Even small towns are not heavy on taxi services and those which do exist will prioritise local traffic - lots of short runs being more lucrative than an out of town round trip of ten miles for which only about half are chargeable service. Then of course there is ensuring you can get a taxi back after dinner. Taxis are not public transport, they don’t waste time on non profitable journeys.

As a general rule of thumb - if you are not in range for food delivery services you are unlikely to find a taxi easily either.

You missed that OP can’t afford extra taxi journeys or paying for takeaways as she has a limited budget and food was covered by the hotel and army barracks.

OP had a meal allowance included in the hotel booking. Everything else had to be paid for on a personal card and claimed back at they’d end of the trip. There were limited funds on the card and she was working to a tight budget.

Think Op really needs to get a personal credit card for times like this, then she can claim expenses and pay it back when she gets paid. It's madness that she has to use family money and is literally stranded for the sake of a few pounds for a taxi.

I was not offended. I am just worried about the general reliance on AI. It's doing all sorts of damage to people at the moment. One of these things is making people lose faith in their own knowledge and experience, another is making people doubt their abilities and their own decisions. It's making people passive.

There are not even things such as AI induced psychosis. There is even worse, but I don't want to derail the thread any further.