£30 - surely no longer enough for work expenses and Xmas party!

[Thursday5pmisginoclock]

For those in corporate roles where you can claim expenses…what are you company policy amounts for an evening meal when working away? Our £30 allowance feels so mean, and it’s the same amount for Christmas party! I mean what do you get for that nowadays??? Especially if we were to meet in London?

also why is the personal car payment still £0.45ppm - I am pretty sure it was that 10 maybe even 15/20 years ago!

inflation has not caught up surely…?

Is this commonplace?

Definitely living in a parallel universe. When I'm away working spending a few nights in a hotel we're usually in the office for 11/12 hours then it's something to eat on the way back to the hotel. We generally do have a glass of wine or a beer or 2 to relax a bit with colleagues as we work in a very high pressure environment. Trust me my employer gets more than their pound of flesh and I'm not going to martyr myself with a crappy meal deal that I wouldn't eat at home.

The meal deal was in reference to lunch not dinner.
I assume as you’re in the office for 12 hours that lunch and possibly breakfast is provided.

Yes, I was talking Tesco meal deals (or equivalent) for lunch. My daughter is a very healthy eater (trained as a dancer) and very often had them for lunch when she was working (London prices). I personally would struggle as I said but that's because I am a very fussy, plain eater but I'd probably end up getting something that was even cheaper.

For an evening meal I don't actually think budget affects how healthy something is. It's pretty much going to be restaurant or pub food wherever you go and you can get something unhealthy with chips type meals and something containing vegetables/grains/pasta/grilled meat options in all price ranges.

Apologies @McIntire . Yes breakfast is provided. Usually included in the corporate hotel rate. We do need to buy our own lunch though as it guess we'd be doing that at home anyway. It's usually London I travel to so I do get tempted by the nice chains like Leon, Pret etc or little independent sandwich shops. Given the rest of the time I work from home I don't mind splurging a little on lunch.

Ok, let’s do the maths:
Typical hotel breakfast (arounfd 7 am, very tired): bowl of cereal, fruit and coffee, around 400 kcal
lunch: sandwich and fruit: around 550 kcal (based on tescos dietary information)
dinner, one course, reasonably healthy (not more crap food, factory made sandwich for lunch is bad enough): around 900 kcal (based on wetherspoons menu to keep it cheap)
that‘s 1850 kcal
Average daily calorie requirements are between 2000 and 2500 kcal
Yes, i need a starter! Preferably something with a significant amount of vegetables in it as based on above my diet is pretty disastrous !

Dancers famously have horrendous diets. Tesco meal deals are horrendous ultra processed rubbish. They’re not healthy at all.

Hardly. Back to back meetings with many different people (clients, colleagues, suppliers) rarely translates into meals provided. I typically eat less during the days when I’m travelling as I’m so busy and don’t get breaks.

How many nights did you spend away from home in hotels last year?

This year I have spent around 45 nights away from home in hotels. All international trips. I have another 15 nights away planned before end of the year.

My evening meal allowance is £15
Tea/Coffee/Snacks/ are all at my own expense
We have to pay for our own Christmas party

would you be happy for your taxes to go towards £100 per person parties for everyone in the public sector?

imagine alcohol not being covered

some of you must work for some shitty employers

Imagine the outrage of student tuition fees being spent on alcohol and Christmas parties for staff.........

I work for a national company - we get £10 per head . Can only dream of £30

We just submit our receipts and get reimbursed. No alcohol permitted and I guess if you really took the piss then it would be queried but otherwise it’s straightforward. I’m not permitted to expense client entertaining which can be a bit awkward but usually there’s a local sales bod who can pick up the tab. The German guys have it really tough as they are strictly capped for tax reasons and the limit is too low for a lot of countries (Nordics, Switzerland, U.K. before the pound tanked…)

Then that’s a organisation and/or time issue not a financial one.

You could have a £200 a day allowance but that’s no good if you haven’t got the time to eat anything.

Imagine the outrage of student tuition fees being spent on alcohol and Christmas parties for staff.........

My brother (director of private-sector company) expressed amazement that we don't get tea & coffee provided. I pointed out that he had three kids who had gone through university and asked how he would feel about any of their tuition fees being spent on tea & coffee for university staff.

Mind you, he was also amazed that we don't get paid bonuses. He asked what we get if we meet our performance targets. I replied that we get to keep our jobs.

I would not call a tuna & sweetcorn sandwich/sushi pack/pasta salad ultra processed rubbish (unless you are one of those people that think all bread/carbs are evil. It's pretty much what we would have for lunch at home.

You can choose some dreadful processed options of course, but a wrap/sandwich/salad, banana and a drink is pretty much what we'd have at home.

@FatOaf hahah yep no tea or coffee provided and certainly no bonus!!

Bread, mayo, pasta/pesto sauce and margarine in meal deals are all ultra processed. There are loads of preservatives and emulsifiers at all stages - how else do you think you can get a cheap shelf stable sandwich?

It’s not a matter of thinking carbs are evil, just that the cheap bread and other ingredients used in meal deals is at best nutritionally devoid and at worst really not good for you at all.

You are likely to find all of those things and more in your posh pret sandwiches too.

Anyway, Tesco sandwiches are just made with normal bread, the same bread as I buy every week for home.

I had a meal deal yesterday

Falafel & Hummus wrap
Innocent Invigorate (green) Smoothie
A pot of Olives
£3:90

I don’t eat dessert so would never order 3 courses
at dinner

£30 is fine in London; most places will do two courses and a drink for just under that.

45p per mile is set by HMRC, so you might want to talk to them about that lol

imagine alcohol not being covered

some of you must work for some shitty employers

Yes, there are millions of people that work for publicly funded employers. A parallel universe from you, it seems. We pay for ourselves if we want to go out at Christmas. We take sandwiches or buy our own food if have to travel to a course / meeting .

For a Christmas meal?
Would you like to share where?

Even for a daily meal I don't think 'most places' applies. A drink is £4-6 for non alcoholic and £7-10 for alcoholic

I live in Central London and eat out most days.

She means a daily meal