I’m currently on a business trip for work. Traveling and working in a different location is a great change from the day-to-day grind. I am also hoping it will be a great way to save money. My employer pays for nearly everything. Flight, hotel, rental car, and two meals per day. However, if you’re not careful, I think it would be easy to spend more money than staying at home. For example, I’d love to go see a hockey game here since I’m a huge hockey fan.
During these two weeks I’m going to keep track of any expenses related to my living. I’ll count any food, clothing, transportation and entertainment expenses. Basically, I’ll be keeping track of any expenses that won’t be reimbursed. I won’t be counting expenses that I pay no matter if I travel or not, such as Comcast at my apartment. At the end of my two week trip, I’ll compare this amount to what I would normally spend at home on food, clothing and entertainment. I’m interested in seeing if traveling for work costs me more or less. It will likely impact my future decisions to travel for work.
I can, however, tell you that there is a benefit to getting the different travel points. I’m getting flight miles, hotel reward points, and credit card reward points for my expenses. The airline miles aren’t huge, but I think the hotel will yield significant benefits for a future trip. After my two week trip, I’ll make sure to post my results of whether I saved money or spent more.
Have you traveled for your work? If so, did you find that it saved your money, or ended up costing you more?
Does your company pay per-deim, or does it reimburse. My company only reimburses expenses, so it doesn’t pay to save. However, my wife’s company pays per-deim of $50 per day, regardless of what she spends. So, if dining only cost her $30, she pockets the remaining $20.
My company reimburses most of my expenses (rental car, hotel, food, etc.) . I think the real savings for me will come based whether I can keep down any other expenses (such as going to a hockey game, going somewhere else for entertainment, having to buy something I forgot at home, etc). If I spent no additional money, I’d save money for the two weeks simply not having to pay for food, or gas, etc.