September 20, 2010

  • Selective Starving on TDY

    Military and Government employees will occasionally be lucky enough to go on a Temporary Duty, or TDY.  Civilians have things like this, but I don’t think it really has an official name.  I guess “business trips” will have to do.  Depending on how long the trip is, and whether you are single or not, these trips can either be an awesome time, or an awesome time without the rest of your family.  Also, the bigger the city, the bigger the payout.

    Those who are smart realize that a TDY can be a great time to make some additional money.  To do this, you have to understand your organization’s methods for paying for things, or technically, reimbursing for things.  For example, usually there is a maximum daily amount that they will pay for a hotel, and if you are under that amount, they will only pay that.  No banking there.  However, if you get a certain amount no matter what, it is in your best interest to only get what you need for as little as possible.  Be careful, though.  As some CIA techs back in the day found out, you may question where the bottom is when the hotel manager is surprised that you want to stay in the room for the whole night.

    The second type of funding is for meals.  This is where you can do the most damage.  If you want to lose weight, even better.  Let’s say that they give you a $66 per diem for meals.  If your organization will only reimburse for what you spent, then it’s time to eat $66 worth of food each day.  If they give you that $66 no matter what, it’s time to be lean.  My employer does the latter, and doesn’t ask for receipts.  Then I found out that the hotel comps the breakfast (guess where I will be eating breakfast every day).  I am planning to splurge on one day where I go to a Brazilian restaurant where they bring you meat, but other than that, I carry yogurt back to the room after breakfast.  The other meals are reasonably priced.

    The last thing to be careful about is getting reimbursement.  Some organizations will advance you the money.  However, most organizations will only pay for your trip AFTER you return, and they are slow to do it.  If you put everything on a credit card, you may find yourself paying interest, even if it is the company card.  That’s why the most important part of the trip is the paperwork and receipts.  Get those in ASAP!  When I graduated from the military academy, they gave us 60% of the TDY money up front.  However, you couldn’t get the rest of the money until you completed the training.  Well, 60% of the way through the training, you are still in the hotel, and the money has run out.  Meanwhile, the hotel is on the military base and government run.  Also, we are not the first people to go through this.  However, we have to get paperwork to keep the place from kicking us out.  The next year, the military decided to pay it’s own hotel directly.  I did not bank on that TDY.

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