How much is your per diem?
 

My company is not known for being extravagant (they prefer the term "well-managed"), but I'm curious as to how their meals policy stacks up with other companies.

The policy is "reasonable expense," but in practice, I've found the cap to be $35 per day (very occasional exceptions allowed).

My usual way of dealing with this amount is to have the free breakfast in the hotel when possible, skip lunch (or just have a cheap snack), and then have a decent dinner with a coupla drinks at a mid-range place.

What's your company's per diem/meals policy, and how careful do you need to be to stay within the limits?

As a consultant I havent had one (we have been charging the exact amount of the expenses) but I am considering changing that to simplify billing. Another way you can stretch your per diem (or pocket more of it) is to get status at a hotel that serves evening appetizers, drinks and so on in their executive lounge. That has been dinner many nights for me.

$70 / day for all individuals who travel. They watch it pretty closely, but I have never had to cough up the difference when I go over.

Some interesting related threads:

What is the strangest thing you've expensed?
Hotel Dry Cleaning: Your company's expense policy?
You write the travel policy - what goes in it?
Travel per diem and hotel allowance
What "fraud" do you commit on expense reports to avoid questions?
expense acct question
Expense report guidelines
Do you expense your booze on flights/in airports?
Corporate Travel Policies
What's Your Hotel/Meal Per Diem, Company Size?

For what its worth the federal Meals and Incidentials per diem ranges from $34 to $69 depending on region of the country.

Depends on the city and country ... range between 20 (Tuvalu) and 126 Tokyo. Hotels between 33 Lampung (indonesia) and 399 Bermuda

Ours varies by city -- regardless I still find that travelling costs ME money unless I'm content eating fast food on the road. I also look for hotels with bfast included to ease the pain.

35 a day except in five or six cities, then it's 50.

Yep, pretty much right on. In fact there is a decent site on GSA that breaks down the max lodging plus M&IE for each state--very useful for fellow "federal" employees:

GSA DOMESTIC RATES

For US Government overseas travelers on Uncle Sam's dime, you'll have to go to State's site:

STATE DEPT OVERSEAS RATES

One of the things on state's site that I noted is that there is no lodging reimbursement for Baghdad or Kabul! :td:

$50 / day. Then no reimbursement above that.

With my company it's basically "whatever it costs, within reason" meaning I have an understanding with my boss that I don't try to rip off the company and try to make wise choices, and he signs the expenses at the end of the month.
This has worked great for the past 2.5 years.

$48/Day
10 breakfast
14 lunch
24 dinner

Depends upon where the porject is and how many hours I will be billing. If it is a high cost area and only 40 to 50 hours per week then I can more about the per diem rate. If it is a low cost area and I will be billing 70 to 90 hours per week then the per diem is a small factor.

Usually get from $35 to $50 per day for meals. But no recipets, If they offer $35 per day I get that every day. If I spend more it cost me, if I spend less then I get to keep it.

$169 a day to eat in Tokyo! It's one of the perks of being a Federal employee overseas. When a meeting takes you to Tokyo....just eat like the locals do at yakitori stands or curry houses and you can earn some serious extra income!

My company policy is $45/day for domestic and $65/day for International. They start paying once you arrive in the city. They are evaluating changing the International rates...cost of food in Melbourne or Singapore for example is much lower than London or Tokyo.