How the Other Half Live

Wednesday, June 10, 2009 | I just read the article regarding officials from the San Diego School district charging $2,000 worth of meals. I believe the question was posed, “Have you tried to eat on $25 per day?” The answer to this question is yes. My husband travels to Shanghai frequently and the daily meal allowance (all meals) is $32 per day. On a recent trip he had to put in extra work hours at the hotel and ordered room service meals which are quite expensive. When he left the food bill was around $1,400 for a few days of in suite meals. Needless to say, he could not run this through to his company and we had to pay these costs. He was so involved with his work he lost track of the meal costs – this won’t happen again.

Not only has my husband had to take a 20% pay cut this year but because he is an all-around nice guy, he has been taking laid off workers and their friends out to lunch for their last day of work. The lunches usually run about $200 per a group of 5+. We also have to pay this out of pocket because he can’t run it through his company. Please let school officials know how the other half is living these days. By the way – we don’t have a $10K car allowance either!