I’ve done similar as well. My work gave me a real hard time with a grocery receipt, because there was a grocery store an easy walk from the hotel and I bought some deodorant or something along with some snacks and sandwich ingredients. It was maybe $30. My choices were don’t claim it or recalculate the cost without deodorant including tax from just the deodorant and write a memo detailing what meal(s) I was charging. I Also had to say why I wasn’t claiming certain meals (because leftovers, etc., I even had to have a meeting with the refund person because the company putting on the training fed us and I didn’t have receipts). After that I made sure I ordered as close to ~$43 as I could (meal plus 15% tip maxed out what I could claim) three times a day.
I also couldn’t order two appetizers or entrees without needing a memo and/or showing it was for the next meal because we couldn’t buy someone else food. Pizzas were never questioned beyond “you ate it all yourself?” though. I really like expensive pizza parlors when I’m traveling for work.
Malicious compliance is a form of art.
I’ve done similar as well. My work gave me a real hard time with a grocery receipt, because there was a grocery store an easy walk from the hotel and I bought some deodorant or something along with some snacks and sandwich ingredients. It was maybe $30. My choices were don’t claim it or recalculate the cost without deodorant including tax from just the deodorant and write a memo detailing what meal(s) I was charging. I Also had to say why I wasn’t claiming certain meals (because leftovers, etc., I even had to have a meeting with the refund person because the company putting on the training fed us and I didn’t have receipts). After that I made sure I ordered as close to ~$43 as I could (meal plus 15% tip maxed out what I could claim) three times a day.
I also couldn’t order two appetizers or entrees without needing a memo and/or showing it was for the next meal because we couldn’t buy someone else food. Pizzas were never questioned beyond “you ate it all yourself?” though. I really like expensive pizza parlors when I’m traveling for work.