In a viral TikTok video, a former private investigator revealed that one of the best parts of the job was the daily meal allowance her company gave her and her partner.
In the video, Rebecca (@veganbodegacat) explains that she used to work as a private investigator about ten years ago, and some of her clients were quite rich. She says the best part of working for people with money was the hefty food allowance they’d give her and her work partner.
“They don’t know how much food costs, so our daily food budget was insane,” she says.
Rebecca says that at first, she had no clue her company would reimburse her for food expenses. The first time her boss asked how much she spent on meals that day, she looked at them with a puzzled expression.
The next day she got a Chipotle burrito and submitted an expense report that couldn’t have totaled more than $10, she says.
“You didn’t eat enough,” her boss purportedly responded after seeing her expense report. “Don’t you know? You have a $160 food budget.”
Rebecca replies by saying she doesn’t need that much for meals, but her boss insists that she use it since the amount doesn’t roll over day to day.
In a follow-up video, Rebecca clarifies that at her company, all jobs were done with a partner, so the $160 was for the team of two, which ends up being an $80 food budget per person.
What they would do was not eat breakfast, barely eat lunch (usually just a snack), and then ball out for dinner at a restaurant like The Cheesecake Factory or Buffalo Wild Wings. Between the two of them, they’d spend about $120 on food and tip out the rest, which ends up being about a 33% tip.
“I love that you used part of it to tip well! It’s so fun and feels so baller to leave a big tip on a big bill,” a commenter wrote.
“It was a great time. As a teenager, it was definitely the best of the job,” she concludes.
@veganbodegacat #privateinvestigator #storytime #workstorytime ♬ original sound – Vegan Bodegacat
The TikTok has nearly 2 million views and hundreds of comments.
For context, in 2013, the standard meal allowance in most of the United States was $46 a day, according to the Internal Revenue Service. So Rebecca’s individual company-issued allowance was nearly double what was federally required.
Several commenters shared what they would do with that amount of meal money.
“Id be grocery shopping everyday,” one person said. Though Rebecca shared that buying groceries wasn’t an option.
“Sushi. Every day,” another wrote.
“I would be buying catering and meal prepping that! Amazing,” a third added.
The Daily Dot reached out to Rebecca via Instagram direct message.
