I've noticed that I've been spending a lot of money at work lately on different reasons: potlucks, baby/wedding shows, and staff events. I work in the public sector so we've received a lot a funding cuts for staff related expenses like meals and activities. Also, I serve on a specific staff committee, and we were recently told that we have $0 budget for our annual staff retreat that we plan (we got $1k last year), so many of us have agreed to pay out of pocket for the expenses because staff morale is already pretty low due to high turnover.
While these expenses are not breaking my personal budget I'm conflicted about the idea of constantly spending money at my place of employment. Maybe its because this is my first "real" job after college and I'm unaware of certain workplace formalities. Is spending money at work just something I should accept and budget for in the future? I don't want to seem stingy or cheap.
April 29, 2018 at 02:06PM
