$106 a Day

Seeing as how many of my friends are avid Food Network watchers, many have seen Rachael Ray's popular "$40 a Day" show where she explores the sights and food of a different city without going over a self-imposed budget of 2 $20 bills. While it's fun to see the different local hole-in-the-wall places she'll visit in each show, the frugal Asian in each of us invariably grumbles that $40 is an awful lot of money to drop on food in a day when we're good at finding $4 breakfast pastries, $7 sandwich lunches, and maybe $15 entrees - at most! - for dinner while on vacation. Heck, when not on vacation, I personally try to set a guideline of approximately $5 a meal while trying to eat relatively healthy, so many of my lunches during the week are a $2.33 (including tax) self-assembled salad, a small handful of chips (brought from home), and a grapefruit juice (free from the company).

A while ago I came across a few articles talking about the heady per diem given to NBA players during the season when the team is on a road trip. The current Collective Bargaining Agreement between the players' union and the league provides - get this - $106 a day for food and other knicknacks while on the road. $106!

Here's what one former NBA player does with that much money:

We get per diem. At the beginning of each road trip we receive an envelope containing our per diem—a cash allotment meant to cover the cost of our meals on the road. I LOVE PER DIEM. By some formula detailed in the Collective Bargaining Agreement we get $99 dollars per diem (each day) on the road. It is wonderfully ridiculous. It is true that I COULD spend a hundred dollars a day on food, but it would take quite an appetite. Especially considering that I have adopted Subway as my restaurant of choice on the road. Unable to eat 20 foot-long subs each day on the road, I invariably end up with some extra cash in my pocket—which mysteriously migrates to my wife’s wallet as soon as I get home! During my first year in the league, I actually paid my RENT with my per diem.

Another excerpt from a different article:

Players can use the money as they choose. They can order room service at a ritzy hotel, which could set them back more than $80 for a meal...

"Man, we gamble away that money right away on the plane," said Nuggets guard DerMarr Johnson, referring to high-stakes card games. "We put it right into the gambling pot."

Nuggets forward Reggie Evans recently dropped $85 for a room service afternoon steak at the swank Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco.

Portland Trail Blazers center Jamaal Magloire spent more than $80 last week for a room service steak at The Westin Tabor Center.

Considering so many NBA players love the Cheesecake Factory, you can get quite a lot of salmon with teriyaki rice plates with the per diem.

What would you do with that much money for food every day?