Grubmasters:
When you plan your patrol’s meals for an outing, these are the financial guidelines. For nutritional guidance and for the requirements you may be working on, see the Scout Handbook and the Cooking merit badge pamphlet.
Meal budget
Per person, per meal:
- Breakfast — $4
- Lunch — $7
- Dinner — $10
Every breakfast is budgeted at $4, including a breakfast eaten on the morning you head home.
How the budget works
Multiply each meal by the number of people you are cooking for, then add the meals together. That total is the most the troop will reimburse you.
- Spend less than the total, and you are reimbursed what your receipts show. Spend more than the total, and you are reimbursed the total. The difference comes
out of your own pocket. - So the number you calculate is a ceiling, not an allowance. Plan under it.
Who to count
Count everyone eating your patrol’s food, including yourself. If an adult has been assigned to your patrol for the outing, count them too — adults eat on the same per-person budget as Scouts.
Spending your budget
The per-meal figures are how you arrive at your total. They are not separate envelopes you have to spend separately.
Treat the total as one budget for the whole outing and allocate it across your menu as your plan requires. A simple lunch that comes in under $7 a person frees up money for a better dinner. What the troop reimburses is measured against your total, not against any individual meal.
Snacks and desserts come out of that same total. Nothing is added to your budget for them, and nothing stops you from planning them. If a snack or a dessert fits inside your total, include it.
Scouts working Cooking merit badge requirement 5 have to serve one snack and one dessert to satisfy that requirement. The requirement adds a planning obligation, not extra money — those items are funded from the same total as everything else. Any grubmaster may include a snack or a dessert whether or not they are working the
badge.
Plan them into your menu from the start. Deciding at the store usually means finding the money already spent.
Examples
A weekend outing, 5 Scouts. Leaves Saturday morning, returns Sunday afternoon. Meals are Saturday lunch, Saturday dinner, and Sunday breakfast.
(5 × $7) + (5 × $10) + (5 × $4) = $105
Your maximum reimbursement is $105.
A longer weekend, 6 Scouts. Leaves Friday evening, returns Sunday afternoon. Meals are Saturday breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus Sunday breakfast.
(6 × $4) + (6 × $7) + (6 × $10) + (6 × $4) = $150
Your maximum reimbursement is $150.
Getting reimbursed
Keep every receipt. After the outing, bring your receipts to the troop treasurer along with the Expense Reimbursement Form.
Download here ==> Expense Reimbursement Form (1684 downloads ) <== Download
