Real Life MMD: Should I pay the extra money?

Kaz99_2

I guess you use the term 'friend' losely? Pay and count yourself lucky if they are still your friend:mad:

Middlestitch

How much do you value the friendship...?

minicooper272

I had a friend who used to do stuff like this. Big part of the reason I'm no longer in touch with him... Simply put, it sounds like you're profiteering from friends. If I were in a situation where my friend offered to pay £20 towards my meal instead of paying me £20, I'd look to keep what I order to about the £20 mark - you then only pay £10 so you've basically just scammed me out of £10. Whether they would have found the voucher without you or not, it just makes you look stingy and tight fisted to be honest. Pay what you're due or next time make your friend aware of the voucher you have before you come to pay (because this way they know it's ok to order food worth £40 so that you will pay £20 in the end).

magsbenny

i would say to them fine you can have your money now and pay them but keep the 50% discount for myself, if they said that to me!
i mean if the dinner can to more than what you owed them would you say errrr yeah you owe me money now?

tallgirld

Oh Please! Dont be so cheap. Just pay what you owe.

This dilemma has just reminded me why I will never loan money to friends or family again.

hornej

I say split the difference so that both parties benefit from the 50% discount.

wildthing01

hmm... i think technically you should pay them the difference. if you had given them the cash instead of the meal you'd have given the full amount, so i think just cos you got lucky with the offer doesn't matter. i think too, if i were the friends i'd have preferred to have the cash back anyway, rather than a meal - with the meal, they're sort of forced to have the cash spent on a 'luxury' rather than on things they may actually need.

it doesn't matter how much the food is supposedly 'worth' - it's actually only worth what people are prepared to pay for it - in this case, half the advertised price.

i would rather just not borrow from friends in the first place - bit awkward and embarrassing all round...

marielouise

That's bad!

When you asked your friend to lend you the money, did they give you vouchers? or did they specify that you could only spend the money on a meal? NO. You needed cash so that is what they (kindly) lent you. They deserve the same back. And to have the audacity to gloat about finding a voucher which would leave them with only half the debt paid back is just rubbing their noses in it.
I think you really know what you should do.... apologise and pay them back!!

Saetana

Okay, first to correct one or two misunderstandings about what the OP actually wrote and what people appear to have read:

The OP said "We were going out for diner and I suggested that rather than paying back the money in cash, that I pay for their dinner instead", in other words they had already decided to go out for the meal in any event, it was not, as some posters are suggesting, that she offered to take her friend out for a meal instead of paying the money back! I think we can reasonably assume that the friend's half of the meal would come to at least the amount of the loan, maybe more as the OP would have no idea beforehand what her friend would order, and it is unlikely the friend woud have accepted the offer if this was not the case, so I think that those who were saying she should have not offered to pay for the meal but pay in cash are in the wrong as the friend would have had to pay cash for her own half of the meal in that case, swings and roundabouts in other words.

The OP also said "At the last minute I managed to find a 50% offer for the restaurant" so there was no intention at the outset to do anything other than pay for the whole meal in cash, another point I noticed some posters making incorrectly, the discount voucher was a lucky last minute find.

Now, that corrects the main misconceptions (and lack of careful reading) I have noted from many posters. I think the main mistake the OP made was to mention the discount voucher at all, it was, as some have said, like rubbing her friend's nose in the fact that she had managed to pay her back for around half the amount she borrowed (although this in itself is an assumption - how much did the friend's meal and drinks cost?). I personally feel it would not have been all that bad to use the voucher so long as it was not mentioned, maybe the OP is short of money? Needing a short term loan would indicate this to be the case but mentioning it "proudly" to the friend was the height of stupidity.

I feel that, given the details in the OP. the poster should at the very least give their friend back half of the money they borrowed, it is all very well for some to say give it all back to her as a gesture of good faith but maybe the OP cannot afford to do this? It is still possible to make a gesture of apology with maybe a small carefully chosen gift, we also do not know how much money was involved, there is a huge variation in costs between eateries so its difficult to estimate the amount in question. I would also advise in the future to pay back debts with cash to avoid this situation occurring again (not that the friend is likely to let it).

To sum up the answer to the original question, the OP should have kept quiet about the voucher - if she is on a tight budget - having used it and mentioned it she really needed to pay back the difference between the loan and the amount she spent on her friend's meal/half the bill (whatever their normal arrangement is), and if she isn't short of money then she should have been upfront about the voucher at the start and let her friend know she would pay her the difference in cash.

Maxwell_Plum

Yes, you should pay back.. stop being a cheapskate!:money: