Real Life MMD: Should I pay the extra money?

olliedog

You pay your friend what they loaned you. This is a friend you are trying to diddle. They were good enough to loan you the money. You owe them the full amount. You pay them back all of it.

pretzelnut

If I was ''the friend'' I would have been pleased that you found the voucher and used it. In fact I would have probably looked for one myself.

I wouldn't have asked for the cash after finding out, I would have been happy that you were out of your financial difficulty that got you borrowing money in the first place and that you were thinking of other ways to save money, so that you didn't end up in that situation again.

It doesn't matter how the debt was settled, It was settled, as agreed by the OP paying for dinner and the friend agreeing. It makes no difference how the bill was paid, they had agreed that, that was the way the money owed was going to be repaid.

If it was a debt of £20 and the friend ate £20 worth of food, its paid. Regardless of the voucher.

It wouldn't matter whether or not it was a 50% off voucher, tesco rewards voucher, 2for1, etc etc.

fedupwithjunk

get a new friend, and I can't believe how nasty you all are

mr-tom_2

Yes pay up.

Otherwise don't expect people to lend you anything again.

And yes I do mean people rather than this individual - believe me, they'll tell people if they feel badly treated.

jaynec555

With friends like you.........

In your position, I would have taken them for a meal to say thank you for the loan, not as repayment.

rtward

This is a no brainer, you must pay back the difference between what the dinner cost and the amount borrowed. Remember this is your friend, is it worth losing a good friendship over a few pounds? Even though your friend agreed that if you paid for dinner you would be even there was an expectation that the meal would be of similar value to the outstanding amount. Do the right thing and pay them back, you know it makes sense.

horsechestnut

The friend who kindly lent you the money feels cheated. Of course you should pay her the difference, to repay her kindness in lending you the money in the first place.
There is money savings and then there is meanness! Meanness isn't just to do with money; what you are showing is meanness of spirit.

Bearface13

We all like to save money - but it's nice to have friends as well. This sounds like a good way to lose them. Your friend lent you x pounds; you paid x/2 pounds for his meal. You clearly still owe him x/2 pounds. He was kind enough to lend you the money when you needed it - you need to pay him what you owe him.

chrissio

Split the food bill and then pay her back the money. You borrowed money (not food) so you should pay back money. No question.

glads69

God save us all from the overuse of the word "fair"!! There are two strands to this problem.

1. If your friend agreed that your paying for dinner cleared what you owed them and they did not make this conditional on dinner costing what you owed them, then you are quits regardless of what dinner cost. The fact that this happens between friends does not change the purist contract position.

2. If your friend doesn't like that you got out of your debt to them by spending less than you owed, it is up to you how/if to appease them. Whatever you do, someone will remain unhappy and the friendship is, at the very least, damaged. Here, I do not agree with the friend's reaction. They were free to insist on being repaid in cash but they chose to accept a different deal.

Conclusion: NEVER borrow from friends unless you always repay in full in cash when they want the money back.