Real-life MMD: I've won a £100 vch - must I pay for my friends?

Ashagill

Well, essentially you got £100 for free. But you want your friends to pay you more on top of that?
I know how tempting it could be if your finances are a bit of a state, however, morally, I think it would be wrong to get more money off them.

I liked someone's suggestion earlier of perhaps selling the voucher on for a percentage of its worth. Then you could get that money as cash, rather than value.

And if your friends are nice people, they probably would buy you a drink for it.

Also I just want to agree that when I used to be a student, I shared my discounts, as much as I could. And now i'm a graduate and some of my friends are students, they share their discounts with me. Because it's like Friends' Money VS A Company's Profit.

JimmyTheWig

We had a somewhat similar situation some time ago. We had a £20 voucher from a restaurant after being at the wrong end of some bad service previously.
Friends had come over to ours to visit. Food wasn't planned, but we suggested we went to the restaurant.
We used the voucher to cover everyone's drinks plus our toddler's food (their baby was too young to eat anything) then split the cost of the food between us. So both couples paid the same amount though we got more out of our voucher as we had an eating child. Seemed totally fair to all of us.

In this instance it obviously depends on what has already been said and suggested - as many others have already pointed out.
I think it also depends on how much the bill is likely to be, whether you would normally go to this restaurant as a group of friends, whether you would normally pay these sort of prices when you go out as a group of friends, etc.
E.g. if you normally go somewhere for £20 a head it is completely unreasonable to go to this place for £40 a head and you pocket £30 each of your friends' £40es. But if you normally spend £40 a head then I think everyone will get a bargain if they pay the £10 each above the value of the voucher and you get all of yours paid for.

If they are good friends, are doing ok for money, know that you are struggling and normally go to this sort of place then I would like to think that they would offer to pay full price for their meal so that you can keep the cash. And if the above is true I see no problem with you accepting that, or maybe taking half the cost from them. But I don't think you should expect to profit from them.

musicmonkey21

How selfish to invite others and you have £100 to yourself.
I think you know the answer to that question already. Share it out.

System

iclayt wrote: »

Use the voucher and if the bill comes to over £100 split the difference. It's nice to treat friends sometimes, and this isn't really costing you anything. What goes around comes around and all that.

This ^^^^^^^

happy2B

It all depends what you said in the first place. If you said "I've won a voucher, lets go out for a meal.", the implication is that everyone will share in your good fortune and it is difficult to backtrack now. If you simply said "Lets go out for a meal together to xxxxx" and they agreed, then everyone would be expecting to pay their own way anyway - and you could overtly or surreptitiously try to arrange that everyone pays their share via you.

But you have to remember that some things are worth more than money. I know it's tough when cashflow is tight, but if you generously treat your friends now that you are able to, I am sure the favour will be returned in other ways. And the goodwill can be worth more than the pound notes in the long run.

You also have to think how odd it will look if your friends are aware that money is tight and you are suggesting going out to an expensive restaurant and don't explain why it is possible. And if you try to hide it and then they find out and feel taken advantage of, what damage that could do to your friendship.

Like many other posters, I would say use the voucher to pay for meals for all of you and enjoy a good night out you would not otherwise have had. If you really need the money so much, forego the meal and sell it on ebay.

Cinders2001

The first part before the question was "I've won a £100 restaurant voucher, and have invited two friends to dine with me...."

I've you've invited someone around to your house for dinner, do you make them pay?
No.
This person has INVITED friends out for dinner .... in my head the same rule applies.

happy2B

A cautionary tale based on my past experience. I had a slightly different but similar experience with a friend. Every year she would arrange a meal out for her birthday with a group of friends, with everyone paying their own way, which is fair enough. But one year it became obvious that she was getting a free meal on the back of taking along a minimum number of diners. So I did a bit of digging and discovered that EVERY year she had chosen somewhere with a similar deal - and kept quiet about it - and sometimes fairly expensive places so everyone else but her had to fork out quite a lot.

What really annoyed me was not so much the money, but feeling that I had been taken advantage of and deceived. So I have not fallen out with her - but now I always decline every invitation from her on a point of principle. And an element of trust has gone.

In contrast, another friend invited a group of us out to a place that does a free main course when it is your birthday (again there is a minimum number of diners). But she was very open about it AND as she was getting free food she paid for some wine for everyone to share. So she got a cheap-ish meal and other people got a cheap-ish drinks bill - so everyone benefitted. But more importantly, they appreciated her generosity. And that's worth its weight in gold! :T

clairmelville

I don't know anyone who is not having problems (or some difficulties) financially at the moment. So I think it may be short sighted to assume that your friends are affluent and OK with money when you are not.
The answer to the question hinges on the expectation of the friends, and how they were asked to join the OP. THey could have been asked out for a meal with very little else said in which case if they are expecting to pay their share then that is fine, and any extra you pay with the voucher is a surprise.
If you invited them out with the express intention of celebrating that you had won a voucher, then they would rightly expect you to contribute the voucher for more than just the amount that you would otherwise be accountable for.
Personally if I knew that my friend was in your situation and had invited me out, I would be a little miffed if I was asked to stump up a full share.

meeshpeesh

If you invited them with you because of the voucher then you should use the whole voucher for all 3 of you. But if not, pay your share of the meal with the voucher and save the remaining balance for another time. That's what I'd do anyway, and I'm sure my friends would do the same.

If it had been a voucher for clothes and you'd gone shopping with them you wouldn't be expected to chip in for their purchases would you?

Newbiecomper

Asking your friends to pay you in exchange for something that effectivly has no exchangable value is just a sneaky way of cashing in on them. Shame on your for even coming up with this idea!

You have invited your friends in the first place because you have this voucher, so take them out, have a lovely time, and get them to split any outstanding balance between themselves. As long as the bill is not too high, you should get a free meal, and enjoyable evening with your friends, and if it gets them money off, they will be thankful for the invite too.