sharing restaurant bills in a group

Kayalana99

justjohn wrote: »

We split entire bill by the number of guests. However seems to be the done thing nowadays to get the calculator out and count how many more/less peanuts you have had compared to the next person.

its not just about booze intake, its about peeps being tight lol .... I was out a few months ago at lunchtime. I seen a crowd of women splitting the bill individually AT the till. Very annoying when you are waiting to pay.

Yes and no - it's also about fairness(and yes not everyone has the same amount of excess cash). I went out to TGI's the other night and had a coke and a meal..my friend had 2 cocktails and my other friend had three.

With three meals(£20ea) and 5 cocktails(£6ea) and a coke thats about £90 say, if I pay for my coke and meal it literally makes it £10 cheaper.

Is it really fair that I pay for their drinks because they choose to have them?

I wouldn't say I was a tight person - I think I would of happily brought a round off my own back - but I think it's another thing when you spilt the bill to expect someone to pay for your share, if I had ordered three cocktails I would of put more down even if we was spiting equally and not working it out to the penny.

As above - OP has said she will order cocktails next time...and why shouldn't she if shes expected to pay for everyone elses?

Edit: I agree with you about the woman at the till - !

Edit again sorry lol: I have noticed although we still pay for what we have with my friends things are a lot more relaxed now - my main two have graduated from Uni and have a lot more spare cash so instead of spiting to the penny it's rounded up and we tend to buy rounds of drinks where as back in the day we would of each brought our own and spilt usually with me putting a bit extra down as I wasn't bothered about 50p...it really depends on the excess cash someone has I guess.

peachyprice

The group I dine with regularly seem to be able to manage splitting the bill fairly without too much fuss.

If we're all drinking we split it equally, if one of us isn't drinking and the bill comes to £20 each we'll just tell the non drinker to put in say £15 and the rest of us will put in an extra £1-2 to cover it.

rach_k

We normally split the bill equally unless somebody has had something particularly expensive and in that case it's the person who spent a lot more that insists we split it properly, or we'll split the bill equally but they'll leave the tip. We have two kids - as they usually have the cheap kids' meals we tend to count them as one adult when dividing the bill by number of people.

People don't tend to drink when they're with us anyway but if somebody had spent much extra on alcohol we wouldn't pay towards that as we don't drink (and don't particularly agree with drinking), just like I wouldn't expect a vegan to contribute to my husband's massacre on a plate if it cost more than a plate of veg

Cycrow

it usually depends who im out with, but i dont usually find it fair to split the bill evenly.

i often have one of the more expensive meals, and often spend more on drink as well, so i prefer to pay for myself, otherwise, others will end up having to pay more to make up for what i had

maman

peachyprice wrote: »

The group I dine with regularly seem to be able to manage splitting the bill fairly without too much fuss.

If we're all drinking we split it equally, if one of us isn't drinking and the bill comes to £20 each we'll just tell the non drinker to put in say £15 and the rest of us will put in an extra £1-2 to cover it.

That's roughly what we do with my normal friendship groups. I do have one friend who's teetotal so sometimes we tell her that we don't expect as much from her, other times she'll put a round figure on the table to cover what she's had and the rest of us (who've had extra drinks) spilt the rest.


With my family, I always try to pay for my (grown up) DDs. They don't ask but we like to treat them. It's only what my parents did for me.:)

skea56

We tend to split evenly within family/close friends, though as others have said it will depend on the group.

I was at a hen party last year with about 20 girls at it and we went for a meal. Almost everyone had a main course and then shared either starter or dessert, it wasn't a rule put down, just worked out that way. This one girl had full 3 courses including a steak, didn't want to drink the house wine shared among us, and ordered herself a bottle.

At the end of the meal, the bill came down and 3 course girl snapped it up and announced that it would be best if we shared the bill, which worked out at £35 per head - not too bad you might think, but her wine alone cost £28 per bottle and she drank it by herself.

My sister was on the trip and was pregnant at the time so obviously not drinking, she had a pasta dish and we shared starter & dessert. A few of the other girls and I put extra in so she didn't have to pay as much, but I felt aggrieved that one girls greediness cost the rest of us.

I shan't be rushing out to drink/eat with her again.

sk56

mutley74

Kayalana99 wrote: »

*Usually* in large groups on my family's side, we will order separately so their is no hassle - some buy drinks for others etc to be nice. On the MIL's side they will order together and get their calculators out (phones), round up slightly and what ever is left over (as we know in these situations the last person usally pays less so it counters it) is considered a tip.
just spit evenly...and to go against the grain will probably leave you looking 'poor' so no one wants to.
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with family and CLOSE friends its different as everyone understands this matter, and I never had an issue. as I do organize some meals for various social groups its a matter that I wish to resolve. again various mixed drinkers and eaters attend but think its fair for those not drinking to pay a share to the drinkers, and for drinkers expect to let others pay towards them.
is it just a matter of bite it when out with a group, and I'm the only one that objects?

wiogs

Having been caught out in a group when I ended up splitting the bill I pay for my own nowadays.

I had a pizza, nothing to drink, which cost a few pennies under a tenner. My "share" of the final bill that time came to £30

Kayalana99

mutley74 wrote: »

that I wish to resolve. again various mixed drinkers and eaters attend but think its fair for those not drinking to pay a share to the drinkers, and for drinkers expect to let others pay towards them.
is it just a matter of bite it when it a group, and I'm the only that objects?

Thing is as above with the hen party, no one wants to be the person to object when some people want to spilt evenly.

No one wants to seem like that penny pinching person - but I bet your bottom dollar in a group of 20 people if you 'spilt evenly' quite a few will be sitting their clenching their teeth because they know 'so and so' has had more to drink or they had desert... and leaves you walking away saying I won't be eating with these people again.

As I said before, its just nice of people to pay extra if they've had more(I mean that in the sense of if you are spilting the bill without adding up the meals then if you know you've had extra drinks you should offer to put more in) - but not everyone thinks like that. They just think its easier to spilt rather then add it up and divide.

DigForVictory

On the few occasions I get out to a restaurant in a group, we're usually all on (finite) expenses - so we all pay for ourselves.
If someone's celebrating, we put our costs into the middle and ask for multiple copies of the final bill.

We're all vehement that drivers should not be penalised (nor doomed to cola) so we subsidise their experiments with alcohol free drinks. The San Pellegrino cans are expensive but the freedom to choose them is appreciated.