New Way To Split Your Restaurant Bill

Mrs_Thrift

I've voted "split the bill evenly" as that's what we do with our "oldest" group of friends, who would never dream of taking the mick.

But when I went for a meal with a group of girls at Christmas we had to work out what each person had spent as we'd all had very different things and drinks and so on. And I'm glad we did as going through it that closely (and even more closely when one person completely "underestimated" the amount they'd drunk :rolleyes: ) meant that I spotted we'd been overcharged by about £15! :eek:

Cynical old me reckoned they thought they could get away with it as we were "just" a giggling group of girls, and they didn't count on my eagle eyes, hehe!

Murtle

I've never liked working out what eveyone has had to eat, and luckily we have always split it fairly....veggies can pay less for meal....non drinkers don't pay for drinks!!!

however, went out recently and a few people had champers...and a few people added their bar bill to the main bill....now that's taking the spencer out of Michael!!!!!

student100

MSE_Martin wrote:

My alternative

Easy Honours System:

It's effectively an easy hybrid of the above two.

How it works: After the bill, ask everyone to quickly put in what they roughly think they owe. This isn't a numbercrunch estimate, more a quick off the top of your head guess.

Then: Collect all the money in. Almost undoubtably you'll be short, then simply divide the shortfall up between everyone. So if there are 8 people and you're £40 short, everyone has to put in another £5 (£40 divided by 8).

Why?: This way everyone is much nearer what they actually should be paying than simply splitting the bill, yet it's much quicker and less argumentative than having to sift through and calculate.

Please discuss this or what you do, suggest other methods and vote on how you currently divide the bill

That's a new way? It's what's always happened whenever I've eaten out...didn't realise there was anything special about it...

BWZN93

carl310166 wrote:

What do you do about the person who deliberately underestimates what they "think" their share should be?

QUOTE]


This happened to a group of us in our first year at Uni. It was one of the girls birthdays very early in the first term, so about 15 of us went out for a meal, and one extremely cheeky a$$hole didnt pay. Anyway, the bill came and everyone threw in their 20quid, as we ordered jugs of cocktails and just main courses and everyone had pretty much the same, so the bill was split evenly. When the money had been counted, It was clear that 1 person hadnt paid, and everyone had seen everyone else throw in their money, so after a few discussions, everyone added a bit extra.

One guy who hadnt been 'seen' to put in his cash said that he had paid, being all new to uni no-one wanted to confront him, so we just left it and paid the difference. The plan was to continue the night at a few bars and the like, and funnily enough, he just dissapeared, saying he had to go do some work. I think he realised he had been sprung. And he wasnt invited out again to be honest!

I usually just go out for dinner with about 3 others now, one drinks more than the rest of us, one always eats more than us (they are the guys suprisingly...) and the girls just have mains and soft drinks, so we split the bill four ways, but the girls put in a bit less, and the boys cover that difference and tip. Seems to work really well for us!

Jo xx

davidcampbell

if going out for dinner tends to be only a group of maybe 4 or 5 at the most so we just split it evenly.

generally if you are out for dinner, either all are drinking or all arent (depending on what you are doing after) and in terms of food .... all will have same either starter and main or main and dessert or all three.

rare for anyone to have a dessert or starter if the others arent in my experience

so splitting evenly works fine for us

DC

MSE_Martin

A question for those who 'rotate who pays' - those dining with Chinese and Indian friends.

Does this mean you always dine with the same people? what if you're with people you don't know and won't see again?

Also I've added this as an option in the poll

Thanks

Martin

Jay-Jay_4

I'm a 'pay for your own' kind of girl. I tend to drink mainly water (I prefer it to anything else honest) and usually try to pick a resonably priced meal with a glass of house wine whereas other may go for the fillet steak and a bottle of Chablis....I'm not splitting the bill!

I went out for a meal with a friend the other day, we ate the same but my drinks came to £1.75 whereas hers came to £16.50. :eek: (I must've been really bad company :rolleyes: )

Debt_Free_Chick

Jay-Jay wrote:

I'm a 'pay for your own' kind of girl. I tend to drink mainly water (I prefer it to anything else honest) and usually try to pick a resonably priced meal with a glass of house wine whereas other may go for the fillet steak and a bottle of Chablis....I'm not splitting the bill!

I went out for a meal with a friend the other day, we ate the same but my drinks came to £1.75 whereas hers came to £16.50. :eek: (I must've been really bad company :rolleyes: )

Not everyone who drinks & eats fillet steak is bad

Or did you mean that these people did not pay their fair share?

I would hate to think that my preferences had to be curtailed by someone in the group who had different tastes. I don't think this is what you meant ... did you?

Jo4

When we go out usually there is 10 of us, 5 couples. One of the couples always have a starter, 12 oz steak, desert and quite a few drinks of alcohol while the second person in that couple will have similar but without the alcohol. Hubby & I usually drink milk and we usually don't have a starter. This one couple always suggests either spliting the bill or they give about £20 and try to claim they give £40!! If we go out at weekends they take their 2 children and still don't pay any more!

Ebenezer_Screwj

My wife and I went out for a meal recently with two of my male friends. Before we met them I mentioned to my wife that we would have to calculate our share of the bill because one of my friends drinks like a fish and I would only be having one tonic water. She accused me of being "petty" - all the more unfair because I intended paying her share of the bill anyway. In the end she drank more than she usually does so 50% of the bill was quite a fair amount to pay ! Usually with friends we each calculate the cost of our food + drinks and round it up for the tip. It works, but we would have a whip round if any shortfall in the total bill ever occurred.