Money Moral Dilemma: Should those with more children pay extra when we eat out together?

tallgirld

Have more children to keep it balanced : )

mac9091

Never been one for the "split the bill" as unless everyone is equally hungry or gets the same value meal then it's open to abuse, as you clearly are currently a victim of.

Always pay for what you and your partner/kids eat otherwise you are subsidizing other family's meals.

And I'd guess your not the one suggesting to go out.

Although if you regularly go out do you use meerkat movies/meals???

happyinflorida

You are being ripped off IMO

I wouldn't have agreed to this system in the 1st place, I'd have said something and if they didn't agree to split fairly, I'd have said we're paying for our meal separately as there's no way you should be made to pay for others meals.

Tell them you'll pay separately in future and when you order, tell the waitress you want your order done separately as you will be paying separately to the rest of the group and if the rest of them don't like that, they're not your friends, they're using you.

Cybermouse101

Don't go out to eat with children. Unless you can eat any that are extra to requirements...:beer:

pinkdizzyh

I had the same issue with my brother & his family when we went on holiday together - they had 4 children and we had 3, it worked fine while all the children were eating kids meals but then their 3 oldest started to ask for steak meals while ours were still on kids meals and we were very much out of pocket! So at the next meal as we were ordering I simply said to my brother our budget was a little tight so we’d get our own bill. There were no issues really except that their bill went up considerably so their kids were stopped from ordering steak! But they soon realised that we’d been subsidising their meals.
Speak up and let them know - as others have said they perhaps just haven’t thought it through xx

SimonHolland1

Me and my partner don't have any children - why should we reward others further for contributing to an unstustainable population?

confusedgranny

When we go out with the U3A (after our walk) we all pay our own. Probably more complicated for the staff but less chance of resentment between those who look at the menu to see what they fancy and those who look at the prices too / first.
We never get a bill for the group so don't have to split it.
Actually it might not be more complicated for the staff. A couple of times when I've gone out with groups we have realised when splitting the bill that someone's meal has been left off (perhaps someone has come late) and the staff have been grateful that we said so, as they would have been penalised. If we've just split the bill x ways we wouldn't have noticed.

pickledonionspaceraider

staggered wrote: »

I can't tolerate people who sit there with a calculator working out their precise share of the bill. If you're that bothered about paying a couple of quid more than your share of the bill, stay at home. They obviously can't be very good friends if you resent them a couple of quid.

One could say if they cannot afford to pay for their own kids meals,they should stay at home

Works both ways eh.

I say in this situation, just order separately - and have separate bills. There's no need for calculators :rotfl:

pjran

Next time you all go out suggest before hand to divide the bill per person not per family. You should not be paying for the three child family. They will all appreciate you letting them know before the bill arrives.

Carry on enjoying the get togethers but divide the bill per head.

dolgoth

Unfortunately, ,it depends. We usually split the bill but if we have more kids then we suggest that we get the tip - It usually works out as the kids meals shouldn't be more than £10 - £15 and when we have a group that size then the tip is minimally going to be about there (I use 10% as absolute minimum but usually closer to 15% when in a large group).

So you could suggest what the tip should be and tell the other families to pay that as you have less. Unfortunately this probably means you really have to think about what everyone is drinking. In fact if there is drinking involved then you should just pay for your bit. When drink is involved someone will always benefit or "forget" about something they have ordered.

Generally though - a kids meal should work out similar to the size of the tip required.

Also if there aer kids eating of the adult menu - insist on not splitting.....