Splitting a Restaurant Bill: How Do you Do It? 5 July 2005 at 4:50PM in Money Saving Polls 13 replies 8.3K views

Former_MSE_Andrea

What do you do most commonly when eating out with a group of friends?

a. Split the bill evenly between everyone?
b. Work out exactly who had what and divide in detail?
c. Take it in turns for one person to pay it all?
d. Another method

Vote here or click reply to discuss.

IvanOpinion

Had to vote for other because generally we split the cost of alchohol from the cost of the food. We normally split the food (and tip) evenly between everyone - but the alchohol is split between the drinkers only.

Ivan

zodiac

Work out exactly who had what and divide in detail

Because I dont drink alchohol or fizzy drinks and it depends where we are eating as to what I have (ie, I dont like Indan food so I would only have a salad and a bit of whatever the OH is eating)

fran_from_willesden

I'm quite lucky in that when I go out to a restaurant, it's one that everyone likes and we share bottles of wine so it tends to work out equal. Only if I'm skint do I pay for the food and drink I've had rather than split the bill.

Twopints

Didn't we do this already?

New way to split restaurant bills

Happy to vote on this again...

nemo183

Please don't send me any hate mail, but in my experience there are only 2 ways of splitting the bill when it comes to parties of men or women.

1) Groups of women - everyone carefully examines bill, all work out with a calculator who has eaten what, drunk what - to the last penny. After 20 mins of discussion, each put in exactly what they have consumed. After this, all present total up money and see if it equals amount owed. Ignore the fact that the service charge may go straight to the restaurant, with the staff seeing nothing of it. If total paid in is less than bill, spend another 20 mins working out who has underpaid.

2) Groups of men - most sober person glances at bill, divides it equally between diners, and announces figure owed by each to the nearest £5. Most sober person checks if money collected exceeds bill. If not, most sober person throws in missing amount, especially if concerned that service charge is not being paid to the staff.

I offer no explanation for these observations, other than to say there might well be a connection between alcohol consumed and method of bill paying.....

catherine-r_3

When my husband and I were going out, we would guess what the bill would be and the person who was the most 'out' would pay. We still do it now, but it is from the same credit card so doesn't make much difference!

If I am out with friends, we just split the bill between us.

andyjervisuk

A great idea that happens in the USA is that one person is elected as a scavanger so you order meals for one less than the party and the scavanger has bits from everybodys meals thus saving one complete meal, then split the bill equally between all members. Lets face it most of us eat more than we need to so this prevents over-eating and suffering the next day, and we all save money!

IvanOpinion

andyjervisuk wrote:

A great idea that happens in the USA is that one person is elected as a scavanger so you order meals for one less than the party and the scavanger has bits from everybodys meals thus saving one complete meal, then split the bill equally between all members. Lets face it most of us eat more than we need to so this prevents over-eating and suffering the next day, and we all save money!

They would die in my company either from starvation or continual stabbing with a fork ... I insist on sitting beside DW because not only do I get my meal I also get half of hers

Ivan

zodiac

nemo183 wrote:

Please don't send me any hate mail, but in my experience there are only 2 ways of splitting the bill when it comes to parties of men or women.

1) Groups of women - everyone carefully examines bill, all work out with a calculator who has eaten what, drunk what - to the last penny. After 20 mins of discussion, each put in exactly what they have consumed. After this, all present total up money and see if it equals amount owed. Ignore the fact that the service charge may go straight to the restaurant, with the staff seeing nothing of it. If total paid in is less than bill, spend another 20 mins working out who has underpaid.

2) Groups of men - most sober person glances at bill, divides it equally between diners, and announces figure owed by each to the nearest £5. Most sober person checks if money collected exceeds bill. If not, most sober person throws in missing amount, especially if concerned that service charge is not being paid to the staff.

I offer no explanation for these observations, other than to say there might well be a connection between alcohol consumed and method of bill paying.....

This is so true, so very true..... :rotfl:

osama_been_lately

There's no point in going out if you're not prepared to just split the bill. Make up your mind before setting off and if necessary, tell you rfriends what you're expecting. Anything else causes friction. I've actually seen people get calculators out and simply got up and walked off and left them to sort it out.