Splitting the bill can be murky.
One person always orders the $35 steak and you somehow always end up paying for it, even though you order entrees. Every time.
But for one mum, the problem lies in splitting the drinks.
Writing on Mumsnet, the user explained that she and her husband only drank water while her daughter and son-in-law, and his parents, ordered drinks throughout the night.
“I’ve just been for a meal with my daughter and son in law together with his parents. My husband and I arrived early so bought some drinks and were seated while we waited for the others. We had a very nice meal and had a good evening,” she began the post.
She continued to explain how the bill was split evenly between the six of them.
“However when the bill came my daughter split the bill evenly six ways but after our first drinks hubby and I only drank tap water (not because we are mean but because we like water with our meal) while the others all had at least two alcoholic drinks then coffees which were added to the bill,” she wrote.
She explained that she was uncomfortable with the fact that she ended up paying for everyone’s drinks, when she and her husband drank table water.
“Thus we ended up paying for a large portion of their drinks. Don’t get me wrong we are always willing to ‘get a round in’ when we socialise but having already bought our own drinks and not having any more I felt a little bit cheated or am I being a skinflint. Would it have been fairer to just split the food part?” she wrote.
The responses varied. While some were completely on her side, others called the behaviour “petty”.
“Are you skint? Because if not YABU [you are being unreasonable] and petty,” wrote one user.
“YABU [you are being unreasonable]. You bought, what, one/two of the six a drink. Really not an issue for me at all. Unless a friend is hard up (and then one of us will say ‘let’s pay for our own’ at the start), I hate penny pinchers at a meal out,” wrote another.
Others were more empathetic, sharing that paying too much for others can “sour” a meal.
“I’m with you. It always sours the night for me when I end up paying loads more than my food came to. People might say it’s tight, but isn’t it pretty cheeky to expect others to subsidise your meal? And mine is always cheaper, so it doesn’t balance out long term!” wrote one user.
“YANBU[you are not being unreasonable]. We often split bills, but alcoholic drinks are always done separately . Otherwise it’s unfair on non drinkers and designated drivers,” wrote another.
If only they’d gone to a pay-as-you-go pub.
Do you think you should pay for other people’s food and drinks? Tell us in the comments!
Top Comments
This issue raises its head every few months. I don't mind splitting the food but if someone orders meals which cost twice as much as anyone else they know this and should offer to pay a bit more. Taking advantage otherwise. A friend would offer to pay more if they knew what they had cost substantially more. Even if I have a course less or a cheaper option because that's what I want to eat I don't mind paying what is unlikely to be more than $10 more overall. That's just the way it is.
In regard to drinks which are very expensive I would only split drinks if I was drinking as well. If I was not drinking at all I would speak up. You can't have it both ways. if you don't want pay for drinks drink table water or if you just want one go up and pay at the bar or something.
Huh maybe it's a generational thing but whenever I go out with friends everyone always calculates exactly what their share of the bill is. The only times I've spilt the bill evenly is when we've gone to tapas or a share plates style restaurant and all had similar number of drinks. I've never had to ask that the bill not be spilt evenly.