Ive sometimes not liked the idea of splitting the bill meal.
For instance,

We went for a meal with a load of people, a lot of them we didnt know. I was driving, and my g/f at the time doesnt eat that much food in one go. So I just had water whereas the other half just had a starter. Everyone else were ordering bottles of wine and 3 courses. Somehow paying £40 each just didnt make sense to us!
(Miggyman, Mon 27 Oct 2008, 10:05, 2 replies)

Fazakerley

It tries to happen every time me and the G/f go out for a meal with friends, I normally get around it by stating at the start that I'm probably going to have the fillet steak so it would be unfair of me to expect them to pay for some of my food and then when agreed I just change my mind and have the seafood as usual.

If they insist that it's OK to split, I'll order the fillet and a bottle of nice red just to make sure I get my money's worth.

But that's not tight - it's just fair play.



(Kip, Mon 27 Oct 2008, 13:56, closed)

it depends what the disparity is
In the long run it's better just to split the bill. Sometimes you 'win', and sometimes you 'lose'. Overall it mostly works out.

On the other hand, if there is a clear difference between what some people have had (at a meal at the weekend myself and some friends had some very expensive (but delicious) beer, others only had fruit juice) - so we paid a bit more than an equal split so they could pay a little less.

I really can't stand each person having to spend exactly the right amount in 98% of cases, though. It ruins the atmosphere, creates arguments and causes hassles with change.

It may be I'm wealthy enough not to count the pennies when going out for a meal, but my attitude is that if you have to count the pennies you should be eating somewhere else. There's plenty of cheap restaurants and buffets if you know where to look that I've used when skint, and avoid the ludicrously expensive ones.
(EssY, Mon 27 Oct 2008, 17:27, closed)

"Overall it mostly works out."
Exactly.

I have absolutely no idea whether I've spent more money paying for my oldest friend than he has paying for me. Maybe he owes me some cash, maybe I owe him some cash. Neither of us knows, and neither of us cares. It all balances out in the end.

And that's how I handle buying rounds, paying for meals, cinema tickets, stuff like that. Some I win, some I lose, but it all evens out. And if one of my associates is cuntish enough to avoid paying his fair share for long enough that the rest of us notice, he soon ceases to be an associate and the rest of us consider the extra cash it cost us a decent price to pay for getting rid of him.
( flake has nothing against your right leg, Tue 28 Oct 2008, 0:33, closed)