Splitting the bill.

[daryn]

[ QUOTE ]
This is odd. When my friends go out- you'd never see one person get multiple drinks and one get nothing.

[/ QUOTE ]

why not? this one friend of mine loves beer.. like.. LOVES beer. he doesn't drink because "everyone else is having a drink", he drinks because he loves beer with his meal.

i don't, and drink what i consider to be the best beverage, water.

[RunDownHouse]

I am 100% confused about why everyone is arguing with Daryn. Its never a problem for my friends and I to figure out what we each owe and then pay that. If its just me and one friend, typically one or the other will pick up the bill.

We don't come up short on group bills and one person doesn't end up paying all the time because we tend not to eat with the type of people that would take advantage of that sort of thing. Why is it hard to understand? Pay what you owe, the tip usually ends up on the large side, everyone's happy.

[PocketJokers72]

My homies and I always go out for nice dinners. If there are more than 2 potential payers, we do a round-robin Roshambo (best of 3) to determine who gets the entire check. This only happens after everyone has ordered, so it may have the same 'moderate meal' effect. If there are only 2 payers, it goes to the coin-flip or some other agreed upon manner of random selection. In the bar-type restaurants, the 'diddle for the middle' dart throw closest to the bullseye has become popular, and adds an element of skill.

We never split the check. Someone always has to pay the entire amount. In large dollar cases, we have been known to have the check be paid by the complete loser and the tip paid by the first loser.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
It just seems weird to me that people's bills come out drastically different, to the point where it makes the hassle of a correct split worthwhile. How does this happen?


[/ QUOTE ]

when going out to eat with friends i almost never drink alcohol, i don't even drink soda.. just get water. my friends, one in particular always gets like 3 or 4 huge beers.

it's not that i would INSIST that we each pay what we owe, it's that my friends just automatically do this. if we order on average the same kind of meal but my friend has $15 more than me in drinks EVERY SINGLE TIME WE GO OUT then i highly doubt he would be comfortable with me splitting his beer tab every time.

[/ QUOTE ]

Okay that makes sense. Usually the only situations I'm eating out are dinner with friends where everyone drinks (wine by the bottle) or lunch with people from work where nobody drinks and all food is generally within a buck or two.

The exact split only comes up when I have to go to someones birthday or whatever with casual "friends" from the office, and the bill splitting is usually an unmitigated train wreck, resulting in my hatred of it. One time a bunch of people left, and someone got stuck with the bill $100+ short. They had to pry money from people at the office the next day. [img]/images/graemlins/ooo.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

Edited to add: I also think Daryn's situation where one guy frequently gets multiple beers and the other guy gets nothing, is a bit out of the ordinary. Also, I'd love to gamble for the check because I eat out with the same people a lot and it would be EV neutral, but polite society seems to be more risk averse than the 2p2 crowd.

[Yeti]

Just put in what you ordered, and round up slightly. Or take it in turns to pay. Or chop it evenly. Who cares? I am fine with either of these.

What I am not fine with is people who order the cheapest thing on the menu, then scrounge up exactly the $6.35 they spent and don't put anything in for the tip. Why bother even coming to the meal? Dicks.

[IndieMatty]

[ QUOTE ]
I am 100% confused about why everyone is arguing with Daryn. Its never a problem for my friends and I to figure out what we each owe and then pay that. If its just me and one friend, typically one or the other will pick up the bill.

We don't come up short on group bills and one person doesn't end up paying all the time because we tend not to eat with the type of people that would take advantage of that sort of thing. Why is it hard to understand? Pay what you owe, the tip usually ends up on the large side, everyone's happy.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think it's less about arguing with Daryn, and more about doing what is common etiquette. If you have a group of friends where "paying what you owe" is fine and works---go crazy. But in most situations, especially in large groups, it is much easier, quicker, practical and tasteful to split the bill evenly.

[astroglide]

[ QUOTE ]
This is odd. When my friends go out- you'd never see one person get multiple drinks and one get nothing. My conclusion is that your friends are insane.

[/ QUOTE ]

my friends and associates must be insane too.

[B Dids]

Seems likely.

Maybe my friends are weird, but either none of us is drinking or all of us are drinking.

Maybe it's just that all of us are always drinking.

I talked this over with my best friend, and we agree that once drinks enter the equation, splitting is out, simply because of issues of how much each person will drink and the fact that some people are ordering top shelf and others aren't.

[Ulysses]

[ QUOTE ]
Yes, but what happens when one person orders a water and a salad, and another person orders two beers and a steak?

[/ QUOTE ]

I can't believe this thread.

In the vast majority of post-college group dining situations I've been in, the check is split evenly.

If someone has really expensive stuff or a lot more drinks than anyone else, they toss in a little more.

If someone just had a salad while everyone else had three big courses, they toss in less.

It is very simple to have the default be split the bill and just modify accordingly as is reasonable.

[Ulysses]

[ QUOTE ]
Add a tip, split the bill, that's it. If I had a few more drinks than anyone else, I'll throw in a little extra. Just keep it simple.


[/ QUOTE ]

Exactly.