Splitting the bill.

[PokerFink]

Touche.

I can see that I'm not going to win this one. I concede.

(For the record, I'm not a nit. I'm could care less if I get stiffed five bucks at dinner, and I'm usually the one who throws in my extra ones to pad the tip. But many of my friends, especially the females, are not like this.)

[jesusarenque]

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first of all, it's not about nitpicking, when we go out, all of my friends simply take turns looking at the bill and paying what they owe. nobody is going around telling everyone to put in this and that, it's just that everyone understands the concept of paying for what they ordered. it's not a hard concept to grasp.

secondly, maybe it's just because i like to hang out with intelligent poeple, but the bill is never short, and is almost always too much, resulting in a huge tip.

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you realize this is not normal right? If you go out to dinner with two people, and one of them has a beer, do you go through the effort to figure out that he owes $3.00 more than the other two who ordered cokes? I realize it is not that much effort, but it just seems so petty.

Daryn: Ok, I owe $23.50
Friend 1: Ok, I owe $24.25, I got a diet coke.
Friend 2 (the drinker): Well, I got a beer, so it comes to $27.00

Isn't it easier for everyone to just throw $25 and leave?

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I don't ever go out to eat with anyone who would order a coke or just water with his meal. That is weird.

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actually, i think it's weird that you won't eat with anyone who likes water.

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I don't mean I refuse to eat with him/her. I just don't have any friends who drink ONLY water with the meal. Everyone gets beer or wine (along with water).

[IndieMatty]

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

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Come on here, yes situations arise. Again, among the post college crowd if something like this happens someone usually steps up "dude just take care of the tip, I got the meal" or "get me a few beers at the bar" . This should be an automatic gesture, one would assume you are breaking bread with someone you are friendly with and you wouldn't mind spending an extra 8 bucks on them.

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everyone keeps mentioning college.. i have no idea how that matters somehow. what if none of my friends went to college?

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We mean, when people have jobs and are older. I also forget that you are only like 23 right?

[daryn]

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

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Come on here, yes situations arise. Again, among the post college crowd if something like this happens someone usually steps up "dude just take care of the tip, I got the meal" or "get me a few beers at the bar" . This should be an automatic gesture, one would assume you are breaking bread with someone you are friendly with and you wouldn't mind spending an extra 8 bucks on them.

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everyone keeps mentioning college.. i have no idea how that matters somehow. what if none of my friends went to college?

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We mean, when people have jobs and are older. I also forget that you are only like 23 right?

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i am 25 but as i mentioned most of my friends are in their 30s

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I dunno. You get my point though.

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Your point is that you go dutch with your lady friends? Or that you're drinking when she isn't?

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? I don't like being the only person drinking/not drinking.

Like Matt said, splitting evenly doesn't mean you don't take care of the chick who didn't drink because she's expecting, or the vegan who only ordered the side of rice.

But if I'm going out with people who drink way less, or order way less, or don't get appetizers or dessert when that's what everyone else is doing, they're probably nits and I probably won't be going out with them a whole lot.

[PokerFink]

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everyone keeps mentioning college.. i have no idea how that matters somehow.

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College kids are poor. College kids will argue about who needs to throw in the extra two dollars.

When you're older, you have money. If I go out to dinner with my rents and my neighbors, the fathers will argue about who gets to pay for everyone.

As such, older/wealthier people are more willing to chop it up evenly, because an extra few bucks doesn't matter.

[daryn]

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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?


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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.

[swede123]

To me this is the sign of true friendship when you're able to work splitting the check without elaborate procedures. Anytime I'm out with some of my real good friends someone will reach for the check and pay for it, usually because he doesn't have cash on him. Next time it's someone else. If everyone has cash they pretty much do like what Daryn described, people throw in a reasonable amount for themselves, and the final result is the waitress gets 20-30% for a tip.

It gets tricky when going out with people from work or whatever that are more casual friends. For example, this one guy at my office will actually figure out what 12% of the total check is, and if unchecked he'll actually pocket other people's over-tip so the total ends up around 12%. Obviously he doesn't get invited to many happy hours...

Swede

[daryn]

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everyone keeps mentioning college.. i have no idea how that matters somehow.

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College kids are poor. College kids will argue about who needs to throw in the extra two dollars.

When you're older, you have money. If I go out to dinner with my rents and my neighbors, the fathers will argue about who gets to pay for everyone.

As such, older/wealthier people are more willing to chop it up evenly, because an extra few bucks doesn't matter.

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that's the thing i think everyone is missing, .. maybe it's just in my scenario, but nobody is complaining about money discrepancies.. the money never comes up short, and nobody is ever "arguing" with anyone else over how much they put in.

[B Dids]

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.