How would you split this meal costs?

[SplitTheMeal]

3 adults, 1 child. All related.

A (60s) orders main no starters or puddings. Cost £12.

B (late 20s) orders a starter, and a main and pinched a bit of Ds pudding. Starter was £6, Main £12 so total without the bit of Ds pudding was £18.

C (early 30s) orders a starter and a pudding. Starter was £6, pudding was £5. Total was £11.

D (under 7, Cs DC) has a childrens main and a childrens pudding. Main and pudding were on a deal for £8.

Everyone got one drink free with their meal apart from B who paid a bit more to have an alcoholic drink which added a £. C and D had an extra drink each which where £2 each.

Total meal cost was around £54. I’ve rounded meals up to nearest £.

So how would you split it?

A says adults pay for their own meals and drinks, all put in £3ish for Ds meal and drinks. So A pays £15, B pays £22 and C pays £16.

B says we split it between 3 adults and all pay £18.

C says we split it as per own meals; so A pays £12, B £19, and C £23 (as they pay for Ds meal).

We did resolve this and I am one of the adults. But not saying which or who we went with. I am curious to see how you'd split the meal.

Although in our family A would pay for everyone. We take it in turns to be A

3 adults each put in £20, and a cheap tip's covered too.

I think B. Split fairly. So the adult doesn't pay for their child's whole meal. I feel it's a bit mean.

In this situation B is the most appropriate

Person b wants to split the bill - they pay for their own, happy

Person A wants to subsidise their grandchild- perfect this is essentially what they are doing, happy

Person C wants to pay for their own meal ‐ slight discount but as A wanted to subsidise grandchild anyway works out. So B is the best option that incorporates everyone's opinion

In real life like fuck would I be splitting the bill with my own mum! I really can't imagine quibbling iver a couple of pounds with my mum or sibling. One of us would either pay the whole thing or B + C would split. My mum has done enough for me over the years without having to sit there with a calculator working out what each of us owes

Tbf what normally happens is I say 'mum I'll get this' and then she runs off to the bar to pay the bill while I'm not looking

We’ve been locked down for over a year unable to see family or eat out and your quibbling over a few £ - split it equally and move on!

B is the usual option when we're out with friends or family. Unless someone offers to treat everyone, which occasionally happens with family and very occasionally with our closest friends.

I couldn't get worked up over a couple of quid either way. I would probably have said just split it three ways. C sounds like a tight arse, I could understand if it was a massive difference between paying for your own and splitting but not for a few pounds.

DGM somehow always wins, even though she's in a wheelchair

Sorry, what? Why would her being in a wheelchair mean she shouldn’t win an argument about who pays for dinner?

A would pay for it all in my family and my in laws or B and C buy a drink or do tips

@MintyMabel

DGM somehow always wins, even though she's in a wheelchair

Sorry, what? Why would her being in a wheelchair mean she shouldn’t win an argument about who pays for dinner?

I assumed she was getting to the till quicker.

Life is too short B.
Or most likely one family member covers this meal and next time another does.

Unless anyone was feeling like they wanted to treat everyone, then A and B buy their own, C buys C and ads dinner. Split the tip between the three adults equally.

I'd say C is technically the fairest as each adult should pay for their own and adults should be responsible for their own DCs.

However it seems like a big faff and who really wants to sit in a restaurant and add up the prices on the menu down to an extra £1 for a drink 🙄

in reality I'd just split the bill 3 ways (I wouldn't proactively suggest this if I was the one with the DC as it's be cheeky) but assuming nobody was struggling financially i couldn't be arsed with the hassle of any other options

With freinds we always split the bill evenly between adults so B.

With family the older generation pay so if I'm with my parents they pay. If I'm with the younger generation I pay.

@Watapalava

B

who ever i go out with bill is always split

id never go out with people who insist on splitting bill its embarrassing

At a works night out my friend (A) only had Lasagna (cost £18, she thought everyone would pay for their own meals) and a glass of cola (which she had already paid for at the bar). The person (B) who organised the meal out had three courses (fillet steak main course), and a bottle of Prosecco (total cost over £55).

B got the bill. She divided cost between the 12 colleagues, which came to £42 each, so asked everyone to pay £45 to include tip. Friend had only started working there the previous month and really couldn’t afford to go out, but wanted to join in with her new colleagues. She only had £25 in her purse. The person sitting beside her realised that she didn’t have enough money and slipped her £20, so she wasn’t embarrassed.

In your world my friend shouldn’t go out, because she is struggling for money? She wanted to join in with her colleagues but you think she shouldn’t as it is embarrassing that she can’t afford to split the bill?
I know who was an embarrassment and it wasn’t her. B (and others like her) are the embarrassment, expecting others to subsidise her expensive meals. Don’t worry, she won’t be going out with them again!

@MrsDoctorDear

It would be a fight with my family over who gets to pay. You have to be stealth like to catch the waiter with the bill before anyone else grabs him.

Same with ours 😂

It totally baffles me how some people think the ones who don't want to subsidise other people's meals are called "tight" and "stingy", yet others who want the person who only had a salad to subsidise their 3-course meal are the nice, fair ones

An odd anomaly where logic is thrown out the window. Don't order stuff you can't and won't pay for.

B (late 20s) orders a starter, and a main and pinched a bit of Ds pudding. Starter was £6, Main £12 so total without the bit of Ds pudding was £18.

I love that you even remembered the pinching a bit of pudding, let alone thought it was worth mentioning.

I wouldn’t even be able to tell you what everyone else in the group ate, let alone how much each and every one of their items cost.

I just find this whole thing - ‘pudding pinching’ most definitely included - to be so

Absolutely!

@FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop

It totally baffles me how some people think the ones who don't want to subsidise other people's meals are called "tight" and "stingy", yet others who want the person who only had a salad to subsidise their 3-course meal are the nice, fair ones

An odd anomaly where logic is thrown out the window. Don't order stuff you can't and won't pay for.

Absolutely this I mean

B. Unless you're someone who always just orders one course, over time(a friendship) this is always the nicest and fairest way)

But many people do only ever order one course, either because they have a smaller appetite, or are on a budget.

Expecting them to pay towards the '3 courses and cocktails' people is very unfair, especially when they've moderated their own choices to what they can afford, but are still stung for a bigger bill because others have gone all out.

With family and close friends one of us would just pay the whole bill on the basis that it evens out over time. Otherwise we’d split it equally, unless someone said they had wanted to just pay for their own. It’s really not a drama, especially after not being able to go out for so long.