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.

Good lord how could you even be bothered to type all that. Does it really matter just split the bloody thing

If it was my mum, she’d want to pay.
If I suggested split then fine, if my brother who had the most said split, I’d deliberately not split and subsidise his meal.

I’d probably go for B. Share the cost equally unless of course someone didn’t have the funds then maybe C

If it was with a parent and a sibling definitely split 3 ways (B)

B would be my preferred option, it’s just the simplest, or everyone pays their own and the dc’s parent pays for their child’s meal, but that can be a lot of messing about. With friends we often just take turns and it evens out over time.

in my family the whole bill would be paid by either the oldest or else the richest person.

If it’s family then adults split the cost of the adult meals, but C pays for their DC’s meals. If it was a group of friends, I’d just pay for my own meal.

Me and hubby were invited to a family meal a couple of years ago. There were 13 adults and a toddler. At the end of the evening the bill was bought and I've never seen such a palaver over it. Well you had this and you had that. What did they have and trying to work it out on a little piece of paper. Why didn't he just take the total and divide it by 13. It wouldn't have mattered if someone had paid a pound or two more or less of what they had. It would have saved all the embarrassment.

I don't get how it evens out over time. In my experience it tends to be the same people who drink more alcoholic drinks and have starters or desserts in addition to a main whenever you go out. If some people consistently order more then it will not even out.

With friends we often just take turns and it evens out over time

Not in my experience. I have friends who drink a lot, others who are vegetarian, some who order steak when the others are on the pasta. Paying your own way is so much easier and it means that there’s no guilt on the part of those who want to choose an expensive option or drink lots or booze, and equally no resentment in return.

Too many letters.

I’d stay home if paying the bill was that much trouble.

Ideally B. Pick up the cost of the child as family and low price meal anyway.

Reality in my family is one pays - usually me (B) or parents (A1 and A2). C1 and C2 with DCs usually get subbed. If it’s a B split in our family it’s not even an each adult split- it’s each household! So 5 adults and DCs is a three way split- in effect I pick up me and the children(ren)- it’s then me treating them. We generally share the load over time. Even if we didn’t, it’s worth it to see my family.

I don't get how it evens out over time. In my experience it tends to be the same people who drink more alcoholic drinks and have starters or desserts in addition to a main whenever you go out. If some people consistently order more then it will not even out.

Ideally you like each other enough not to care!

Do you apply similar logic to inviting people over for dinner? Normally we (approximately) take it in turns. But I guess you could weigh up the food and booze consumed by each person, average it all out over say ten meals, and then work out accurate ratios - for every six occasions on which you cook, Reggie should do eight, and Aunty Glady must do eleven

(Or require Sainsbury's receipts for ingredients? Plus evidence that none of the oregano purchased was being used for personal cooking.)

Ideally you like each other enough not to care!
You can like someone and want a meal out with them while still only being in the position to afford to pay for what you order for yourself. I would never allow a friend to subsidise me everytime we went out if they consistently ordered less than me, that would be unfair. There are friends you can just split the bill with as you order similarly, and some you can't.

Split 3 ways. I cannot envisage any social occasion where it would be split any other way.

I'd hide in the toilet for 12 hours, then make my way home in the early hours and pretend I had amnesia for a couple of days.

(This strategy seemed to work last time!)

We usually agree to pay for our own. Some people we eat out with order the most expensive thing on the menu when someone else is paying and drink a lot more than we do.
On the other hand, we paid the whole bill when we took my sister and husband out for her birthday.

Just split the bill 3 ways.

B

Depends who I’m with. If close family, I’d pay whatever we decide between us. If it’s non-family I’d pay for just what I’d had.

Depending on if it was close friends and family or just acquaintances.

But I would doing it like this £54-£8 (child's meal)/3 works out at £15 per a head and the parent pays for child. Sorted

Why can't each adult pay for what they had and the parents pay for the child?

if we were out with my dad he would never let me pay. We have fought over the card machine! If it was my mum she would offer to pay but I would decline and pay for everyone.

In this situation it would be fairer in my view to do c.

£20 per adult - change is tip

I’d pay for my own and my child’s! So I’m guessing that’s C