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.

Round it up to £60 for a tip and pay 20 each unless some serious financial hardship you’re about to disclose

Just split the bill between the adults. I can’t be doing with everyone getting their calculators out.

C

I would pay my share and leave the rest to pay their share of sort it out between them.

I would just have split it three ways.

If A is 60 and retired and we’ll off I’m surprised they didn’t pay for a relatively cheap meal, otherwise just divide the bill.

I can’t bare going out with people who add up who has had what and want to pay for each item, invariably these people forget some extras and service charge and underestimate their share. It just ruins the meal for me, I’d rather not go.

Just divide the whole lot between the adults. We used to have book group meals out, and at the end there would be six women saying " I didn't have a dessert..." or "I didn't have a second glass of wine..." or "Who had coffees?" It took ages, as everyone tried to work out individual bills, and spoilt the whole evening.

B if I was out with friends, but with family, one of us would pay. Like PP, we fight over the chance to treat each other, and it probably ends up evenish. I'm saying that but, because I'm the youngest, I'm not allowed to pay that often. I try to make up for it in other ways, by not asking for the money when someone asks me to get them something.

Friends; we would all split it and not give a shit who drank or ate what.

Family - we just take it in turns. You’re only talking about a few quid in your post.

I think OP clearly doesn’t like B (how dare they eat a bite of their kids pudding - and then trying to put a monetary value on that bite - strange).
If all the other adults were happy with the B solution then what’s the problem? You feel like B has got away with being cheeky (you mention you only had a starter and pudding, so what)? But if you’re going to split hairs, you as C should have paid more as you should cover your kid technically (though we would never even get to the stage of adding up in our family). Sounds tedious maybe you shouldn’t all go out for a meal again.

‘total was £18 without that bit of DS pudding’

Who thinks like that?!

B

Just split it evenly. Presumably if you’re all related you must go out from time to time so sometimes you’ll be the one who benefits from the even split, other times you won’t. Don’t quibble over a few quid.

In our family A would pay for everyone. But if not, then B as the cost is so similar for the meals that it's not worth calculating to the penny.

If someone had had a three course meal and bottle of wine vs someone having a starter and soft drink then I would expect each to pay for their own as the difference in cost would be much greater.

I can't stand mean people
It spoils the whole evening when people bicker over who had what
Either offer to foot the whole bill as a treat to the group or split it equally 3 ways
Who cares?

@Happygirl79

I can't stand mean people It spoils the whole evening when people bicker over who had what Either offer to foot the whole bill as a treat to the group or split it equally 3 ways Who cares?

I don't agree with bickering over who had what, but I do think - regardless of cost - that if someone has a child with them then they should at least expect and offer to cover their child's meal rather than assuming it would be split between all adults present.

Technically C is the right way to do it. But sensibly we would normally do A (or one person just picks up the bill and another person does it the next time)

C

You pay for your small dc, the adults pay for what they ordered

C is correct.