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.

b

Definitely C. I’d never, ever, expect my sibling to pay for my child.

C

In reality, my mum would probably try and pay or my sister and I would try and pay.

With friends, definitely C. This is purely because I still remember going out with a very large group for someone's birthday about 15 years ago. I didn't have much money and only had a main and a soft drink. Others in the group had starters, puddings, wine, brandy etc and then suggested splitting the bill equally and adding extra to pay for the birthday person's meal. I wanted to cry. Thankfully, someone else pointed out how unfair that would be on certain members of the group. I never want to put someone else in that position.

Split it 3 ways or one if the adults pays and next time another adult pays the total

C

£20 each.

Unless - someone has said they are struggling or made it clear they're eating or drinking less in order to keep the price down, in which case split it depending on amount on consumed/price.

It really depends, in this situation I’d say A as all family.

If with friends pay for what you ordered as if someone ordered a small amount it may be all they can afford so not fair to all pay same amount.

C: There may be a reason they don't want to disclose why A has had a cheaper meal.
Certainly been in the situation where one person has deliberately had a cheap meal because that's all they want to pay, and someone else has cheerfully said "let's just split the bill". They shouldn't have to speak up and say that they haven't got the money.

It's noticeable it's always a person that gains by even splits that suggests it.

You clearly dislike B

C

@MargaretThursday
It's noticeable it's always a person that gains by even splits that suggests it.

I don't drink alcohol - I would always suggest it (unless I pick up the bill)!

Pay for your own meals. The one with a kid poys for kid too.

A £12
B £18
C £19

Always B.

C always pay my own meals. Never split the bill.

I am a single mother and yes it can cost more but having been stung multiple times with split the bill tactics where it’s either

pay per family - so I’ve essentially subsided siblings for having a husband and an extra kid on top of those families usually having 2 household incomes to my one.

pay my own adult meal then split kids and end up subsiding extra kids I’ve chosen not to have.

Or the other adults massively take the Piss ordering expensive steaks or wine.

DC has had a massive appetite for while now so more often than not it’s actually cheaper for us to buy a sharing plate or get adult meals in any deal eg the 2 for £15 a pub did (pre covid)

Mind you one thing I do love doing, albeit not very often, is knowing I’m out with certain tight individuals who will WANT to split the bill so I’ll order something extravagant that I’ll fully enjoy like lobster, naice wine and dessert and watch them squirm knowing full well I’m paying for my own anyway. I can’t abide tight bastards and piss takers.

The best one I did that with was tight BIL who thought he had it all sussed with his discount voucher and splitting the bill would get his meal for free effectively as he’d apply the discount without telling the others and that would ‘pay’ for his meal. We cottoned on to what he was doing an insisted we all benefit from the discount or none of us do.

In practice my parents would probably pay. I would suggest paying our own way though and would round up for convenience to include a tip so

A 15
B 20
C/d 25

@reluctantbrit

C. Parents of children always pay for their meals unless someone offers to pay.

In that case A (the grandparent I presume) would pay for sister and brother.

MN is the wrong place to ask this kind of question. It's full of rich people who don't have time to look at a bill. Not necessarily the same in the real world.

C

£20 each. Split between the adults. You’re all adults

Is that just a bloke thing?

I would prob take off child’s meal then divide by 3 and for c add on kids meal

Tho equally as grandad and Aunty could all split and be shared in 3 so b

c
anything else just over complicates things

In our family, A would pay for everyone (because the grandparent is better off than the children/grandchildren and likes to treat them) - so non of your options.
Another time, one of the children might offer to pay, or would more likely cook for the whole family at home to reciprocate.

If we did split, it would probably be option B as the easiest method.

B personally. Whenever we go out for meals, we always pre arrange to just split the bill however many ways. I hate the argument of who's paying for what.

I would gladly have paid all of it to avoid this pathetic quibbling

This!!

Option c. Sorry your kid you pay, this would drive me mad with my group or my family.