Who pays what?

[MotherOfOlafs]

Couple A have a voucher for a very nice seafood restaurant that was given to them as a gift, it’s for £100. They want to treat themselves to a platter for £75 because why not.

Couple A have invited good friends couple B to join them. Couple A will pay for their own food and put the rest towards whatever couple B order, so around £15-20 after accounting for soft drinks.

Couple B have asked if couple A will use the voucher then whatever is left to pay is split between both couples equally.

Couple A think that on one hand it’s their voucher so their items are covered, but on the other hand they did invite couple B to join them.

Which is the best option?

Your voucher is your money. Very weird of couple b to try and appropriate half.

I think it wholly depends on how couple B were invited.

‘we are going to restaurant xyz as we have the voucher, you should come’

Couple B might think you are offering to share

vs

’would you like to come to xyz for dinner with us’

This just has the potential to make it awkward at bill paying time

vs

i have a voucher for xyz and was going to use it to treat me and DH to an expensive platter for 2, would you like to come too?’

makes it more obvious that your voucher is yours

Personally if I was couple A, I would share the voucher with my friends, and if I didn’t want to I wouldn’t have invited couple B on that occasion.

I absolutely hate when people want to pay for only what they have eaten and someone at the table is sitting with a calculator at the end. I just assume we will all pay 50/50, iv never been out for dinner with someone with a voucher but id expect you to make it clear whether you were applying the voucher and then we were splitting or if you were using the voucher towards your 50%.

That being said, you and DH are ordering a £75 platter. Are all the mains £37.50 ish? If so then happy days, i see no problems, but if everything else is much less then i dont think that is very sociable of you and dh and you should go seperately to have the platter when its just the two of you.

People also hate it when the same people always choose to go large, order cocktails and 3 courses including steak and lobster knowing the bill will be split with the vegan tee totallers. Complete CF behaviour.

So, they are expecting the bill toco e to about £170.
And couple B think they are being hard done by if they only pay the £70 after the voucher has been spent??

I'd need to cancel, and just add a starter or more drinks to get the bill plus tip closer to 100, and go alone.

This. If someone invited me to join them because they had a voucher I would assume they would be putting the voucher towards the cost of the whole meal. There won’t be anything left if the food platter costs £75 and they have drinks or dessert.

Depends how you normally pay when you go out with CoupleB (as clearly you’re CoupleA). If you normally go Dutch then the voucher should come off the entire total and you go Dutch on the balance, as always. If you normally pay your own share then continue to do that and the voucher goes towards your own share only.

This exactly - friends of ours invited us and other couples to celebrate his birthday to a very expensive restaurant- we felt we had to say yes (birthday!) and when bill came she had voucher to cover their portion. Of course we wouldn’t dream of asking and didn’t expect them but the optics were so off. He was absolutely mortified and asked the voucher be taken off the bill and then split between the five couples - they did break up shortly after! Just go by yourselves - don’t ask someone to watch you eat an expensive platter for free!!

It's weird that you've invited couple b on your nice dinner out which would've been covered for you. Do this one as a couple and then do a seperste dinner with no voucher involved with couple b. Simpler all around and as the gifts giver intended it for couple A . Wouldn't the giver be annoyed that couple A are not using the voucher on themselves solely as intended ?

A voucher is basically cash. If you’d been given the cash would that make a difference to how the bill was split.

Couple A sound greedy.
They've asked for company to spend a gift voucher. They could easily go on their own if they don't like sharing.

I'm cringing at couple B... Id just be grateful my friends were giving us the rest of the voucher to knock off some of my bill.
If I were the voucher couple, I'd cancel the date with couple B and go on our own.

It just shows how different we all are - I'm cringing at the gauche behaviour of Couple A! Toe curling embarrassment!

But, I certainly agree that the best bet would be for Couple A to go out alone to that restaurant if they don't wish to share their voucher.

Couples A & B could go out together somewhere else instead, where no-one has a voucher, and no-one wants to order an unusually expensive dish!

I agree that going alone as a couple would have been easier, but I do appreciate the thought behind couple A whereby they felt that having a £100 voucher could enable them to both choose the £75 platter and offer the remainder to friends.

However, as a previous poster said it would also depend on the type of restaurant it was and the price range. I most definitely wouldn't sit with another couple and order the one top range dish, in the form of a platter, to share with my husband, if the rest of the menu was much more basic. It wouldn't sit right with me and to be honest would be embarrassing and take the fun out of the experience for me.

These sort of situations require good people skills, both in planning and communication.
If they were good friends I'd explain exactly what I was thinking, but say that having thought about it it might be a bit wierd and so if they'd rather do something else together another time then that's fine.

I think it depends a bit on the invite, if it was "we've got a voucher and we'd love you to enjoy it with us" then that's very different to "shall we all go for dinner to xyz" and then happening to have a voucher. Also, if it's a really expensive place and B have misunderstood the invite, that's an expensive mistake!
To be honest, I would say with a gift voucher you're better to go alone anyway so it isn't awkward. Generally I'd say couple B are probably being CFs because I think couple As approach is really generous and gives them a discount on a nice meal that I wouldn't personally have expected in their shoes BUT ONLY if the invite was clearly just "let's go for dinner" and not "we've got a voucher shall we all spend it together"

I would split the voucher, we have often saved up Tesco Vouchers then go to Pizza Express with family and the voucher comes off first (was £150 last time we all went). I wouldn’t invite anyone if we wanted to use it all.

You obviously keep the food part separate for couples - because couple A has a voucher to cover theirs.

But everything else should be 50/50.

Not even sure why couple A is inviting couple B.

You got a £100 voucher? - Just go out and enjoy as a couple with that £75 platter you have your eye on. Why would you invite friends to witness your extravagance, if that's not in their budget?

You want to share with friends?

Just all go out as friends, all order what you want, and gift the first £100 of the bill from the gift voucher.

It's quite cheeky that couple B want couple A to also pay when they are already supplying the voucher and they get to benefit from the left over money on it. Did Couple A say they were taking couple B out though or was there mention of a treat?

Just because it's a voucher doesn't mean it's not money, your voucher goes towards couple A's share of the bill only, Couple B pay for themselves, remainder of bill should not be split.

So from what I read, couples A & B are already at the restaurant when the matter of the voucher comes up. There is no previous agreement in place that it will be shared equally. The voucher belongs to couple A, for their use. Couple A offers the remainder of the unused voucher for couple B's use, having had what they wanted. Couple B therefore have an unexpected discount on their meal, which they originally thought would be full price, but voice that they feel that Couple A's voucher discount should be split evenly, despite it not being their voucher/ gift and knowing nothing about it when they agree to the meal in the first place.

In this scenario, my opinion is that Couple B should be thankful that they are getting an unexpected discount at all, and are taking the mickey if they are asking for the voucher to be shared equally. Couple A arranged the restaurant visit expecting that their meal would be covered by THEIR voucher. Quite reasonably, they were expecting a free meal. They were kind to offer Couple B any discount at all.

Couple A pays their share of the meal which ever way suits them best, IE cash, credit, voucher.

Couple B do the same.

I can't work out why A would pay for B or why B would expect them to.

I think couple B Should feel very lucky their good friends couple A have offered them £15-20 off their food. I know I'd be very grateful.

The best option is not to invite others to dine with you when you have a voucher.

I do however think it's very cheeky of your friends to ask to be included in the voucher in the first place. But others might argue, as you've invited them you should put the voucher towards the whole meal.

B didn’t even need to know there was a voucher. A have over complicated this.

A: wanna go for dinner?
B: yes

A: let’s split the bill 50/50

A pays their portion with voucher.

done.

I would do the same with Tesco vouchers, but that's because technically I haven't paid anything for them.

An actual gift voucher is different because it was paid for in real money.