...to invite people to my birthday and expect them to pay for their drinks/meal?

[strawberriesandmelon]

I confess I'm crap at organising parties, but my birthday is coming and I thought it'd be great to get a few friends together and have a few drinks or eat at a restaurant. Thing is I can't invite them all... would it be stingy to ask them to pay their part? How do other people usually do this (celebrating birthdays)?

You can't really invite people out for your birthday and then say you expect them to pay for your meal though . Not that it wouldn't be nice...

If we are out in a group ,the bill usually gets split evenly between everyone,we dont bother adding everything up etc. I dont think its rude ,its the done thing surely.Im sure no-one would expect you to pay for everyone.

Are there really people who expect the host to pay if invited out for their birthday?! With my friends it would be like the others have said, the birthday boy / girl usually gets a free meal.

We just check before we book that everyone is happy with the budget they'd need.

If it's relatively informal and you arrange it by phone/facebook then I think generally it's OK for everyone to pay for themselves. Perhaps you could buy an opening drink for everyone.

If it's a special birthday and printed invitations are involved then I think the host should fund most of it. A friend recently hired a pod on the London Eye and we had a little champagne trip on it. We then had dinner - we paid for the dinner but she picked up the tab for the wine.

I just got back from a friend's birthday meal. Of course I paid for my share of the meal and wouldn't have expected otherwise.

Yanbu, but please don't invite them and then drink loads of cocktails with the gang while your non drinking friend drinks water and then say shall we split the bill so said non drinking friend has to pay £10 more than what her meal cost, in effect paying for your cocktails. That would BU and would royally annoy your friend.

Hth

I hate fixed price menus, takes the fun out of eating out. As well as ChippingIn's great suggestion of "'I'm going out for my birthday on x date and I'd love it if you could join me, I have chosen x because they do nice food and it fits with most peoples budget" you could add something about not expecting presents and include a link to the restaurant's website so people can check out the menu prices before they accept.