What’s fair here?

[ColdExtremities]

Friends A and B meet for dinner or spa days very regularly. Bill is always split 50/50 as they tend to have similar tastes in food, wine etc.

They met last night at a restaurant that both wanted to go to. On arrival, A mentions that she was a £100 voucher for that restaurant that she’s happy for them to use it towards the meal as it’s not a place she goes to often.

Both eat and drink and have a lovely night.

The bill arrives and it’s for £144.

Who should pay what?

B offers to pay £44.

B pays the balance and thanks A for the £28 towards the meal

Then you should have insisted back

I would ask the person with the voucher if they wanted to just use the voucher for their half. If they insisted that it would be for the whole meal then I would pay the remaining 44 pounds plus tip.

If I'm A, I expect B to pay £44.

If I'm B, I'm offering £72, but quietly hoping she'll refuse the difference.

My bestie and I always benefit form each other's vouchers and pay half any left over balance. Depends on the friend ime.

B would pay the £44, it's still less than half what they would have paid without the voucher.

If it was my voucher, I’d pay the balance.

If I was B, I would pay the £44 and any other drinks we might have before or after dinner.

Why? We have been friends for 15 years, eat dinner out every month together. Any money off voucher or a buy one get one free voucher applied and we always split 50/50. I think it depends on your friendship.

Btw I'm desperately hoping my username gets noticed on this thread.

Depends somewhat how A worded it. “I have a voucher we can both use so let’s go all out” - B pays the remaining £44.

If not, depends if A was happy to share part of the voucher, who wanted what etc. but in general- voucher is used and B pays the rest.

A has already covered £100 of the bill with her voucher, so B pays the £44

B should pay £44. It’s still a saving

I had this with an accommodation voucher, friend with voucher still expected me to pay my full share despite her voucher being enough to cover some of my share.

Yes it should be clear beforehand but I think if B paid the £44 that’s fair enough.

@mrsdineen2 I got you :)

Anyone saying £22 each is a terrible person! The £100 didn't just magic out of thin air.

B pays £44 win for both of them

Would be extremely bad form not to pay the £44

OMG I hope B didn’t offer just £22 😮 And take the tip from the plate? 😱

Right, so I’m A and it was my voucher (a birthday present from a colleague last year).

Bill arrived, friend picked it up, I put down the voucher (I’d said at the start of the night “I have a £100 voucher, I’ll put that towards our bill”), and B then said “it’s £144- do you want to split it or…?”

So I just very quickly said (in a cheery voice) “no, I’m happy to contribute the £100 from my voucher and you just put in the £44 and we’ll split the tip”.

Was wondering if I’d been too harsh.

That's not too harsh. Your friend when saying 'split' might have meant £72 pounds each, so she might have been thinking to pay the £44 and then also pay you £28.

Your friend saying split it sounds like it could have meant £72 each. That's splitting it.

They pay 50/50.

Friend A pays the entire bill using the voucher and card then Friend B pays Friend A £72 via bank transfer.

Or Friend A pays their share with the voucher then have a balance of £28 remaining.

CF if she was hinting to split the £44 with you 🤣