To think you don’t get out of paying the bill because you don’t drink?

[ThatHardyWaspAgain]

I’m sure this has been done many times before by people in similar scenarios.

I went out for a bit of lunch with two friend’s and one of them brought another friend along that I’ve never met but was nice enough.

However, when it came to the bill, she said ‘’Can we please calculate it all with the alcohol you’ve had separately paid for? Because I only had classical cokes’’

So, we did as she asked. Added up everything but removed the drinks. So 3 of us paid for our drinks in a split, and then did another split for the rest with her and her food and classical colas.

The annoying bit is, she had 3 of them. And they weren’t really much different in price to most of our alcohol.

We all had the same roast and mango cheesecake.

I wouldn’t mind but she kept insisting we all had a dessert so she didn’t feel alone in having one. We’re adults after all but it is a bit annoying

Separate thread to come to see if I would be U to tell my friend not to bring her along again

She also didn’t tip.

More fool you then for paying for her coke. She isn’t even a friend, you should have no shame in calling her out.

When i go out with friends if something is obviously higher in price by a good few £ then they pay extra. A couple of quid then no it’s just split. Normally alcohol bills are higher than yours in comparrison but she had three cokes! so i’d have just been happy with the split.

I don't drink, and am always careful what I order because we have a strict budget. I insist on paying for everything I order, including drinks.

I also ensure I don't pay last as there's always a CF who leaves something off their bill & the last person ends up paying.

If it's a one bill per table restaurant (which I'd never book), I'd transfer my share to the person who booked it.

I refuse to pay for anyone else's drinks. I've been at meals where people have drunk a lot, or order steak, and then expect to bill split. Nope.

Who actually did the maths on the splitting? Because if someone said to me “do you mind you guys pay for the alcohol separately as I didn’t drink?” I would assume that all drinks would be taken out of the splitting and paid for by the person who had them, and then the food split, and that’s what I’d do if I was doing the maths.

Unless you’re saying she specifically asked for the coke to be included in the split?

You don't really understand why tipping exists.

It's NOT for the reason you have stated.

😂😂

But in the real world, it's normally just 'Coke'!

Insisting on adding an unnecessary word - even though it may be technically correct - is like only ever referring to your vehicle as your 'motor car', your personal electronic device as your 'mobile telephone' or a standard piece of cutlery as a 'dinner knife'.

It's the equivalent of saying "I need to take some rubbish to the household waste and recycling centre" when everybody just says 'tip' or 'dump'!

But this person sounds like so much fun!! 😅

Why not? I think it sounds funny.

Yes and that’s why I said it’s nice to tip for people working evenings / unsociable hours

I call ‘classical coke’ full fat coke.

I think she was cheeky. She could have just paid separately and let the rest of you split if you wanted to.

I think you resented this friend of a friend coming. The split was clearly done wrongly, assuming the rest of you didn't have 3 soft drinks as well as the alcohol. However, between 4 of you, that's only around £2.50 extra each so I wouldn't be making a fuss over it.

I happened to go for a meal with three friends recently too. One didn't have any alcohol (only tap water) or a dessert so we worked out the cost for each of us without those, then split the rest between three.

You should have spoken up if you thought the split was unfair but personally I wouldn't quibble over a few quid. With this group we usually split four equal ways unless the difference in what we have is very obvious. Obviously your 4th was a stranger so it seems like you feel she was taking advantage.

Because that makes less sense.

I have, recently, and I was surprised.
There were 3 of us and they said they could only split the bill in two, not any further.

It was a bit complicated as we all had cards rather than cash, so we ended up trekking to a bank machine afterwards to settle things up between us (don’t have Revolut).

It put me off the place tbh, and I’ll be choosing somewhere else next time, especially as the food wasn’t amazing or anything.

i never split bills, only pay for what i have, and i also never tip! I'm your nightmare it seems

Does sound like you all split the bill incorrectly though

I think its more commonly known as Fat Coke (as opposed to Diet Coke) rather than Full Fat Coke

FWIW when i go out with friends i often don’t drink even if not driving and they will usually offer to pay for my drinks, as its assumed soft drinks are cheaper than alcohol. I will either have a (proper) Coke or soda water, so its Russian roulette who gets to pay £5 and who gets to pay £0 for my drink!

I’m sure she just didn’t realise how expensive her classical cokes were going to be compared to alcohol and thought she didn’t want to end up paying loads for drinks she didn’t have.

As it turned out there wasn’t much in it, but whoever calculated the bill is obviously a very literal person and did exactly what she said - “took the alcohol off” rather than what was most likely implied - “we all pay for our own drinks”.

What is the issue?
It worked out, everyone paid their share.
I bet it was obvious that you were irritated about it at the table. Yabu.

I have, recently, and I was surprised.
There were 3 of us and they said they could only split the bill in two, not any further.
That's normal, usually one person pays and we transfer or bring cash to pay the person.

If everything that happened had been the normal things that always happen, there wouldn't be a thread. But if the OP is at all accurate in her reporting, it makes very little sense that someone would say, I quote

‘’Can we please calculate it all with the alcohol you’ve had separately paid for? Because I only had classical cokes’’

and mean "Can we split the bill."

Everybody did not pay their share. The CF paid £2.50 for £10 worth of drinks. The OP (and each of two other people) paid £15 for £12.50 worth of drinks.

No - the friend paid less than her share because they all split the cost of her drinks, and she didnt split the cost of theirs.

And she didn't realise until later so I doubt anything showed at the table.

I've never heard "fat coke", I've heard "full fat coke" many, many times.

I still don't understand why you think she's cheeky when you were happy for her to subside your booze. That makes no sense. Fwiw, ita very rare for someone's non-alcoholic drinks to almost cost the same as alcoholic ones

Just "coke" could mean either diet or normal coke, really. It's possibly relevant that it was classic Coke as opposed to diet, because classic is subject to the sugar tax and supposedly more expensive (although in restuarants this doesn't seem to be the case very often)