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.

I don’t drink and I wouldn’t pay for someone else’s alcohol, but I would just pay for what I ordered. A coke is like £3-4 and a glass of wine is probably £6-8, it’s not hard to work out how to pay £6 less. You can always say no to the pudding.

Back in the days when alcohol was notably more expensive than soft drinks, I’d have thought she was fair enough.

But full fat Coke is subject to the sugar tax and usually the prices between that and an alcoholic drink are negligible.

I think it’s a bit cringeworthy to have someone working everyone’s individual cost, then you have the hassle of Joan only having a £20 note and needing £3.45 change, whereas Margaret wants to put her’s on her card. Just a big carry on.

No, as per her suggestion and the others agreeing so I did too (although didn’t realise the cheek of it until afterwards), everything was split equally minus the alcohol, which was split between 3 of us who had it

But in doing so we paid for her classical cokes despite them being almost the same cost as our alcohol that she didn’t want to split for

You should have taken all drinks off the split bill and only split the food and then all paid for your own drinks separately, you’re right that her drinks shouldn’t have been included in the split bill of your drinks were taken off.

I would have grabbed the bill at that point “Ok lets split out drinks , Margo your 3 cokes are £10.50 and everyone else your share of the wine is £12.50, food is X each.” It would be different if she had just one soft drink or you had been on the cocktails, but yes often if you share a bottle of wine it’s about the same as 2-3 soft drinks.

You don't need to keep calling it a classical coke OP

There is no fat in coke. Its full sugar.

Well next time just everyone pay for what they’ve had? It was silly of you to split her drinks and to have a dessert if you didn’t want one. Is it really worth all this fuss over a few quid?

So you want a ruck over a couple of quid. How tiresome.

So why didn’t you just suggest paying for what you had?

Please stop calling them classical cokes!

You should have just said "ok no problem, you pay for what you had and we will split the rest".

Surely she did first?!

I don't get why you didn't just all pay separately for what you ordered. Why on earth did you pay for her cokes? It's hardly complicated to split a bill for the same meal three ways and add the three soft drinks to her bill. Did someone just make a mistake? Or did she ask for you all to cover them?
As for tipping, that's up to her. Was the service OK? None of these things would make me exclude her next time.

There you go. Rucking again.

Well you split it wrong. All the drinks should have come before the food was divided up. That's as much on you as them. And it was nearly £3 difference - nearer £3 than £2 anyhow1

It’s known as full fat though, isn’t it? I think the world knows what it means.

I think the issue is that the way the other person wanted to do it was that the non alcoholic drinks were split between everyone - so they subsidised her.

It would have been better to remove ALL the drinks rather than just the alcoholic drinks

A group of us go out regularly, normally 2 don’t drink but the non drinkers will have a soft drink and so do some of the “ drinkers” as wine isn’t thirst quenching. We take off the wine and split that between those drinking alcohol and the rest of the bill is split equally. We’ve done this for several years and it feels fair and suits everyone.

I don't believe in this kind of Bill splitting. I think everyone should pay for what they themselves have consumed. I don't believe in rounds either.

It's easy nowadays just to pay for your own food and drink. That's what me and my friends tend to do.

If your going to the hassle of taking off some drinks before you split the bill you might as
well just pay for what you’ve had. The point of splitting the bill is to keep the maths easy.

I’m with you completely OP. Splitting to the nearest penny when there’s so little in it is cringe and mean. It’s obviously totally different if there’s a big disparity in what people have had but when she has had £10 and you have had £12, I think it’s pathetic.

But I also think people still overestimate by how much non alcoholic drinks are cheaper

Imagine posting a mn thread and being this raging that you paid an extra £2.60 on your lunch bill!!

Oh I have this! I just split that persons food and drink out separately and then split between the rest. Or just go around, tot up what you had from the bill and pay for it. It is awkward but it’s either put up or shut up.

you do have to say at some point that soft drinks are expensive now, which she will know, but is trying to hope you think it’s still 1999 and 50p for a lemonade.

I know! It’s maddening to read. I think an all
time low has been reached on this thread.