Awkward bill splitting

[Potplant85]

I go out with a group of friends at least once a month to eat, we split the bill equally between us all. Now here’s the problem, I hold back ordering what I want as I don’t feel it’s fair to make others pay for mine if I've ordered an expensive dish.

I did bring this up on the last meal and was told not to be so silly and that we’d all split evenly still. I now tend to see what everyone else orders before I place mine, which means I’m often compromising on what I actually want to eat. I’m happy to pay extra for the fillet steak and extra wine, as I know one in the group has a limited budget but they would never mention that. Is it wrong to not want to go and eat with them anymore?

It’s a turn of phrase. Same applies if she says “£65 on this card and £50 on the others, please.”

I was responding to throwing money on the table and ignoring any protests - that’s harder to do when you pay by card rather than physical cash.

I don't why this comes up so much on mumsnet. Restaurant staff don't give a flying fig how you split the bill. It's so easy just to say "I'm paying for the chicken and the chocolate dessert and two glasses of wine." or "I'm paying for £50 on my card please". Insisting on equal bill splitting only benefits piss takers and punishes the salad and teetotal lot. Paying for what you ordered has never been an issue in my friend groups.

There's a man in our group who likes good wine and a steak. He often buys the drinks at the bar before/after, and every once in a while he covers the whole bill.

It used to be a bit of a faff going through and having everyone pay exactly what they had, but now most restaurants seem to be set up to do that easily. You do need to make sure the tip/service charge is accounted for though, or the last person to pay gets left with it.