Positive story: Holidaying with a friend and splitting the bill

[girlboss94]

I just came back from the best holiday with a friend of mine and thought I'd share it because I'd seen posts about splitting bills on holiday causing friction with friends and that wasn't my experience at all.

We went to a European city for four days and agreed in advance on a budget. She paid for the flights and I paid for the accommodation. We agreed we'd each pay for each other and then split down the middle 50/50 at the end. I wasn't drinking alcohol because I'm pregnant and so she tipped at each place to kind of address the imbalance (neither were fussed about pennies).

Anyway we went and we each paid for the other's food and and drinks. She paid more than me to try and make up for the fact that the hotel was cheaper. By the end we had it almost even (she owed about £30). That money was paid the day we got back.

0 fuss, 0 arguments. All ran smoothly. What I've learnt is set boundaries before you go. It was our first time holidaying together and we're already planning our next trip 🎉

I don't get it....why didn't you each just pay for your own food and drink rather than pay for each others? I would have felt really awkward if I was her and fancied a few drinks if the expectation was that you would pay for them for her, whereas you weren't drinking. If you were paying for each other why did you also need to keep track of how much both of you had paid so she could pay you back when you got home? Seems really complicated and a bit joyless tbh!

If the flights were more than the hotel I don't see why you didn't just split those costs down the middle? It's only one payment so wouldn't have been complicated.

Surely the easiest way to have group holidays go smoothly is to only go on holidays with friends who aren't dicks/cheapskates! I've been on lots of group holidays with various different people and we've never had any issues with money, which i can only put down to the fact we like each other and aren't looking out to save a few pennies by cheating our mates, rather than any complicated payment schemes.

We've always just done: split big payments (flights/accom/car rental) equally and pay them off before we go. Then if everyone is roughly doing the same thing either split equally/take in turns to pay and dont count the pennies if one night you have 2 drinks and everyone else has 4, or, if there's a big discrepancy (like one person isn't drinking, or only half the group want to do an activity) just pay individually for everything.

All this stress and faff you here about on here and in rl about kitties and who pays in and who gets what out seems a recipe for disaster. Either divide equally or everyone pay for themselves, sorted!

Sounds like you made it more complicated than necessary with all this paying for each other. Rather bizarre. Just split the bill, or if there's a big imbalance then both pay for your own. It's not rocket science.

I'm going away with a friend next month. I paid the flights and hotel in advance (we got a VERY good deal). She transferred me half the money. I've booked and paid for some tours for us (agreed in advance with her), she transferred me half the money. When we go out for dinner / get a cab etc, we just split the cost. If one of us wanted to have tons to drink and the other didn't, the drinker would pay for her extra drinks and then we'd split the rest. It really doesn't take a maths degree to work this out.

My friends and I use an app called Tricount. Every time someone pays for something it gets added to the "trip" and then we divvy up when we get home.

We use an app called Settle Up. Sounds similar to the above. Nobody is ever out of pocket or trying to work out whose round it is.

Excellent, it’s good to hear it all went well.

I once went on holiday with a friend, we booked it in a travel agency, and made sure it was all inclusive.

My dad took us to the airport, her partner picked us up.

We didn't even talk about money...