Should I pay for my friends?

[IsThePopeCatholic]

It’s my birthday soon and I was planning to invite a small group of friends (4 or 5) for a meal out in a restaurant . Should I expect to pay for them or will they expect to pay for themselves? It won’t be an expensive restaurant but the total could be quite a lot, especially with drinks. What is the norm in these situations?

Well what's the norm with your friends when you go out for birthday dinners?

I wouldn’t expect friends to pay for me on a meal out but I suppose it depends what normally happens in your social circle.

Suggest it as a meet up and choose a restaurant together suggest whatever 'we' can afford.

As PP said personally when I meet up with my friends we pay for ourselves, but we choose the restaurant together and its our norm, sometimes we all pitch in and cover the birthday persons meal.

If I am covering the bill I say it's on me.

Does everyone in your friendship group do this? If so, then yes you should pay. If they don’t, then you don’t pay.

Usually when I’m out with friends we’ll split the bill equally at the end as we all equally enjoyed each others company.

We do however have some friends in our group who prefer to pay for what they had which is perfectly acceptable. Then whoever is happy to split, splits

I’ve always paid my own way when going out for friends birthdays. However, I do find it annoying that one friend in particular always chooses very expensive restaurants. I don’t mind going to a restaurant of your choosing but I do have an issue with a £100 dinner on a Monday night.
But it sounds like you’ve chosen somewhere reasonable OP so I’m sure your friends will be happy to pay.

Thanks everyone. I’m going to make it clear that we each pay for ourselves.