Splitting bills

[mrswdk]

What do you guys usually do when eating out with friends?

[Metsfanmax]

When other people grab the check and take a long time to figure it out, I sometimes try to point out that I am a physicist and can do arithmetic in my head more quickly than most people, but I usually get drowned out by the people who insist on figuring it out themselves. Or ignored because they are too busy computing the tip on their cell phone calculator app.

When I'm with close friends, usually we just all put in a fair share and make the ones who have a larger salary pay more.

[Funkyterrance]

Ok, I'm dating right now after leaving a long term relationship so this is really relevant. At first I would pay the whole bill but after being fucked over a couple times by girls literally looking for a free lunch I now pay for my share and cover the tip. This probably means I'm a shauvenist but it somehow helps me sleep at night, in combination with a good wank and watching "Babe".

[saxitoxin]

Ok, I'm dating right now after leaving a long term relationship so this is really relevant.

Please re-read the OP in case you missed the word "with." Thank you.

[mrswdk]

Who else ticked 'one person pays for the whole table'? I was expecting to be the only one, except for maybe mac and khaz.

[patches70]

Who else ticked 'one person pays for the whole table'? I was expecting to be the only one, except for maybe mac and khaz.

I did.

[mrswdk]

Is that normal in the US?

[Funkyterrance]

Is that normal in the US?

Fairly, actually.

[patches70]

Is that normal in the US?

I dunno, its normal for people in my family. Group of friends, family, whatever, just one person pays. Even bar tabs. Back when I used to go to bars and such with my friends, we would take turns paying the bar tab for the night. I'd get it one night, someone else would get it the next and so on. Just how we did it. Makes it easier I suppose.

For those who rarely had the means to do such things, sometimes we'd let them pay the tip maybe. The money isn't important, its the company that matters. IMO.

[nietzsche]

Depends who you're with.

Dating, I pay. Gf for some time then she pays or she loses me. But no, sometimes her, sometimes me.

Family, usually I pay. Friends during college, we used to split, because we were basically eating out 2 times a day and going out 3 nights a week, some ate the cheapest things, others the best things, so it was separated bills when we could do it like that or if it was only one, everybody sort of knew how much. But I had a couple of friends, a girl that was sort of rich and other guy who was more like me, and sometimes one paid, other time the other paid.

Friends after college, we still did some splitting but then when everybody starting doing well it became a non issue. Everybody just put what they thought was fair, sometimes some didn't pay. Or sometimes one pays, other time other pays. But then they start having children and you have to pay more because they're broke. But they're not fun to hang out with anymore, they always have to go home early and stuff like that.

So, it's not written in stone mrs wdk, and you've been in different parts of the world so we know you just started this thread to tell us that China is awesome because people don't care about money and pay the whole bill.

[mrswdk]

Stop lying. Everyone knows Mexicans can only afford to stay at home and eat flat bread and old beans.

[Dukasaur]

I selected "Other" because at various times I've participated in all five of the methods listed. I don't think any of the five are far enough above the other four to select just one, hence, other.

[macbone]

Eh, it depends. If we're eating dim sum, we divide the bill by the number of adults and pay that. On Sunday, we went out with a friend, and she paid for her meal, and we paid for ours. In our family, sometimes my father-in-law pays, and sometimes we split the bill with my sister-in-law. One of my friends was out of work recently, and when several of us got together, we covered his meal. It's pretty much different every single time.

[mrswdk]

What do you guys usually do when eating out with friends?

[khazalid]

i usually get the bill if i'm out with the local staff. i get paid 3x what they get. you can't pay every time though, people take it as a slight.

if there are other laowai (rare) we tend to roughly split it.

if some rich chinese mama / business-dude is doing the wining and dining, i'm happy to let him/her do his thang.

ofc, back in the uk we generally split bills. same goes for drinks - you take your turn buying the round for everyone.

[mrswdk]

For the benefit of those not familiar with the Chinese language, 'laowai‘ means 'homosexual'.

[mrswdk]

How does one become a rich business dude in Mongolia? Rearing and selling horses?

[Serbia]

Different every time. When I go out with my sister and brother-in-law, we tend to get separate bills, because my bro-in-law will spend $100 in drinks (of which like $80 is his alone) and my wife and I will have a total bill of $35, so I'm not about to split that. On vacation in Spain, we took turns paying; one bar me, next bar our friend. Then we had a family meal, and just split the bill evenly; there was nearly 20 of us, and it would have taken too long to split properly, so we just all paid. Another time my sister-in-law took us out to eat; one night I paid the whole tab, next night her husband did. It's different every time, depends on where you go, how much is spent, how many there are, etc.

Bollocks.

[khazalid]

How does one become a rich business dude in Mongolia? Rearing and selling horses?

possibly.

in inner mongolia however, it's pretty standard fare.

coal, minerals, construction, IT, education.

any ccp connection for siphoning bribes into your greedy little mitts, etc. you know the drill.

[mrswdk]

any ccp connection for siphoning bribes into your greedy little mitts, etc. you know the drill.

Just wait until Operation Fox Hunt comes to town and lays waste to the local area's luxury goods market

[khazalid]

i'm sure the forward-thinking entrepreneurs of the province have stockpiled endangered salamander and tiger cock enough for the pending lean times

[waauw]

Everybody pays their share of what they ordered. The one-person-pays-all rule only applies for ordering drinks at a café or when going out.

[AndyDufresne]

I usually offer to pay in Bitcoins.


--Andy

[Dukasaur]

What do you guys usually do when eating out with friends?

"Usually" implies a trend, an average of some kind, an option that is significantly more common than the others.

What I and several other posters have told you, is that all the options are common in their life, and none of them stands out enough to be called the dominant option. Restating the question isn't going to change the answer. We're not idiots. Well, most of us are not.

[mrswdk]

That wasn't really aimed at you, more at the people who started saying 'well, when I'm with my sister and mother-in-law...'. Family usually works differently to friends, which is why I didn't include family in my question.