Your tightest friend

toxic_bob said:
My sister and her other half will suggest we split the bill down the middle before family meals, and then order the most expensive stuff on the menu, adult meals for their kids, those schooners of gin, fruit and poncey mixers that cost about a tenner a go, and then expect us to subsidise it. When we took my dad out for his birthday I coughed up about £350 when we'd only spent about £150 on the stuff we'd actually had. Suffice to say I'm wise to this now though it does seem mean-spirited totting up our own tab on these occasions.
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My wife and I suffered from this type of thing for too long. I'd have my share of pints etc, whilst she sat and had her lime and soda, and her mate would be on the large glasses of wine. We'd order reasonable stuff off the menu while 'friends' filled their boots. Come bill time it would 'lets just split it down the middle eh?'
I'd had enough, and made it clear we pay for ourselves, thank you very much.

Sounds petty in some respects, and in a one off I'm OK with it, but I don't like being conned on a continued basis.
 
Pak_Doo_Ik said:
I do that if we're going out on couples night as my Mrs does drink the expensive double rum with poncy mixer and ridiculously over priced red wine. One night a couple we were out with suggested I was only saying this cos I was a tight northerner (cos I was drinking some cheap ale thing and he was on Peroni or some other over priced, look at me Lager) Needless to say when the bill came he had to politely ask if I minded working it out cos it seemed very steep when it was just being split.
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I would have politely told him that he had already made his decision, what a to$$er.
 
I've a mate so obsessed with saving money that he just endlessly ends up mugging himself off. He has about £60k saved up for a deposit on a house, but refuses to buy as he feels the market 'will depress because of Brexit'. He has been this way since June 2016! When it's pointed out to him that if he'd bought somewhere with his then £40k deposit in 2016 he'd not have paid any rent for 4 years and would have seen his property increase in value, he just won't hear it.

Same fella will spend an entire saturday online researching the smallest purchases like shirts for work, then go out on Sunday and shop around in person to see if there's a better deal. Again, when you point out to him that his own time is worth money, he can't comprehend.
 
Meal etiquette is deciding how you're splitting the bill before you have it, and all being "reasonable" or adjusting the figures to suit what you've spent if you've gone wildly over or under, no sane person could disagree with this. Or just agreeing afterwards to split the bill or total up what you've had and add on 10% if you're not leathered or 20% if you are leathered (as everyone leathered underestimates their bill). Anything left over goes as a tip, or put some towards some rounds if you're staying out.

The easiest way I've found is if you're on a big table, like 4 x 4 seater tables pushed together, just break it down into smaller groups of 4. A table of 20 splitting the bill will never work as a one-off, especially if some are driving or some people want to drink £10 gin and some want £3 pints. It's hard to tell if some guy is drinking champagne at one end of the table and some other guy is on water.

I drink expensive drinks and don't like splitting the bill if others are not doing the same, it makes me uncomfortable, as some of my friends are too polite and don't have much money, yet will not want to be seen as "not splitting", I'd rather not put them in that position. I'd rather drink what I like than feel like I need to drink Fosters, so I just partner up with another couple who drinks expensive stuff.

If you're always going out with the same groups then chances are you're all drinking the same things, or having the same "level" of meals and drinks, it makes it easy. The problem is big tables of people you don't know, especially when some are loaded and some are skint, it's never going to work.
 
LaPennaBianca said:
I've a mate so obsessed with saving money that he just endlessly ends up mugging himself off. He has about £60k saved up for a deposit on a house, but refuses to buy as he feels the market 'will depress because of Brexit'. He has been this way since June 2016! When it's pointed out to him that if he'd bought somewhere with his then £40k deposit in 2016 he'd not have paid any rent for 4 years and would have seen his property increase in value, he just won't hear it.

Same fella will spend an entire saturday online researching the smallest purchases like shirts for work, then go out on Sunday and shop around in person to see if there's a better deal. Again, when you point out to him that his own time is worth money, he can't comprehend.
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He could be right to do what he's doing, especially if he's in the North East, as prices have been flat for over a decade. There could be a short term drop coming too, most kind of expect it

If he had invested in the S&P 500 and rented, he would have been quids in.
 
I went out with a group of mates from work one evening. All drinking similar priced beers. 4 of us took turns buying a round - as you do. Then the 5th and 6th lads went up to the bar together and came back with the next round of drinks.

20 mins later they're saying "back to you Stu, your turn".

I asked "hold on, haven't we skipped one of you two?"

"No we decided to split a round. Now we're back to the start."

I had to argue the point and explain to them that if I got the next round I'd be £60 odd out of pocket for the night and them two £15 odd each. Eventually they conceded that they might have been in the wrong and went up to split another round. :rolleyes:
 
Andy_W said:
He could be right to do what he's doing, especially if he's in the North East, as prices have been flat for over a decade. There could be a short term drop coming too, most kind of expect it

If he had invested in the S&P 500 and rented, he would have been quids in.
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He's not in the NE.

It's more that for someone so tight, he's happy to line a landlords pockets while losing money. Even if prices were stable, he'd at least be buying an asset. Especially when interest rates are so low.
 
If I think we have spent more than the other couple I always make sure we cover the tip. All our friends like the 50/50 route. It used to annoy me but as I’ve aged I just think meh. One mate is always the last to get the beers in, in a group scenario we all stopped it by ordering double shots to finish the night off with. It cured him.
 
I have a friend who always forgot to bring his wallet when meeting up, or would try to 'hide' when it was his round in groups. I soon caught on to those tricks. I used to be too soft and always be the first to the bar to buy the drinks. I cannot understand why people can be so tight??? especially friends? One of the best I have heard came from a waiter who told me. He worked in a popular restaurant. He said one night a group of about ten men had a meal and paid a few hundred pounds for the meals, drinks, etc, it was a long night. When it came to ordering taxis he asked the manager if he could order them using the restaurant phone. The manager said yes that's fine but make sure they give you £1 to cover the phone charges! He said he was so embarrassed he paid the £1 himself.
 
SuperStu said:
I went out with a group of mates from work one evening. All drinking similar priced beers. 4 of us took turns buying a round - as you do. Then the 5th and 6th lads went up to the bar together and came back with the next round of drinks.

20 mins later they're saying "back to you Stu, your turn".

I asked "hold on, haven't we skipped one of you two?"

"No we decided to split a round. Now we're back to the start."

I had to argue the point and explain to them that if I got the next round I'd be £60 odd out of pocket for the night and them two £15 odd each. Eventually they conceded that they might have been in the wrong and went up to split another round. :rolleyes:
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Splitting a round!! I've heard it all
 
A few years ago we started having to pay for individual drinks when out with people from work. Food is easy enough to split but some people were getting daft with the booze bill.

I don't drink much anyway and often had the car, so when we tried to split evenly I'd just accept that I was sticking in about ten pounds more than my actual spend as it made things easier.

Those who had drank like fish all night, however, were quibbling down to the penny. Amazing how their arithmetic skills still survived all those pints and glasses.
 
jeff_potato said:
A few years ago we started having to pay for individual drinks when out with people from work. Food is easy enough to split but some people were getting daft with the booze bill.

I don't drink much anyway and often had the car, so when we tried to split evenly I'd just accept that I was sticking in about ten pounds more than my actual spend as it made things easier.

Those who had drank like fish all night, however, were quibbling down to the penny. Amazing how their arithmetic skills still survived all those pints and glasses.
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Many years ago, about 40 in fact, myself and a few mates would drink in the social club and everyone would put money in a kitty to last the night. We found out by accident that one person was buying an extra drink for himself at the bar each time and drinking it before he returned to the table. He was always the first one to arrange the kitty and volunteer to go to the bar for the drinks. We realised why. :(
 
This reminds me of the “whip” on holidays or stag parties. One person holds it, then randomly you get asked for more for the whip) always seems to fall down when the person holding the whip disappears. Also when completely drunk can you really keep up. Id much prefer just to go in rounds or get my own!!
 
coluka said:
If I think we have spent more than the other couple I always make sure we cover the tip. All our friends like the 50/50 route. It used to annoy me but as I’ve aged I just think meh. One mate is always the last to get the beers in, in a group scenario we all stopped it by ordering double shots to finish the night off with. It cured him.
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Pretty much this. Life to short to be cyclical thinking your mates are taking you for a ride ordering the expensive stuff. Also life to short to reign in what you want to order so you dont look like taking the ****

My wife always order king prawn in the curry so I normally say we’ll pay the first 5 before splitting but most just happy to splitZ
 
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