Dining dilemma: How do you split the check?
Posted
Jul 18 2008, 04:09 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Mike at Clever Dude recently faced one of those "does this make me look cheap?" moments. He and Stacie were part of a group of 11 honoring a departing colleague with dinner. Mike and Stacie split a veggie main course after everyone shared appetizers, and they drank water. Others had meat dishes and drinks.
When it was time to pay, the others decided the bill should be split evenly, which would cost Mike and Stacie a lot more than the price of their actual meals. What do you do when you're faced with that situation?
This question pops up in everyone's life. Why should you pay for other people's splurges when you opted to keep your own costs down? Would that be fair?
Mike figured he and Stacie actually owed a combined total of $24, including tax, tip and their share of the honored guest's meal. But if the bill was split evenly among the 11 who were paying (they were treating the guest), Mike and Stacie would have had to pay $49.
Here are some options:
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Pay the entire, possibly budget-busting $49.
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Ask for separate checks -- which is not always possible and is bound to tick off the waiter.
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Pay just what you owe, and forget about whether your colleagues think you're a cheapskate.
Mike tossed in $27 and offered more, but the shy guy collecting the money declined and made up the difference. Ouch. Mike wrote: "Think I'm cheap? Think I'm a hero? Think I'm an absolutely normal, boring guy?" Oh, no, Mike. Never boring.
Of course, his readers had something to say. "I think you did the right thing by taking the middle ground. Too bad that one person absorbed the cost though. Everyone should have paid what they owed, not the even split," Momma said.
Some readers told about other awkward restaurant situations. Karen said, "Some acquaintances are horrible tippers and sometimes they look at what they think the total should be with a tiny tip and subtract what we gave them, so they pay less and part of our tip goes toward their meal." How rude.
Alex suggested that Mike and Stacie should have ordered two main courses and taken the leftovers home. "Then you wouldn't have looked so cheap, and the guy collecting the money wouldn't have had to put more in. Nor would he tell his co-workers what a tightwad you were behind your back."
