Bills are an unavoidable part of life but they can still become a source of frustration and confusion; especially if you’re trying to split them among family or friends.
Recently, Reddit user Additional-Wasabi357 went to a restaurant with a group they’ve been hanging out for a while. However, when it was time to pay, two people who are notorious for their financial manipulation, tried to make everyone at the table chip in equal parts even though they spent much, much more.
Sick and tired of their antics, Additional-Wasabi357 decided to stand up for themselves.
This person went out with some friends but refused to split the bill equally
Image credits: Kampus Production/Pexels (not the actual photo)
And it has caused quite a scene
Image credits: Kampus Production/Pexels (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Spencer Davis/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
Image credits: energepic.com/Pexels (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Lee Myungseong/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Additional-Wasabi357
Splitting the check remains to be one of the most controversial subjects around group dining
Talking about money with friends can be tricky, but as this experience shows, you can’t avoid these conversations entirely.
Nick Leighton, who cohosts the etiquette-advice podcast Were You Raised by Wolves? thinks it makes sense to split the bill with buddies if everyone’s orders came out to similar prices.
“Ultimately, at the end of a lifetime of friendship, it’ll all even out,” he told Business Insider.
But if they don’t, Leighton believes it’s reasonable to ask for separate checks. If for whatever reason the restaurant can’t do that, he added, the burden falls on the person who organized the event to handle the bill with the venue and then get reimbursed by their guests.
Leighton recommended an app called Plates to determine how much you owe based on what you ordered.
Further sticking to etiquette when paying for just one’s own meal, it’s crucial that guests repay their portion promptly. “It’s super rude to ever make someone chase you for money you rightly owe,” Leighton explained. “Those who don’t pay their debts promptly should be removed from any future guest lists.”
However, ultimately honest and clear communication is what allows people to navigate these situations, and it sounds like the two who gave the Redditor a hard time at the restaurant just weren’t interested in that.
If you ever find yourself in a similar spot, it’s usually best to distance yourself from all the commotion and and handle things personally. When the server approaches your table with the check, address them directly, suggests Diane Gottsman, an etiquette expert and owner of the Protocol School of Texas.
“Don’t look at your friends or your neighbor at the table,” she told CNBC. “Say, ‘I’m covering these two’ — that way you’re telling the server, not the table.”
“We should be discreet advocates for ourselves — for both our comfort levels and our budgets,” Gottsman highlighted.
People who read the post thought its author did nothing wrong
