While popping out for dinner tends to be pleasant, people often hit a hurdle when it's time to pay - and more specifically, what they should do with the bill. Several diners debate whether to split the cost evenly or pay exactly what they owe for their dishes and drinks.
Taking to popular forum Mumsnet, a woman explained that her friendship group of 15 years had mutually agreed to pay for their pal's birthday dinner. However, the close-knit group was stumped as a pal asked to bring his wife along, which resulted in them having to contribute towards her part of the bill.
In the post, the woman fumed about the "uninvited guest" as she explained: "Went for dinner for a friend's birthday who we hadn't seen for a while and who had come all the way down from another city. This friend has had a rough year so we were treating her to dinner.
"Male friend at the last minute asked if he could bring his wife along as she really wanted to join us. Fine but a bit annoying as she's not really a part of this friendship group that we'd formed 15 years ago at work but we've spent enough time with her as he has a habit of bringing her along to everything. So four of us (who once worked together) plus this wife.
"The couple ordered extra starters, sides and alcoholic drinks. He made a comment a couple of times that "we'll pay extra for our bits". Myself, other friend and birthday girl don't drink so had a soft drink each and one starter and one main.
"The bill came to £170. Our food and drinks came to around £25 each for the non-drinkers. The couple spent the rest. Male friend and his wife took it upon themselves to work the bill out and spent at least 5 mins doing it."
She went on: "As the birthday girl is close friends with the three of us (not the wife), I expected him to split her part between the three of us, and then split the rest of the bill according to what we roughly ordered.
"Instead, he said that myself and the other non-drinking friend owed £48 each, and he paid £74. So he paid only £26 extra when he was supposed to be paying for 2 adults (himself and his wife) plus the non-drinking birthday girl (whose food and drink came to £25 and should have been split three ways).
Seeking advice, she questioned: "Isn't this unfair? I feel like we also paid towards his uninvited wife. We paid it without saying anything as didn't want to make things awkward, especially in front of birthday girl. But how should I deal with things next time this happens??"
"For a bit more context: I am currently on an extended mat leave so no income. And him and his wife are top earners and earn more than any of us," she added.
Flocking to the comment section, Mumsnet users were keen to share their thoughts on the ordeal - and believed that the ordeal was "totally unfair".
One person wrote: "I haven't worked it out exactly, but it's clearly wrong. I would message him and say you're confused about the bill and could he explain. Cheeky so and so.."
A different user said: "Totally unfair. But you should have said something at the time. Either email him, point out the numbers and be blunt that you feel he ripped you off, or don't invite him along in future."
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