You have all enjoyed a wonderful and delicious meal together. Now the bill has arrived. What are you going to do?
Should the friend with the deepest pockets foot the bill? Surely, whoever paid last time should skip this one? Who chips in for the tip?
And let’s not even get on to whether the man should pay on a first date.
We normally conclude with – let’s just split it!
But “going Dutch” comes with its own problems too. Here’s our simple guide to splitting the bill and calculating tips. Let’s dive in!
1. Speak About Splitting the Bill Early
Don’t leave it until the last moment when the server brings the bill to your table.
You need to raise the subject early enough during the meal with your friends to decide how you’re going to pay the bill.
The splitting of the bill can always call fall-outs between friends. You can avoid any problems by deciding how you’re going to pay the bill in advance of the meal.
2. Get Separate Bills
You don’t have to split the bill at all if the server is willing to provide each of you with separate checks.
That’s a fair way of deciding who pays for what.
Maybe you’ve got a vegetarian in the party who ordered a salad and a glass of water. But also someone ordering a steak and a bottle of wine.
It’s definitely unfair for the two to pay the same amount, isn’t it?
Or perhaps, one friend can only pay with credit card, while someone else wants to pay with cash.
However, asking for multiple checks creates a lot of work for the servers. You may have to compensate the server by offering an especially generous tip at the end.
Moreover, you need to be willing to wait a little longer for each of your checks. If you need to get out of there quickly, you’re going to be struggling.
3. Whose Turn is it?
Do you frequently see this same group of friends every other week? Do you always eat at restaurants which charge similar prices?
If so, it’s often easy to just keep track of who pays each week. This allows you to pay the bill without any problems.
If you have friends who you want to see more, this is a great way to get them to “owe” you a meal in the future. Whose not going to repay the favor of being treated to dinner?
4. We All Owe the Payer
Sometimes, it’s just easy if one person pays and everyone else owes of the payer. You could offer to pay the bill yourself if you trust your friends to pay you back what they owe.
Although this allows for the paying process to stay simple and smooth, it requires you to trust each other to pay each other back. There’s often too much to keep track of by yourself.
Furthermore, it also means a single person has to have enough cash or bank balance to foot the entire bill. If you’re a large party this may require you to have quite deep pockets.
Also, people have to have the cash to pay back the payer. Alternatively, nowadays, there’s always the option of a digital bank transfer.
5. Split Everything Equally
The simple method is to split everything equally.
If everyone is comfortable with paying the same amount, then this is really easy to execute. However, everyone has to know they may be required to pay a little less or a bit more than they actually owe.
You risk causing problems if everyone ordered different things. This is especially true if what people owe ranges significantly.
If you’re struggling to do this in your head, you should check out the easy calculation here.
6. Calculating Tips Evenly
Now, maybe the bill isn’t the problem, it’s the tip and tax. You could simply divide up the tip and tax equally between everyone.
Although you may encounter problems when you want to split the bill, this is seldom the case when you’re splitting the tip. Everyone’s usually willing to pay the fair share of the tip.
7. Throw in for the Tip
You can approximate how much the tip needs to be per person, and ask everyone to throw in dollar bills.
Your generous and wealthier friends are probably going to cover for cheap and hard-up friends. As long as the total tip pile is enough for the tip, you’re good to go!
8. Pay for What You Had
Every just pays for what they ordered. This may be the most complicated method of paying for the bill. However, at least everyone has paid for what they owed.
Make sure you don’t leave calculating your bill until the last moment. When you order your food and drinks, make sure you know the approximate total of your check.
This is never easy if you’re sharing a bottle of wine or a dessert between two people. But you can always offer to pay you a percentage of what you shared with someone else.
How to Split the Bill
The problem of splitting the bill is a feature of every culture and society which ever existed. The problem will never go away.
However, the days when you have to calculate everything in your head is over at least. Now you can simply use one of the calculators to make sure everyone is happy at the end of the meal.
After you’ve paid the check, it’s probably time to calculate how you’ve eaten. You can check out our Calorie calculator too to see if you’ve had enough.