So I have a friend who is always buying new purses, clothes, etc. And her mom buys everything for her children so she doesnt have to pay for diapers, formula, etc. I never thought of her as cheap until I started going out to dinner with her. The first time she didn't eat or drink anything so of course she didn't chip in (obviously wouldn't have expected her to) but she did share some food with the other two of us. Well the next time we went out she ordered an entree and later a cup of tea. The other two of us had an entree of the same price, a drink each, and then a dessert. So obviously we expected to pay more. We each put in $40, and then my friend puts in $11. Her dinner was $8, then she figured a $1 for tax and $2 for tip. She said she didn't feel she should pay as much tip because her food wasn't as much. The other two of us ended up paying $7 each for tip to make up the difference. This was the first time that I ever had someone pay less tip because they didn't order as much. I should add that she was rather demanding of the waitress to and called her over a ton of times! But what irked me the most was when the other girl and I realized there wasn't enough she chimed in with what I wrote about, and so I was like okay well the two of us have to put more in. So my friend goes "I feel bad not paying more"..... why say you feel bad and then don't chip in like 2 more bucks??? It annoyed me that she was saying she felt bad as I dug into my wallet and got more money out. I have just always split the tip evenly and pay whatever.
Sorry I rambled here but its just kinda bothered me! Anyone else have this happen? Or am I completely wrong and does everyone just pay tip based on what they ate???
Re: Cheap friend...
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I have a similar scenario. At work I feel like I am always the one picking up lunch - which is fine - BUT I would at least expect one of the others to offer to do it. That's my gas, my time, my car smelling like curry on Indian Day, etc. Whatever.
We usually always get seperate checks for that reason. Makes it better and don't have to worry about paying more. And rarely when we go out we have cash, or anyone else does, so this makes it that much easier.
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I tip a standard 18% and go over based on the service. That 18% is based on what I ate, so I usually try to ask for separate checks. Otherwise someone gets stiffed or ends up paying for someone' else's drinks and dessert.
I'm pretty sure I'm the cheap friend.
On the one hand the tip is a function of the total (% of the total) so if I was out with friends who ordered 2 bottles of win and rang the bill up by like $100, I wouldn't want to tip on that. HOWEVER...........
In general, I err on the side of over contributing when I go out with friends so that no one feels badly. I am usually the person ordering a burger, not an entree, and rarely anything other than a diet coke and unless the others say "megan, you should put in less b/c you ate less/cheaper" then I expect to split it evenly. If we're out as a couple, we always split evenly.
If your total bill was $90, which it sounds like it was, and I was your friend, I would have put in $20 - at LEAST.
I agree with everything here. We're usually the ones that toss in extra for tip to make up for the cheapies. However, that gets annoying. Plus, we usually don't have cash on us, so we prefer to have separate checks so we can just pay with our card.
Yeah, DH and I are definitely the cheap friends most of the time. But we always ask for separate checks etc. And I argue with DH on the tip every.single.time since he is a cheapskate. He thinks that tips should stay at 15-18% since the price of food has gone up and the server is therefore already getting more money for the same amount of work.
I am also REALLY bad about carrying cash, so we normally ask for separate checks for that reason too.
DH and I are always the ones to make up for the cheapskates. I guess I just don't feel like the difference between 15% and 20% is worth the headache it causes other people.
That said, I wouldn't expect someone to tip more than 20% of their own food and beverage total.
I guess we/I fall into the cheap friend category. Anybody that we go out to eat with we always get seperate checks. I can't imagine going out to eat and not getting seperate checks...because maybe we're trying to save some money and get something cheaper to eat and the other couple/person doesn't do that?
Because we always get seperate checks I don't know what the other person is tipping. I tip what I think is appropriate and leave it up to the other person to do the same. We may have different ideas on what appropriate is, because that's not my problem.
I was a server for a long time and there are always people that tip less than others, but it all evens out and that's part of the deal when you're a server.
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Our state tax is 9+ percent. I double the tax for the tip amount, add the tip to that amount and split that total among everyone who is paying. Nobody has ever challenged me. It's my way of making sure people pay tax...people always forget to add in tax.
If I had really bad service I take a dollar or more off the doubled tax amount.