The Pizzazzy

This is really an interesting topic, how to divide the bill. My motto has always been lets go Dutch till I met my husband.

Being in marketing he is so used to taking business associates out for food and drinks that he usually ends up picking the cheque even with social dinners. And he likes to spend on food and drink with friends. And truly speaking he has a big heart of Gold. He has always been of the opinion that this is a small investment in personal relationships and I should not give it a second thought. He thinks that some money spent on friends will not create a big hole in our pockets. So I play and pay along now.

About splitting the bill, take a scenario when a group of people are dining together, everyone enjoyed and made merry, now its time for the bill. How do you divide the bill? Generally the etiquette says that if out of the group of people someone has invited then he picks up the check else usually people should go dutch meaning split the bill equally.

I have also had a few chances of taking out my team for lunches for say a critical deadline met or a good job done. But since those few times are pre-decided ones, I do pick up the bill. In my previous job with my office circle of friends, we usually had around once a month lunch out routine. Usually we would all split the bill but for that moment I would pick up the cheque and pay by card. These were the times when I got to use one of the many credit cards that I carry around in my wallet. But we would all go dutch and everyone would turn out their share immediately. Primary reason to do this was it saved me trips to the ATM for cash. In such a big group (around 12 ladies at one point of time) we never faced a single issue of how to divide the bill although in the group there were only a few non-vegetarians. Now why did i say that. Obviously cos its a common fact that in India the non-veg dishes cost more than the veg dishes.

For me the rule of etiquette says that if you are giving a treat to someone say a farewell treat which is thrown in by a set of friends and is not official, pre-decide that one person pays the bill, so that the person is ready with the estimated amount.

There was a bad scene once when the person who had organised the farewell lunch for another colleague had denied to pay the bill at the last moment saying he does not have cash. Everyone assumed that he would be prepared for this not that we had come for a free lunch, we would have paid later. Anyways the problem was sorted out with a credit card. But it really reflected badly on the organiser. Now, we avoid such situations by deciding beforehand.

The second rule is if its a casual team lunch then the senior most in the team can pick the cheque and later on send the split cost which is simply a division of bill amount by no of people. It would be really ridiculous if someone then comes up saying what they ate was worth much less. If at all there are such people in the group which you would know from any previous experience its better to avoid them. It’s really unthinkable to attribute each individual share based on what they ate and what they didn’t or whether they took drinks or not. Such people should on their own decide not to join any team or group dining. Well there are restaurants which offer separate bills for food and beverages. So it is easy to divide the drinks bill and food bills separately.

Now there are another set of people who are always on the watch out of such events where the bill is equally split, they would have their hearts fill by ordering everything extraordinarily costly which they may not have done otherwise. Steer clear of such people if possible or better still go for a pre-decided menu to avoid any such awkwardness in a larger group.

In a more social setup it would be appropriate for a couple or individual to offer to pay the larger proportion of the bill if evidently they have ordered for some costlier dish. If the difference is not very huge, it is again appropriate on the part of the other individual or couple to deny the offer and go for a fair division.

And more over you can’t hold on to a few rupees or dollars spent on such social events. And believe me finally these things even out in the long run so do not fret over such trivial issues unless you are sure that this has become a habit for some people you are hanging out with.  Afterall it’s completely upto us to chose our friends and dinner companions.