I always get separate bills when I eat out with friends. That way, there's no hard feelings and it just makes it easier to pay.

You know, this never happens to my friends and me. If each person's share is close to even, we split it evenly. If it's not, we do separate checks or divide the bill up proportionately. No one ever stiffs the group on tips (where even though everyone "paid," somehow we're short). No one needs to bring up the issue awkwardly.

I guess I'm lucky that my friends and I are just on the same wavelength when it comes to checks.

I think it's best for everyone to pay for what they order, that way no one's taken advantage of.

This has been on here before. My friends and I split the bill equally we don't care who had what. We figure that it all evens out eventually.

I usually only pay for what I eat. I think someone always gets shafted when you split the bill evenly (unless you all got pretty much the same thing...)

i'm with Lily on this one. my friends and i usually order around the same priced things but we're not gonna make one person help pay for drinks/steaks if all they got was a soda and side salad! some people are on a budget!

My friends and I always get seperate bills...that way we can get what we want/what we can afford and we don't have to spend 10 minutes trying to figure everything out equally at the end of the meal...

My friends and I either just spit it accordingly to what we ate (not a big deal), treat each other or get seperate bills.

I never find it to be a problem.

I always get a seperate bill, why make someone pay for something they never had? I am also the Bill Nazi, and will not allow anyone to duck out early and stiff the ones left with something they didnt pay for.

We normally get seperate checks. We all order very different things and it would never even out for us. We want to make sure everyone is comfortable with the bill since everyone has different budgets at different times. Seperate checks fits the bill. (No pun intended.)

There are times when we treat each other, but I can't think of one time when we split a bill equally.

You know, I was on a business trip, and we went to a ridiculous restaurant, and i ordered very little and ended up with my "part" of the bill...which was upwards of $70. There were 8 of us....so, I was a little mad, worried, and very uncomfrotable...and then my cowrkers later added that they are glad none of us made a big deal about splittingthe checks since it is tacky...I have since learned this is what a lot of people do, and I go prepared. I prefer to split...but sometimes, when my friends and I go out, we all have 1 drink, eat the same priced food...we split equally to save time. not a big deal. so, i guess it depends on who i am with and where i am going to depend on what i am comfortable with.

Seperate checks when I'm out with coworkers and it varies when out with friends. Never been a problem though. I can see how a nice night out could quickly turn sour when the check arrives...

Cymone I have seen it turn ugly on a friends birthday. There about 20 of us and 2 people really ruined the evening for everyone. We were at a Tapas place and everyone knew we were splitting the bill equally one couple came early proceeded to drink about 5 or 6 Bombay tonics charge them to the table and when they left only tried to pay for 2 plates. Not only was it tacky it caused a huge fight and they were not invited to the club after.

if im going out with friends and we all are on a budget! lol which isn't uncommon we just ask for seperate bills!.. and with my boyfriend.. it usually is decided by how much money we both have.. if im runnin a little low that week he'll pay and vise versa!

none of my friends expect to split the bill evenly, who does? i've never been in this situation. we'll do seperate checks, or sometimes we just trade off on paying for everything!

I waited tables for 6 years, and I will tell you its easier to just pay what your individual bill is, instead of everyone splitting equally. Servers add up the bills according to seat #'s, so each bill is already divided up automatically. If you & your friends decide to split equally, its best to tell the server up front that you will be doing this...that way they can put the entire check all together in the beginning.

As a side note...the Friends episode about this is hilarious!

If everyone ate and drank equally split the bill equally. If someone ate or drank less, obviously they pay less. Likewise if someone ate or drank more, they pay more.

separate bills are always easier, but some restaurants won't do them. in those cases, everyone passes the bill around and adds up how much they owe with tax and tip and then we put all the cash in the middle of the table.

Generally, when we split the bill, each pays the amount they owe unless it is very close to even for everyone and each pays an appropriate tip.

With good friends, we take turns buying the whole meal for each other. It all evens out in the end.

Friends...definitely not. Someone (usually me) ends up fronting more because someone either doesn't have enough or argues that someone ate more than them. Individual bills are so much easier and you can avoid the hassle.

We usually pay for what we eat. I have had bad luck splitting it equally. I alway's end up getting screwed if paying equal shares, i don't drink alchol and some of those drinks are really expensive compared to my soda. Once at lunch with co-workers one lady got a lobster salad roll for like $20 and we all got like sandwiches for like $7 and she also had wine and she wanted to split the bill equally. No thanks. Also i went with them again and my food was gross so i sent it back and didn't eat because i was grossed out and that same woman tried to get me to pay an equal share when all i had was a soda. Needless to say we stopped going to lunch with her.

I guess it all evens out but i get mad if i spent like $10 and am expected to put in like $25. I would never expect someone else to pay more than they owe.

But there are also times when one of us is broke and we will take turns buying.

I don't drink at all but I eat more than my fair share, therefore I don't have a problem splitting the bill. I have a friend who always adds up what each of us ate/drank, says how much is owed by whom and it's very tacky...are a few dollars going to make or break us? I think not. When we go out with couples I'm just happy that my husband has wine drinking partners...then I don't have to feel guilty that he normally has to order wine by the glass!

i try to get separate bills, but 99% of the time, i'm the person who does the math to separate the bills. it's really annoying sometimes, but it makes sense if there are huge discrepancies in what people ordered. however, i find it frustrating when you go to like a family style restaurant and people refuse to go dutch.

Separate bill!

When out with co-workers I always end up spending more than my share because I don't drink and they drink up a storm and seem to order the most expensive stuff including their dinner. It's usually at very $$$$ restaurants and we always just split the bill. I say if it's just once in a while just split it and if you don't drink make sure you order a nice expensive meal for yourself!

Co-workers are different I would never split a bill equally with a co-worker than again I don't usually have lunch with any of my co-workers. If our director comes he always picks up the bill for everyone. Usually work stuff can be expensed.

If we all shared and or got the same dishe we always split evenly - no questions. But if one us had a couple more drink then the rest or what not the we all pay for what we ordered.

It always works out that way for us.

I have issues with splitting the check. Separate checks or a fair assessment of who had what is the order of the day for me. I don't ever have an appetizer or dessert, and usually order something simple and not that expensive. I get resentful having to pay for other people's good time - and there are people who take advantage of that.

Judging from the posts here you all must have some shady friends that you aren't willing to split the bill equally.

I generally go out with smaller groups of people and one person will use their card and the rest will give that person cash. I think it's kind of a pain to separate the bill, and we seem to only do that if we definitely have to.

If it's a friend I'm going with I pay my own. I'm not paying for theirs.

We pay our separate tabs. It's just easier and more fair that way. It doesn't really make sense to split it evenly, unless you all share pizza or something.

Yea, we friends or work people we usually pay our own bill of what we ate. With my boyfriend, he pays all the time haha. I think that's the boys job anyways
Then I make dinner for him

cuba my friends aren't shady, we all just have different budgets and would prefer to only pay for what we had. Unless of course it is a meal where we all share or if one person is picking up the tab.

Separate bills here. It's just easier. Then again, none of our friends mind this. I don't think any of us would stand for someone ordering big & then trying to pull "split the bill". Things like that just don't go over well in our group.

I always get separate bills because I never carry cash, and I have having to write a check and give it to someone or having them give me a check.

It's much easier!

Usually get seperate bills, but if we forget to say then we'll all just chip in.. sometimes one person will pay more, and then another time another person will no problems with that

When we go out to eat at places that do split checks, we do that. If I'm paying for someone and the others are paying for themselves, I ask the server to put both the person and I on the same bill, I'd pay.

For places that do not split checks, we usually ask them to charge a certain amount on our cards or put down cash. I usually never carry cash, so we all puzzle out the amount of money we owe to the total bill (we're all horrible with math. xD) and then ask the server to put the amount of the bill we owe on the card, and then add in the tips ourselves.

There was actually one situation last week where one of my friends wanted to go to this pretty expensive steak place. We took one look at the menu, and went "NO STEAK!" at each other (in sign language, so nobody noticed. xD). The waiter was awesome, so I tried to tip as much as I could (I tipped about six-seven bucks for about 50?) and the friend said he'd pay for the drinks himself since he had more to drink, so he ended up tipping about three to four, so we hopefully left a good tip on a 50 dollar bill. xD

usually we'll split evenly if someone is signifcantly less they will put in a fewbucks less. most of my friends are fair.

I'm all for separate bills when eating with a bunch of friends.

We always split and if someone had less then others then they don't contribute to tip and those who had more pay the tip difference! I think it gets WAY annoying to try and split, especially with a larger grp.
Now paying for drinks gets a lot more confusing... especially when everyone drinks diff't drinks and people tend to 'forget' how much they consumed and their portion. Someone always seems to pay more but I think it all comes around regardless!

When we go out with friends we almost always just split the bill down the middle. I don't like to because we're on a tight budget. I make sure to not order more than we can afford, while friends often order appetizers, alcohol and more expensive entrees (don't get me wrong, I order that when I'm just with my husband but not in group situations!).
I feel too awkward to say anything, especially as they have to know they ordered more stuff than we did, just hoping they'll get the passive aggressive hint that if I don't eat their appetizers I might not want to pay for them either.
My husband works and I don't - he's a generous guy and doesn't mind splitting it down the middle - he doesn't like to pay attention to the whole "budget" thing. I can't really do anything about it since I don't have the balls to speak up, but I am sending him this link, I didn't realize how common it was to have the attitude you guys do!