Separate checks?

[aprilgail2]

As long as you tell the server up front I don't get the big deal, they have to write it all down anyway. Why is it any different than having that many single diners at that many tables?

I agree-- I have a friend that we go out with often she has 3 kid I have one--she always makes sure to ask for a seperate check because its not fair that I should have to pay for her kids when I only have one.
One funny thing I used to go out with some friends--2 couples, me and one other female that was also single. When they split the check they split it 4 ways! One way per couple, one way for me and one way for the other girl! Since when does being married mean you morph into one single person LOL....they each got a dinner, not like they bought one and split it between the two of them---its due to people like that that people want seperate checks LOL. If they split it by 6 that would have been fine with me!

 

[HsvTeacher]

This is why we split checks:

When we were first married, my DH and I went out to eat with some of my his friends. We split an appetizer, each had an entree, and drank non-alcoholic drinks. (I rarely drink alcohol.) The single guy had an entree and a glass of wine. The other couple each had their own appetizer, their own entree, their own dessert, and several glasses of wine each.

When it came time to split the check, the gluttonous pigs wanted to split it evenly five ways. When we objected, the rude husband started screaming at us that we were cheap. My husband paid for everything, just so we could leave. Later that night, the single guy ending up giving my DH half of the amount of the check, and the cheap couple never offered him a dime.

Needless to say, none of us ever ended up seeing the rude couple again. Good riddance!

 

[SaraJayne]

I prefer separate checks. It's easier for everyone involved.

 

[MichelleVW]

I've very rarely gone anywhere and not done separate checks. Even in huge groups, the waitress usually asks from the start who is on what check (we don't even have to ask!).

Why should I have to pay for someone else's alcohol or expensive appetizer or their tip? Because there is always that person that shorts the bill by not adding in for the tip and everyone else ends up paying for it.

Exactly...it's way easier to get separate checks than try to divide it after it comes.

I have never done separate checks since HS. I've never witnessed anyone doing separate checks. I'd be horrified if anyone suggested it - tacky.

You have to be kidding? Tacky? Hardly.

 

[spacemountainmom]

This is why we split checks:

When we were first married, my DH and I went out to eat with some of my his friends. We split an appetizer, each had an entree, and drank non-alcoholic drinks. (I rarely drink alcohol.) The single guy had an entree and a glass of wine. The other couple each had their own appetizer, their own entree, their own dessert, and several glasses of wine each.

When it came time to split the check, the gluttonous pigs wanted to split it evenly five ways. When we objected, the rude husband started screaming at us that we were cheap. My husband paid for everything, just so we could leave. Later that night, the single guy ending up giving my DH half of the amount of the check, and the cheap couple never offered him a dime.

Needless to say, none of us ever ended up seeing the rude couple again. Good riddance!

It always seems to be that the ones who eat or drink the most and most expensive items are the ones who want to split the split the check equally.

 

[RachaelA]

being a server it's a pain to separate checks. It takes time a way from your other tables, most of the time you have to have a manager break the ticket up because 99.9 percent of the time they don't tell you they are seperate checks

How hard is it for a server to ask the table at the beginning before they place their order?

 

[IDoDis]

Several years ago my sister and our DH's took our mom out to dinner at a nice restaurant to celebrate our mom's retirement. My sister and I had decided ahead of time that we'd split the cost of our mom's meal, but that she'd just pay for it all and then tell me what DH and I owed so as not to have any confusion when the bill arrived.

My sister's DH ordered two appetizers one of which was some kind of seafood that DH and I don't like. But then my sister's DH ordered a bottle of red wine that he, my sister, and my mom drank. After that bottle was empty, he ordered a different bottle of red wine that he and my sister drank. DH and I didn't drink any because we were on a tight budget at the time and therefore didn't want to have to pay for alcohol which was very pricey at this place.

I figured we'd owe $85 for DH's meal, my meal, and 1/2 of my mom's meal and 1/2 of one of the appetizers, plus approx $10 for the glass of wine my mom had and tax and tip which would have been around $125. DH and I stuck with lesser expensive items on the menu. After the bill came and was paid, my sister said the bill was $450 with tax & tip, so I owed her $225!

So she was collecting for 1/2 of the expensive wine and 1/2 of their meals which were way more expensive than our meals, and 1/2 of the appetizers that we didn't order. I get the appetizers because my mom enjoyed them and DH and I had a couple pieces each of some fried zucchini. However, I think it would have been polite for them to ask us what we liked for an appetizer if they wanted us to pay 1/2 of it instead of just taking it upon themselves to order and then expecting us to pay 1/2 for something we didn't touch.

Turns out the bottles of wine alone were over $80 each that we had to pay 1/2 of! DH and I paid my sister, but were upset on the way home. Partly because they were well aware that our income is a fraction of their income, we ordered lesser expensive meals with our budget in mind, and we didn't drink any wine, so she should not have expected us to pay for 1/2 right down the middle like that. We never brought it up to them, but we also never split a check with them again.

I'm all for separate! There have also been too many times where I've been in large groups where the bill gets passed around and people put in their money, but the one paying the bill gets stuck having to ask people to pony up more money or has to pay extra themselves.

 

[disykat]

If you go shopping with a group don't you all check out separately? or do you hand the cashier all the stuff and say ring it up together WE will split it up on our own.

Of course, not to do so would be tacky! Who cares if they bought a winter wardrobe and you only bought a pair of socks!

Great analagy!

 

[Bob NC]

I have never done separate checks since HS. I've never witnessed anyone doing separate checks. I'd be horrified if anyone suggested it - tacky.

Horrified?

 

[Banzai]

I'm a bartender/server, so just my own spin on the topic.

I don't really mind splitting checks. I ask ahead of time when I see a table that looks like "splitters." That's basicly: several families out to dinner, a group of middle aged women, older folks. However, I always write out the check on my pad as if I am going to split it, so that if I present a check and it is asked to be split, I can do it quickly.

As for payments, credit cards are the way to go for it. I often get a group of 12-14 older women during the day, and they are easy to wait on...until payment. Then, it seems we all stopped at the ATM or bank prior to, and present me with crisp $20 and $50 dollar bills. That I have to cash out. At most restaurants that don't have a cashier that you walk up to, we bring our own money to make change.

That leads to a few things:
1a) For the group, please don't comment that I gave you all small bills. I work for tips, so I don't want to make you mad with the change i give you. I just have 10 people that I owe money to, and that is what i could trade out with others to get. And sometimes, you'll get a few two dollar bills and dollar coins, because that's what I brought today
1b) When you do comment that it took me a few minutes to procure and count out change, and say "All he had to do was go to the cash register," thats when I cheerfully reply "The cash register is my pocket" I'm not saying it to be rude, but to give you heads up that I am not being slow intentionally
2) For others, If you see me collecting several payments, I am busy That would be why I am missing for a few minutes.

 

[LuvsDragonflies]

How hard is it for a server to ask the table at the beginning before they place their order?

Hey! That's just crazy talk.

Another server here, yeah, it's a pain and it takes time, but if it's what they want, so be it.

 

[mhsjax]

For all you people that think that just splitting the check is ok, and if you don't you are cheap. Wow. Have you ever thought about this. WE have a large group of friends that we eat with fairly often, kids included. We are a family of 5, most of them only have 1 child. Their kids still eat off of the kids menu, ours don't. Now I would love to split the check with those of you that think it is ok, because I would be getting out way cheaper than if we requested separate checks. WE aren't all cheap people you know, sometimes we actually are looking out for the rest of you.

 

[mjkacmom]

Horrified?

I've never seen it done, and most of the time, the server gets an awesome tip, because people put in too much money.

 

[aprilgail2]

For all you people that think that just splitting the check is ok, and if you don't you are cheap. Wow. Have you ever thought about this. WE have a large group of friends that we eat with fairly often, kids included. We are a family of 5, most of them only have 1 child. Their kids still eat off of the kids menu, ours don't. Now I would love to split the check with those of you that think it is ok, because I would be getting out way cheaper than if we requested separate checks. WE aren't all cheap people you know, sometimes we actually are looking out for the rest of you.

I have found its usually the people with 4 and 5 kids that want to split the check down the middle even though the other person only has the one kids!! Sure it works out very nicely for that person with all the kids but it sure screws over the people with one or two kids!!

 

[msjprincess]

For all you people that think that just splitting the check is ok, and if you don't you are cheap. Wow. Have you ever thought about this. WE have a large group of friends that we eat with fairly often, kids included. We are a family of 5, most of them only have 1 child. Their kids still eat off of the kids menu, ours don't. Now I would love to split the check with those of you that think it is ok, because I would be getting out way cheaper than if we requested separate checks. WE aren't all cheap people you know, sometimes we actually are looking out for the rest of you.

How do you figure? When we split the check we go by the number of people not per family. I have 3 kids so I pay more than someone that has 1 kid or no kids. But we don't figure it out to the penny.

 

[mhsjax]

I have found its usually the people with 4 and 5 kids that want to split the check down the middle even though the other person only has the one kids!! Sure it works out very nicely for that person with all the kids but it sure screws over the people with one or two kids!!

Exactly, and we worked to hard on expanding out kids taste to go above and beyond chicken fingers and pizza, boy is that biting us in the ****. lol. No way would I expect anyone to pay for my kids meals. We always end up owing more than everyone else.

 

[mhsjax]

How do you figure? When we split the check we go by the number of people not per family. I have 3 kids so I pay more than someone that has 1 kid or no kids. But we don't figure it out to the penny.

So if it is 2 or 3 families, and they have 1 kid each and they order the kids meals, and my 3 kids all order steak and maybe dessert and an appetizer, you can't see where the other people would be paying more money? And yes, my kids do that, so no way will I have my friends paying for part of my kids expensive taste.

Not to mention, most waiters just put a number by what we ordered and they ring it up separately, they never have a problem doing this. And everyone pays only for what they ordered.

 

[Princess_Meghan <3]

When my friends and I go out, we usually ask for seperate checks at the beginning of a meal if they're available. We're all college students, and some of us have more money to spend than others, and often times we don't have cash on us, only our check cards. We realize that it takes longer, but we always end up leaving a big tip because of it.

When we have had to split the check, we tried to make sure that everyone only really paid for what they ordered and actually ate. It's just harder if we don't have cash, and seperate checks make it easier.

 

[OceanAnnie]

This is why we split checks:

When we were first married, my DH and I went out to eat with some of my his friends. We split an appetizer, each had an entree, and drank non-alcoholic drinks. (I rarely drink alcohol.) The single guy had an entree and a glass of wine. The other couple each had their own appetizer, their own entree, their own dessert, and several glasses of wine each.

When it came time to split the check, the gluttonous pigs wanted to split it evenly five ways. When we objected, the rude husband started screaming at us that we were cheap. My husband paid for everything, just so we could leave. Later that night, the single guy ending up giving my DH half of the amount of the check, and the cheap couple never offered him a dime.

Needless to say, none of us ever ended up seeing the rude couple again. Good riddance!

Some people!

I don't blame you a bit.

 

[ilovefh]

Honestly, I don't have a problem with separate checks. We always do this with my sister as somehow her meal is always cheaper in her mind then on the bill. She forgets to include tax and tip. So now the $15 she threw in for her burger, cheese fries and coke really cost $19 so I would be constantly chipping in the other $4.

As a former server I didn't mind separate check. When I wrote orders down I labeled them so I know who ate what so splitting it up wasn't hard. At 3 restaurants I worked at the computer system had an option for taking one checking and splitting up by selecting which items to move to a separate check and that was quick enough. Most people paid with cards. I'd rather someone hand me their receipt and card instead of saying "put x amount on sally's card, and y amount on the card that says jane and z amount on the card that says sarah" and have to keep that straight.

I don't think it is tacky. What I do think is tacky is ordering more than someone else and expecting them to help subsidize your meal.