V.C, CA A discussion on restaurant bills

OK, this is an ICKY thing to bring up, but I'm going to do it anyway. Please excuse me if I come across as griping, or picky, or snooty or anything, because I really, really don't mean it that way!


Anyway, here's the deal: We need to be better about making sure we have enough money to pay for what we decide to order. The first year or so, I don't really remember this being a problem. This time around, I ended up paying $21 for an $8 or $9 salad and a $4.29 dessert. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's ended up paying more than they should on different occassions.

First off, I am NOT pointing fingers at ANYONE. In fact, I've had to borrow money before in order to avoid putting things on my card, too. We all have times like that. What I am trying to avoid is the uncomfortable moments that come up when it turns out we're short on the bill, and everyone is looking at each other. If the reason someone can't put enough in is due to a shortage of cash on hand, just say so and I'm sure we can cover it. It's just the whole "not me" attitude that is the bad part, here.

When ordering, a good way to think about how much something is going to cost is to round off your items to the next dollar up, and then divide by 4. Add this amount back onto your rounded amount. The reason for this is, tax, rounded up, is around 8%, and gratuity is 15%, so the two combined is 23% of your total, added onto the amount of the food you're ordering. So, if someone has ordered $20 of food, they should make sure they have $25 on them to pay for it. (This is MORE than they owe, but it's a whole lot nicer those times that we have EXTRA money in the pile to redistribute!) Just adding a couple of dollars isn't enough unless your food item is $8 or less.

If I'm overstepping, or coming across as the "food bill police", please forgive me. On the other hand, if anyone has suggestions, please chime in!

 

I think we should rule out any meetings at Applebee's for the time being, those $2.25 drinks are absolutly rediculous.

 

Yeah, it definately needs to be worked on. I usually pay more attention to it but I had Noah yesterday and was messing around. I brought $19 to the meeting, and left with $0, so I HOPE I covered all mine. I'm usually pretty dopey when it comes to math issues though, so whenever I mess up just smack me.