The way we'd do it is usually the birthday boy/girl would be good up to a certain amount. If my friends and I want to celebrate my birthday for a night out in town or a dinner, I'd tell them I'm good up to the first say $500 - the rest will be split among them. I think its fair, so the host can stay within her budget and the rest fo the gang dont feel obliged to pay too much.
Did I read that right? 247 lbs!?
We had it in our backyard growing up (in the Philippines), we called it chicos! I didnt know many people don't recognize it :) its delicious!
I was very lucky - my first visit to NYC and therefore my first visit to Shake Shack -- there were no lines! But I went on a weekday 15 minutes before closing time :) Oh, and try the Abita rootbeer while you are there - so worth it!
Oooh finally a feature on Roasting Plant! This was our best find in the Lower East Side when we visited NYC back in Sept07. Best coffee we ever had, seriously! Until now, I havent had a better coffee - cant wait to go back!
On my 21st birthday my classmates at university persuaded the lecturers that this was a special occasion, and that, instead of us having a laboratory practical session, they insisted on "sticking" me for an outing. They didn't take me to a restaurant, as I'd hoped, but to a movie... and when we got to pay, my "sponsors" were all looking the other way. It was totally embarrassing, as I'd arrived at the class without a cent in my pocket, and I had to borrow money for my ticket. Worst of all, I don't even like watching movies...
According to the blog entry attached to the picture, "X" was a prank pulled by the birthday boy.
A lot of things don't add up with this. The CNN.com article said it was a sushi restaurant; none of the items the person who paid $50 said she ordered appear on the bill (rice, miso soup; and the article said it was a party of eight but the bill shows there were 12 guests. So maybe the added $3,000 was a joke too?
What I did for my parents' anniversary party was send out the invitations with the wording that we were asking their friends to join us as we surprised them with a dinner, meaning that my sister and I paid for our and our parents' food, and no one elses. I wouldn't have thought of making any of our guests pay for any of our food. However, since I was making it clear that we were just paying for our parents, I wouldn't have offered for pay for any of theirs. We all did seperate checks, and it was a great time. It also helps that we invited people that are my parents' age, and it was their 30th anniversary. As for the whole split check thing, it always ends in tears, so I try to avoid it, after paying 50 dollars for a meal twice in a row for a pasta dish and IHOP.
Regarding office birthday parties, etc., my office does it smart. We never go to expensive restaurants as a group for these types of things unless it's all executives. Some of our kids are at entry level salaries and it's just plain unfair to do that to them. Generally we have 2 tabs running - one for food, non-alcoholic beverages and one for booze. We split the food evenly, unless someone orders a really expensive dish, and then they just add extra. You only get hit with the bar tab if you've been drinking booze. This works very well.
I have to wonder if some people are raised by wolves and/or jackasses. Really? You're not going to be friends with someone because you forced them to give you money they might not have? Ugh. Maybe it's because I'm still a poor college student, but I would never put someone in that kind of a situation. If I wanted to do a birthday dinner type thing, I would have the good sense to check with everyone before we started ordering.
I remember being in high school and going out to a celebratory meal with a friend my age and pretty much everyone else of drinking age. I ordered a small meal within my means, but everyone else either kept ordering drinks or accepting drinks brought to them by the server and were utterly shocked when the bill came. I'm not going to pay for something I didn't/couldn't consume. Sorry.
What happened to asking the waitress/waiter for a split tab at the beginning? I'm one of a group of (poor) college students, and we always do that!
The exception is on birthdays, when everyone chips in a buck or two to mitigate the cost of the birthday girl (or guy's meal). But again, poor college students . . . maybe this will change when we start making money.
This is just crazy because of the sheer cost involved. I used to go to brunch with some friends, but after about 3-4 times of getting stiffed, I just stopped. It was fine when one friend with a calculator (yep, an engineer) would do the math for everyone - but he stopped coming.
I also used to go to Mom's Night Out. There is a large variety of incomes with the moms...some have very little family income and some have a lot. You could tell - some were only willing to go out to the "free" things (dancing at a club with no cover charge). Whomever would plan these things for dinner, however, picked REALLY expensive restaurants. And sometimes the restaurant would pad the bill. I love Mom's night, but I don't want to spend $50-60 for a meal and one glass of wine.
How is this even an issue? People don't pay on their birthdays.
kroehl at 5:24PM on 09/15/08
You missed the point. It was not the birthday girl's meal that caused this problem, it was her SEVEN invited "guests" who apparently weren't expecting to pay. It doesn't sound like the prearrangement was for the rest of the party to absorb eight meals vs. one (for the BD Girl) and tip.
If I'm invited out on my birthday, I generally don't invite an entourage implying they don't have to pay.
I've just heard of a "trickle-down" example of this . . . in my daughter's high school art class the teacher announced the other day that if anyone with a birthday wanted to celebrate it, and wanted to plan ahead, the class could do so.
One girl said "I have a birthday coming up soon!" and the teacher responded "Okay then - you can be in charge of the birthdays. Go around and get a list of the dates of everybody's birthdays in the class then give it to me."
Several days passed and the birthday girl did not go around getting a list of everyone's birthday. But today she came in with an extensive list of things that she would require for her own in-class birthday celebration (cookies, chips, soda, paper goods, etc!) and told the teacher she had a list to pass around where everyone could sign up for what they would be bringing in for her party. Which is supposedly tomorrow.
Ha, ha, ha, ha!
Ridiculous.
It's just so damn precious.
My daughter was near the end of the line getting the paper and ended up having to sign up for bringing cookies. Which she's not crazy about because she'd rather eat more healthy things . . . and because she doesn't even know the birthday girl (or didn't before she met her with the birthday gimmes-plan) . . . and because the girl "forgot" to make a list of anyone else's birthday in the class in the hot pursuit to plan her own party.
Tomorrow should be interesting. :)
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