[astroAPhi]

Whenever me and my boyfriend go out with our friends, his brothers, or my sisters, we get separate checks now. He seems to always be the one to cover for everyone else. When we all went to Margaritaville for my 21st, we had a bill of something like 500 bucks between 20 people. My boyfriend paid 150 of that, because people either completely did not pay for their meal, their drinks, or shorted him. He was expecting maybe 60 bucks to pay for both meals and part of the drinks. Needless to say he was not happy.

I don't think it's tacky to give what you owe instead of splitting a bill evenly. Many times we hit up Friday's or Chili's and someone will get a side of fries while one of the guys gets a steak dinner. Is it fair for the fry guy (who is only ordering that because he can't afford more than that) pays as much as the guy with the steak dinner or the girl who had 4 drinks? I don't think so. Dionsys is right in that the person who is ordering something very small is either doing so because they are not hungry, or can't afford to buy anything else. This may just apply to my school, but Florida Tech is extremely expensive... we have many people leave because they lose their scholarships or they can't handle all the loans and the debt. Some of my friends do nothing but mooch or sit at home and watch movies because they can't afford it. I'm not going to make a friend who is already 1000 bucks into credit card debt split a bill evenly with me if they only ordered a soda or french fries.