The older couple (with way more money than us) ordered nice meals, and LOTS of drinks of the nicest booze.
When it came time to pay the bill the older woman said “Let's just split it down the middle to make it easy”. Being young and it being a co-worker of my wife we did just that.
We were both pretty steamed when we got into our own car. “Well - we still had a nice time. And we should have figured out the payment terms ahead of time. From now on though, lets not go out to dinner with them!”
“lets not go out to dinner with them”
Correct answer—I think most of us know people like that.
They get one free mooch per lifetime.
Then it is boycott time.
:-)
I learned some valuable lessons early in my career. I was on a field assignment in Tacoma, WA and turned around and there was my boss. Weirdest thing ever. He just popped up unannounced. We took me out to lunch and he had drank his normal four martinis while I’m eating a light sandwich (no drinks at lunch because I was working on dangerous equipment).
The bill came and what did he say? “You pay and put it on your expense report,” naturally. He was the guy who approved my expense report of course.
I found out from colleagues that he pulled that stunt all the time. He drove to Tacoma from the San Francisco Bay Area to pick up his daughter who was in college. He had the company pay for his travel, hotel, food, martinis, etc. Our “work” discussion was basically “You’re doing a good job. You like the work?” “Oh yeah, it’s great.” End of discussion.
What a sleaze bag. We used to joke he was so cheap he bought his shoes one at a time.
Proper response:
"Oh, we would love to split the bill 50-50, but our tax preparer insists that we always demand a separate check for only our food and drinks. Says he needs the receipts for tax purposes. And we also need the actual, exact figure so that we know how much to tithe to the Church, too! Besides, we don't have that much money on us, so probably couldn't shell out enough cash to pay for half of the total bill."
Regards,