Have you ever gone to dinner with friends and ordered only a drink or appetizer? But when the bill came around, you got stuck with a chunk of it? How do you pay your fair share — that is, for your smaller portion — without looking or feeling cheap?
Here’s a tip from Ramit from
Scrooge Strategy. He’s all about saving money, and he’s got a good tip about saving face, too.
#2: Eat before you go, then just order appetizers.
Most of us willingly deceive ourselves about the price of eating out. If you’re going to a sit-down restaurant with a server — and you’re eating out with friends — you need to add at least 30% for tax, tip, and the inevitable shortfall that happens whenever 5+ people order food and drinks. Yet we see a menu and say, "Hey, $15 for dinner! That’s not too bad." Add in everything (and I’m not even counting gas/parking because nobody ever does that) and you’re still talking about more like $20 to $30 for the entire meal.
Eating out is about more than food, it’s about the company. Try this just once: Eat a little before you go, then just order appetizers.
Tactical tip: The key is that you must ask if it’s ok to just pay for the appetizers, not split the bill equally. Your line is: "Hey guys, I ate before I came, so is it cool if I just order an appetizer for myself?" Everyone will say "sure, whatever," of course. And when the bill comes, you need to remind the person who’s figuring out the bill that you ordered a small amount. "Hey Mike, can you just subtract my appetizer out? I’ll pay for that and add tax/tip if it’s cool." Since they already agreed earlier in the meal, you won’t get pushback.
I want to highlight how difficult this will be on the first couple of times. One of my friends recently decided to live in a couple hundred dollars on food for the entire month. When I asked him to join a bunch of us for dinner, he came and ordered nothing. "How come you’re not ordering anything?" I asked. He explained what he was doing (which I thought was really cool), but admitted it was incredibly difficult to go out to a restaurant with a bunch of people and only order an ice water. Fortunately, you know to start slow and just order an appetizer. Although it may seem awkward, try it once or twice and see if you can do it. You’ll get the benefit of hanging with your friends, but save $10 to $50 per meal.
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Tracey here. I just signed up for Ramit’s free 7-day quickstart course, and that was one of the tips. You can sign up here:
Scrooge Strategy. (No, I’m not an affiliate. Just giving credit where credit’s due.)
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Blog by Tracey E. Bennett, Queen of Conversation
I welcome your comments, questions, and stories.
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on Monday, January 18th, 2010 at 2:14 pm and is filed under Conversation Tips, Helpful Info.
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