People Are Fighting On Reddit About What It Means To 'Split The Bill'

Philip Ellis

April 20, 2019 6:05 PM

The finer points of dinner etiquette are causing quite a stir online right now, as people are discovering that not everybody has the same definition of "splitting the bill."

What Does It Actually Mean To 'Split The Bill'?

It all started, as so many things do, with an innocent question on Reddit. In a post titled 'What does "split the bill" mean to you? [Literally]', a user said: "The question came from me seeing a post from a girl who offered to split the bill and was disturbed when a guy started calculating what he ordered. Obviously she was thinking that splitting is dividing the whole sum in 2 equal parts. So it got me thinking. For me it means and always meant everybody pays for himself (herself), no matter if it is a date, 2 buddies hanging out, a group of friends or any other possible scenario."

Doing the math of working out exactly what you ate and drank down to the penny isn't exactly a great look on a date, but confusion over what splitting actually means can be a real cause of awkwardness in other situations too. It turns out, everybody has their own system. "Split with friends is everyone pays for what they ordered," said one commenter, adding: "Split with a significant other is 50/50."

"I think if there is a default, it should be separate checks / pay for what you ordered," said another. "Nobody gets shafted that way. Splitting even is more... intimate. It means 'we're long-term friends, we don't need to nickel and dime things, resources can be shared to an extent between us.'"

For people in long-term relationships, somebody suggested taking it in turns to pay, using the logic that it all balances out, although that does always create the possibility that one night out will cost a lot more than another.

And in some cases, this little misunderstanding can tear families apart. "This is actually an issue I've had with my older brother," said one commenter. "For him it means equally divided but for me (a woman) it means everyone pays for themselves. That's how my friends split things and that's how his friends split things. We actually had a huge fight about it at one point when he kept insisting the Venmo request was not half the bill but based on the people and I was like well it's way too high for what I ordered and he kept accusing me of being greedy and selfish."

Ultimately, and somewhat frustratingly, nobody is right and nobody is wrong when it comes to splitting the bill. "It can mean either thing," concluded one comment. "Divide bill by # of parties, or pay for what you ordered. Both are common practices."

Philip Ellis