My Meals Are Less Expensive

I know to most people this seems like such a small thing. It just makes sense. Why sit there and decide who owes what? Well I’ll tell you why…because more often than not, I make choices that would make my dinner MUCH less expensive then everyone else’s. I don’t eat much in one sitting. I very rarely order or eat an appetizer. I am a very picky eater and therefore, most of the time, I tend to order the most inexpensive thing on the menu. I rarely order alcohol with dinner because I think it’s insane to pay that much for a drink when I can just have it at home after the meal, and I never save room for dessert. So those long winded statements say that I pretty much only have the entree.

Most of the time, when my friends go out they order all 3 courses on top of alcoholic beverages, and that is more than fine and dandy, but I just don’t want to have to pay for it. My husband gets so mad at me if I even begin to mention that I should owe much less than everyone else. So mad, that we rarely go out to dinner with friends anymore because of this. I feel that if I choose to eat less than everyone else, and make a conscious effort to make my dinner be less expensive, then I shouldn’t be forced to pay for everyone else’s meal. He feels that if we are going out with others that I just have to accept the fact that that is how it is, and suck it up. So we pretty much are at a stalemate, and won’t give.

An Example

Here is a real life scenario….One night we go out to dinner with a rather large group of people (about 10) to a reasonably priced steak house. The table orders a very large seafood appetizer (I don’t eat seafood), and lots of alcoholic beverages (I chose to drink water). Everyone places their order. Most people order steak meals, some order surf and turf. I ordered an $18 steak sandwich. After that everyone orders dessert…I of course do not. When the bill comes around what happens??? Does anyone at the table notice that I did not eat everything that everyone else ate? Does my husband speak up? NOPE! Do I speak up? NOPE  So what are we left paying? $40 per person! 

Now I know what a lot of you are thinking, “Jen, you’ve just gotta play the game!” “If you can’t beat em join em right?” RIGHT! I am now forced to order just as much as everyone else. If we do end up going out I order the wine, and the appetizer. Why not? I will be paying for it anyway!

I will admit that when going out with another couple it makes perfect sense to split the bill. Normally, in this case everyone is pretty equal. I can admit this. I really enjoy going out with one other couple. But once you start adding more than that, things start to get a little more uneven, and this happens more often than not with our group of friends. Don’t get me wrong. I love that we have great friends who want to get together a lot…that’s wonderful…but my crazy brain can’t wrap around the idea of spending that much on dinner. Especially when I am very happy spending very little.

So, go ahead friends. I have opened myself up to be made fun of here, but I just had to write about this topic!