Three guys check into a hotel room that’s $30, but it’s really $25, yada yada yada, where did the extra $2 go?
I’m unable to wrap my head around this.
I was out with a friend. She got an appetizer and a drink. I got dessert and a drink. The drinks were $5 each, my dessert was $4. When the check came, it was $25 and change. I think it was $25.98, so let’s call it 26. For what it’s worth, meal tax in this state is 6.25%.
She gave the waitress a credit card with a sticker on it that said “17.” I put in a $20 bill. The waitress brought back $11 in change. I left some of the change in the check folder as a tip. My friend said “Is that what you’re leaving her?” I said “Yeah, she was a good waitress.” My friend said “Actually, it’s not enough.”
I’m good at math, but when I go to a restaurant, my math skills go out the window.
Your share of the bill was $9 plus 6.25%? That would be $9.56. So about a $2 tip if you tip 20%.
I don’t understand the sticker with a “17” part. I guess that means she was paying $17, and that included a tip. But her share including tax would be over $16, so that wouldn’t leave enough for a tip.
The total tip on $26 could have been $5, again for close to 20%.
I don’t understand. Are you paying for her’s too or just your’s? I would give $6.00 tip if for all of it. According to what you wrote it seems you only ate 9 dollars worth of things. So, then I’d have left a 2 dollar tip. I don’t understand where the 17 and 25 are coming from…
Either she ate $17 worth of stuff and left me to pay the entire tip – which meant her appetizer was $12, which seems unlikely – or the 17 included her portion of the tip, which she said it did.
So for 26 dollars: your food and drink were 9 bucks. Round that up to 10 to include tax.
You were supposed to leave a 100% tip???
How much was your friend’s appetizer? 26 - 9 = 17 exactly so she put a reasonable amount on the credit card. I assume she added a tip when they brought the card and slip back.
A 15% tip on your 9 dollar tab would be 1.35. Say you round that to 1.50 (15% of a 10.00 tab). That’s not fantastic and the going rate is more like 18% these days. Let’s call it 20. So that’s still only 12.00 total. If you expected no change from that 20, you were a VERY generous tipper.
Hell, even if your 20 was supposed to cover your friend’s tip as well: 17 on the credit card + 20 cash = 37. That’s nearly a 33% tip.
I originally put in $3, but then I put in another $2, which means that I left a 50+% tip for my own food. Or about the right amount for the entire check.
As others have said, it sounds like she divided the bill in half, and then added a tip from that, rather than accounting for the difference in price (if there was) between a dessert and an appetizer. So, she gets 13 + tip, rather than something closer to 16 + tip.
I think $2 plus the total of your items would have been reasonable. So, around $12?
If $17 included her part of the tip, you should have left $3 or $4 tip, but only because you’re also covering a portion of the cost of her meal.
As an aside, I’m sure your friend is wonderful, but I don’t understand people who do this. If you’re paying separately then you pay for what you ate. You don’t divide the bill in half and call it even. This is why I like separate checks.
d’oh :smack: - reading for comprehension = total fail; I thought I read that you left the 20 and got no change. Duh!
In your situation, I’d have left 2 bucks or maybe even 3 - which is pretty generous on the 9 dollars. Then again, with a bill that low, the waitress had to do nearly as much work as if you’d ordered a pricier meal, so I tend to tip on the high-ish side for something like that.
3 woulda been plenty, anyway (assuming your friend tipped as well).
And reading more of the thread: your friend stiffed you.
A 20% tip on $26 is about $5, making the total including tip $31. If her portion of the bill was $17, including a 20% tip, then your bill including tip would be $14. Pre-tip, it would have had to be over $11, rather than the $9 you indicated in the OP.
Or your friend screwed up. A $12 appetizer isn’t implausible.
If your recounting is accurate, then I don’t think any of that $17 went to the tip since the server took the $9 difference from your $20. If you left $5, then it was a reasonable amount for the full meal. If she added a tip on the receipt after, then the server got more than enough.
Maybe I’m more of an idiot than I realize. I went to the restaurant’s website and looked at the menu. Her appetizer was $8, and my dessert was $6, not $4. So I paid 11 and got back 9, which means that I transposed those numbers in my head.
Hey! You found the missing $2 from the three-guys-and-the-hotel problem you mentioned in your OP!
$11 * 1.0625 = $11.68 after tax. 11.68 * 1.2 = $14.02 after tip. So your part should have been $14. Her share of $17 gives $31 total for a $5 tip (assuming the $26 total was right).
Total = $26
Your Portion: $5 (for drink) + $4 (for dessert) = $9.00
Her Portion: $5(for drink) + $12 (it has to be for the bill to make sense) = $17.00
I don’t understand how she left a tip with that $17. If the drinks were $5 and desserts were $4, that means your meal had to be $9, therefore her meal had to be $17 to get to the total.
Between her $17 and your $20 you paid $37 for a $26 meal. You got your $11 extra back. At this point no tip was paid, and your friend paid $17, while you paid $9. As mentioned about 5 bucks is a standard tip on a bill of this size. So, if you would have thrown 5 bucks in you would have paid $14 in total.
Ahh. I see what the others are saying in your friend’s head she was saying “We’re splitting the bill and I am paying half at $13 plus and I’m putting a $4 tip down” So, she thought she was being generous, and saw that you didn’t even pay half and thought you were being pretty miserly.
Huh. New info:
Total = $26 - $1.50taxes
Your Portion: $5 (for drink) + $6 (for dessert) = $11.00
Her Portion: $5(for drink) + $8(it has to be for the bill to make sense) = $13.00
So. Now it really makes sense. You friend did it exactly right with a very nice tip.
.