Those of you relationships, how do you pay for meals?

We have a joint credit account and a joint bank account, so it doesn’t really matter. We use our debit card for everything and very rarely have cash on hand. He generally deals with paying though, most often because I either would have to dig out my wallet from the bottom of my purse or I left it at home because I knew he had his wallet.

That said, I have my own account for my business income/taxes and I’ve been trying to convince him to open his own bank account, too, so we can each get a periodic allowance of mad money or funds for holiday presents, etc. We can easily transfer between accounts on our credit union’s website. He’s against it because he thinks it would be too much hassle. :smack:

Our current system involves ridiculous conversations like this: “Hey, you can’t view the online statement for the next few weeks.”
“Oh, why, did you buy my birthday present?”
“No, I just don’t want you to know about that thousand I blew in Vegas last weekend.”
“Let’s see…could it be one of those books I pointed out…or that great knife I saw…maybe that nice big set of pastels…”
“NO! No guessing allowed! You can read my face too well!”

We have combined funds so it doesn’t matter. When I was dating, I preferred to do my share because I think it’s the right thing to do. If a guy took me out, I’d take him out the next time. Anything else just seems old fashioned today.

My boy and I have been together for 4 years now, and paying for things has always depended on who happens to be making more money, rather than old-fashioned notions that the man should always pays for everything.

Back when I was a lawyer and he was studying for his PhD, I paid for way more than half of things, so we could live a lifestyle I enjoyed (eating in restaurants, paying a cleaner, etc) but now that we live separately and I’m a college student again, he is very generously paying for much more than half of eating out, trips to the theatre/cinema so that we can continue to have a good time. It’s just teamwork.

I don’t think the girlf in the OP has any reasonable expectation that men should pay for her just because it’s old-fashioned. She just sounds spoiled, to me.