# You invite someone to dinner, and at the end of the meal they extend money across the table

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-invite-someone-to-dinner-and-at-the-end-of-the-meal-they-extend-money-across-the-table/509150>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 7, 2009, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-invite-someone-to-dinner-and-at-the-end-of-the-meal-they-extend-money-across-the-table/509150 "2009-09-07T08:28:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-invite-someone-to-dinner-and-at-the-end-of-the-meal-they-extend-money-across-the-table/509150/61 "2009-09-14T21:10:12Z")

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Late to the party, but IMO the only real way to try to avoid this is to say when issuing the invitation, “Want to go to New Restaurant with us on Friday? **It’s our treat.** ” And even then the guy is going to offer to pay part. The response is to be breezily dismissive: Good Lord, no! Put that away. We’re treating and there’s no argument!" As others have noted, the follow-up will be an offer to get dessert or cover the tip, which offer you can take or leave, IMO.

The response of _: shrug :_ “It’s your choice” is of course boorish. My response to that would be a warm “You’re welcome.”

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**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-invite-someone-to-dinner-and-at-the-end-of-the-meal-they-extend-money-across-the-table/509150/62 "2009-09-14T21:36:00Z")

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> [@gigi](#):
>
> But you had the lobster and I had a side salad. And you had that expensive bottle of wine and I had water.
> 
> Dividing the bill evenly isn’t always fair, but on the other hand people need to be able to add up what they had and calculate tax and tip without a half-hour negotiation.

Then I throw in extra. Most of my friends have at least a high school education. They can all add, subtract, divide and multiply.

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