I feel bad throwing my friends under the bus, but... I feel so bad.

Last week I wanted to get together with some of my closest friends for my birthday dinner. Because of schedules and locations, I chose a place that was closer to half of of us, so they would only need to drive less than 2 miles from their homes, after working all day, I had to drive 15 miles in traffic (Los Angeles traffic, but my day off) also chose a place that wouldn’t cost us too much, knowing they would want to pay for my dinner.

They didn’t have what I wanted,so picked two sides as my final choice ($3.50 each). My SO also picked two sides and a beer. So the two of us combined came to the same price as all our friends dishes. When the bill came, everyone was struggling to pay. It wasn’t too expensive. $121 for 8 people. I wanted to just pay for it. But they refused because it was my bday. Two couples said they’d cover mine and my SO dinners.

My SO said no, I want to pay for her dinner, if you won’t let me, I’ll pay the tip. So everyone agreed. So we asked what we should leave. They said $25. So my SO did. I thought that was too little (not knowing the full bill at the time) so added another five as we were leaving.

Found out the total after we left. If we had given $40 tip, and divided by 7, it would have been slightly under $25 per person. My So and myself left $30, paid more than everyone else, also jipped the waitress $10. I felt horrible.