Love this article! Far too many years of this sort of nonsense in addition to a friend who would always come late, eat what others didn't finish off their and not pay a cent! I am all for frugal but that was beyond cheap.

After that us girls came up with a plan, we chip in $5 towards the birthday person meal. That's it. That may seem cheap but on average there were at least six of us girls so that's minimum $30.00. Not a bad meal. And depending on the place the birthday person choose that could also be a glass of wine or just the appetizer.

As for the splitting of the bill....sigh. Always serperate the bills but we have yet to find a perfect solution for when cheques can't be seperated. Ideas?