Splitting the bill is a common way to enjoy restaurant trips with your friends, but is this practice always necessarily fair? In a video that has amassed 7.3 million views, Ash Sinclair (@ashhh_babyyy) took a stand, as she clashed with friends over whether she should pay for their significantly more expensive orders.
“So, the bill’s $516, so I’m gonna just take out what I got, and then y’all can just put the bill on y’all’s own,” she said, filming herself in the restaurant.
Off-camera, on the other side of the table, her friends could be heard protesting over this, insisting, “Nah, but everybody’s splitting the bill, so why are you taking out what you got? Respectfully, if you didn’t have any money, you should’ve said.”
“Respectfully, I’m not paying for your steak, and I’m not paying for your mac and cheese. I’m not paying for your mashed potatoes.” She continues, “I’m not paying for your 5,000 drinks. I’m not paying for their stuff. Respectfully. I got myself chicken wings and French fries.”
Offended, the on-screen friend replied, “I can pay for my stuff, baby. I got the money to pay for my stuff.”
To which Sinclair retorted, “And nobody said y’all couldn’t pay for y’all’s stuff, but all I’m saying is I’m not paying for y’all’s stuff. So I’m going to go tell the waiter to split my [expletive], and y’all can figure it out.”
Commenters sided with the TikToker
In the comments, users were firmly on Sinclair’s side.
“They all broke and greedy,” one wrote. “It’s giving THEY BROKE,” a second agreed. While a third asked, “Why can’t they all pay for their own bill?”
Other commenters shared confusion over what splitting the bill actually means. “Isn’t splitting the bill paying for ur own items?” a fourth asked, while a fifth enquired, “Y’all actually SPLIT the bill? I thought that just meant pay for your own food.”
Generally, it’s widely agreed that splitting the bill involves dividing the bill equally per person as opposed to people only paying for what they ordered.
@ashhh_babyyy Exactly why I don’t do birthday dinners ??♀️
♬ original sound – Ashhh._babyyy
What happened next?
In a follow-up video, Sinclair shared what happened after dinner.
“I paid for what the [expletive] I got,” she said. “I did not split no [expletive] bills with nobody that ordered a steak and ordered 25,000 margaritas […]. Those that are in my comments saying they agree with me, I really appreciate y’all and I really love y’all.”
She continued, “And for you and for those that’s saying that I’m broke and I should never went outside if I didn’t want to split the bill, then, [expletive], next time I go out to dinner, pay for my milk because, obviously, you know how much money I got in my [expletive] pockets.”
“The [expletive]? I understand going to dinner for a birthday. Like, you know, you’re supposed to split the bill if it’s reasonable, but if I’m ordering, like, you know, small little items that’s below twenty dollars, why would I pay for somebody that’s ordering a steak that’s already sixty dollars?”
Sinclair didn’t immediately respond to The Mary Sue’s request for comment via TikTok comment and email.
The bill-split debate rumbles on
Whether it’s a group meal or one-on-one, splitting the bill is, ironically, pretty divisive. A TikToker known as @simplyinskincare recently went viral after sharing the receipt the server gave her after her date asked to split the bill.
The server was given the highest praise possible—being dubbed a ‘girl’s girl’—after the TikToker discovered that she had only charged her $0.01.
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