Tip situation; dinner with friends

[Leprchn]

On Sunday I went out for dinner with two friends (married couple.)  When the bill came my portion was $14.70 so I gave them $15 for the food and $5 towards the tip.  The total bill was $60.22 (they had alcohol while I did not.)  When the male half of the couple filled in the tip amount, he wrote $9.78, saying he liked round numbers and it brought the total charge to their cc to $70.

All I could think was, first of all a $9.78 tip on a $60 bill was pretty freakin' cheap and second, why am I giving $5 on a $15 bill while they're only giving $4.78 on a $45 bill?

Now I'm thinking I should have then said, "where's the $5 bill I gave you for the tip?" then tucked it in the bill book myself...20/20 and all that, at the time I never said anything.  But today all I can think is they essentially stole $5 from me and/or the waitress!!

Is it worth it to even bring it up or should I just tuck this incident away in the Lesson(s) Learned file?  The next time we go out together I now know not to just hand over both the cost of my food AND the tip at the same time - but what happened Sunday is really bothering me!!

ETA:  EEP!  Meant to post this under Life...in General, mods can you move it?

[Gwywnnydd]

Is it worth it to even bring it up or should I just tuck this incident away in the Lesson(s) Learned file?  The next time we go out together I now know not to just hand over both the cost of my food AND the tip at the same time - but what happened Sunday is really bothering me!!

You might need to tuck this into the Lessons learned file, at least that he's a chintzy tipper (I'm not immediately chucking her into e-h3ll, as I know it's possible for only one half of a marriage to be a terrible tipper. I'm working on my DH though!)
If it really bothers you, you could try bringing it up to her, and see how she reacts. Be prepared to quickly drop it if she gets defensive, though.

[Clara Bow]

Now that you know that he stiffs the waitstaff I think I'd insist on separate bills and tip the waitstaff according to what was appropriate for my portion of the bill. That way if he chooses to be a goat, it's on him and not you.

[cjeanies]

   That is really bad of them.  You were tipping towards your portion of the meal (and you were being generous) and they should have tipped on their portion of the bill, so they tipped about 10 percent.  If you had tipped  15% on your portion, 2.25, I wonder if they still would have kicked in only 4.78, or if they were letting you compensate for their low tip.  If they did the overall tip would have only been a little over 10%.  Your generous portion made up for their low tip.  This would really bother me too.  If I were going out to dinner with these people again, I would make sure I got separate checks, so you didn't have to worry about it. 

[itiswhatitisn't]

I know $9.78 sounds bad, but he did give 15%.  I know that I tend to give twenty, but on a bill of $60.22 15% is $9.03.  Total you gave a 16% tip.  Now you did put in too much.  I would have put two or three dollars in instead of five.  And next time you will.  The bad part is that instead of telling you you tipped too much they let you chip in for their part of the tip. 

[Gemini]

I hate when these situations arise... so rather than spoil a good meal by getting out the calculator at the end and haggling over who had wine and who didn't, etc., we either ask for separate checks, or split the bill equally. Or, even better, one person (or one couple) gets the bill and the others get the tip, and then we each reciprocate at a later date. If I like someone enough to break bread with them, I certainly like them enough not to nickel and dime them over the crumbs.

[Alida]

I know $9.78 sounds bad, but he did give 15%.  I know that I tend to give twenty, but on a bill of $60.22 15% is $9.03.  Total you gave a 16% tip.  Now you did put in too much.  I would have put two or three dollars in instead of five.  And next time you will.  The bad part is that instead of telling you you tipped too much they let you chip in for their part of the tip. 

No, he didn't give 15%.  He gave about 10% and the OP gave a generous tip.  If service is good, there is no such thing as "tipping too much."

[ZipTheWonder]

I think you can only handle this on the spot.  "Ooops.  It looks like you forgot to give the waitress the $5 bill I handed you for her tip.  Could I get that from you and I'll just hand it directly to her?."

[NOVA Lady]

Is it possible that he just stuffed the whole thing in his wallet without seeing how much you gave him?

I like to give the benefit of the doubt. Next time, like you said just have seperate checks. Hopefully this was a momentary math lapse and not stingyness or cheapness!