My friends always want to split the bill equally, how do I say no?

My friends always want to split the bill equally, how do I say no?Just nowShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleYasmin RufoBBC News Getty ImagesOne friend orders two cocktails. Another "just wants to try" that £16 truffle arancini starter. But you stuck religiously to tap water. So when the waiter places the card reader on the table at the end of the night, you are facing a social minefield.Even if you are sober enough to manage the mental arithmetic, you will be hard-pushed to overrule the jolly friend who shouts: "let's just divide it equally!""When we eat out, we always just split the bill," says Ella, a communications assistant from Leeds.The 23-year-old says she never suggests to her friends they all just pay for what they've ordered as "it just feels awkward".Ella earns over £30,000 but some of her friends earn more and she finds it hard to say no if they want to go somewhere a bit fancy that she can't really afford. Instead she matches her order with theirs so she isn't left feeling short-changed.It is worse when it's a big ticket item like a holiday.When that happens, rather than tell her friends how she feels, she scrabbles around for extra money."I'm probably on the phone to my mother in secret asking to borrow that extra bit of cash," she says.EllaTalking about bill-splitting is just too awkward, says 23-year-old EllaHer reluctance to speak up reflects a wider trend. Research from the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) in 2025 found that only four in 10 adults do feel comfortable talking to friends about money, with women significantly less likely to feel okay discussing finances with friends (39%) compared to men (50%).Ella says money is almost never discussed within her friendship group. They have booked a four-night beach holiday costing around £680 each for flights and accommodation and they are using a bill-splitting app to log expenses before balancing everything at the end....