They were just tight. If they didnt want to get into rounds, they should have said "we'll stay on our own". However if we were out with another couple we would buy a round, but in a bigger group, we dont get into rounds. People dont nowadays, with big mortgages etc. I have often refused a drink, as if I took a drink from someone, I would buy one back!

I do like the way everyone brings something to a barbie, then its not a big hardship on the hostess.

I had a relation come and stay with me from Sweden, he had no accomodation to pay for, I fed him, we went to the pub, I bought the first drink, and then I sat and sat and in the end I told him the bar is about to close, and he still sat there and didnt buy a drink. Boy was I mad!!

I hate tight gits!
Cheers
Irish Colleen!

dg

I dont know about Oz but i do know that in NZ its not the done thing to buy rounds like it is in the UK.
I know when i go home to the UK i find it quite startling and expensive to be buying rounds as its just me on my own drinking coke or lemonade usually i do drink the odd wine but the rest are usually couples. It can get extremely expensive...

You know, I read this all the time.

And as an Australian, I honestly couldn't tell you what the correct etiquette is!!

I think that's the same with a lot of Australian customs - you'll read it's done one way, but everybody has a different idea. I think it comes from this country being a mess of so many different cultures.

I would like to think though, that if you were buying everybody else drinks, they might reciprocate. It just seems downright rude not to.

I know that when I am out with people I am very close to (family, for example), it would expected people would buy rounds. I would also expect that in a business situation the senior person would buy a round.

But apart from that I really don't think there are any set rules.

I've found that in my own experience the Aussies I drink with usually go round for round with a group. The exception is when I drink with expats, I've gone round for round with them a few times & on occasion some have had 3-4 drinks lined up on the table just so they don't miss out on one.
A young Geordie lad had a fantastic way to deal with that: If you were "double parked" i.e two drinks in front of you, you had to skull them both or buy the next round
Binge drinker me? Surely not!

always rounds for me (i'm aussie) - never been anything but it. Unless the tight cousins are in town.