Quote Originally Posted by Stubear View Post
There is no extra dollar. What you do is take 9+9+9=27, then subtract the $2 tip, not add it on. That gives the original $25 that was paid.

So each person paid $9 (once they got their $1 change back), and the waiter got $2, which is why you take off the $2, not add it back in.
Since Stu already threw this out, I figured I'd comment that I saw it a different way. I thought of the entire bill as $27 because I included the tip in the cost of the meal. Must be cause I usually pay with my debit card, so I'm used to adding the tip to the subtotal.