If someone you work with organized an office holiday dinner at a restaurant, and the high cost was the reason you weren't attending, would you tell them it's due to the cost?

Not my circus, not my monkeys, as I no longer work, but a friend works for a government department in a metro-area NY county, and her coworker is organizing a holiday dinner at a local restaurant. The price for dinner alone is almost 70 dollars, not including tax, tip or drinks. My friend is not attending because after tax, tip and she said she likes to have one drink with dinner, it will be close to 100 dollars. She is not telling the coworker who’s making the plans why she’s not attending because she doesn’t want to be “that” person.

I agree with her logic and I probably wouldn’t tell the person either, but I would be tempted.

In my opinion, the person doing the organizing could have found a more reasonable place. There are a ton of good restaurants in that area and a decent dinner could be had for about 50 or 60 including tax and tip. I also know a lot of planning goes into trying to organize anything, and it’s a thankless job.

This is not my issue and I’m not going to advise her either way, because she’s not looking for advice and I happen to agree with her logic, but I’m just curious if it were you, would you say you’re not attending due to the cost, or would you give a made up reason?