It may happen that my coworkers do some activities (not related to our job) in the evening and I am occasionally invited. Or it may happen that for instance for some particular event (birthdays and what not) some people agree to make some gift to someone and everybody else is invited to cover the expenses.
Ideally I would not be against participating in all this stuff but sometimes they are really expensive and I don't think they are worth the money required. For instance it may happen that they want to go to a restaurant where I don't even appreciate the food and that costs 5X the kind of restaurant that I usually go to.
My salary puts me in a position to afford these things without struggling too much financially but I am quite careful with money in my daily life and this really looks like a waste of money to me.
Should I just accept this events as part of the job and consider the expenses as a pay cut and reconsider may current job accordingly? Should I take a stand and avoid these events altogether? Or maybe the best solution is half way between these 2 options?
EDIT: since I have been asked about the frequency of these events, it depends on many factors. I would say it ranges from once a month to twice a week.