Speaker 1: Episode three twenty four, How Much Should You Tip?
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and live your life here your
Speaker 2: hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill, and today we are talking about tipping.
Speaker 1: Love it or hate it, it is, It exists. You
Speaker 1: can't deny it, you can't say you don't believe in it,
Speaker 1: because it is here, and frugal people get a bad
Speaker 1: rap when it comes to tipping. It's where I think
Speaker 1: most of us might get called cheap on. When you
Speaker 1: think of a frugal person negatively, I think a lot
Speaker 1: of the times the first thing that comes to mind
Speaker 1: is they're bad tippers. And we want to debunk that myth.
Speaker 1: We want to be good tippers in the best way possible,
Speaker 1: so that means being wise with our tipping and knowing
Speaker 1: about it. I learned so much from these articles that
Speaker 1: we're going to cover today, and so I'm really excited
Speaker 1: to share that with you guys.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it feels a little dangerous not gonna lie to
Speaker 3: talk about tipping well, and because there's also so much
Speaker 3: chatter about it currently what the pandemic did to tipping,
Speaker 3: and how it feels like places you didn't even used
Speaker 3: to tip now tip, which is why a lot of
Speaker 3: people are asking this question, and also because there was
Speaker 3: a time when people thought that we gave advice not
Speaker 3: to tip. We never did that. Never did we ever
Speaker 3: do that. You'll hear us reference first. This episode is
Speaker 3: brought to you by the Dream. We don't normally partner
Speaker 3: with American singer songwriter record producers, but if you're shorty
Speaker 3: as a ten and you love her, you should tip her.
Speaker 3: If she's a dime, yeah, you should definitely tip her.
Speaker 3: If she's making you eggs and grits in the morning,
Speaker 3: or even better yet, pancakes with the bacon on the side,
Speaker 3: you should tip her. And listen, we're doing all that
Speaker 3: and more in our newsletter these dime pieces over here,
Speaker 3: Jen and I, we've got all of the scoop and
Speaker 3: the hacks for you on free food, tips for spending,
Speaker 3: tips for saving, and so much more. It's called the
Speaker 3: friend Letter, and it's free, but you can tip us
Speaker 3: by subscribing. Check it out at Frugal friendspodcast dot com
Speaker 3: slash friend Letter. You're not going to want to miss
Speaker 3: out on that.
Speaker 1: Yes, you don't actually have to tip us money or
Speaker 1: any percent. There's no moneylved, zero percent, twenty percent of zero.
Speaker 4: I want to show.
Speaker 3: Your kindness to us by subscribing.
Speaker 1: Yes, I and Jill, I know this for a fact
Speaker 1: that this is one of your favorite songs.
Speaker 4: You love all.
Speaker 3: When I was doing this sponsor, I pulled up the
Speaker 3: song while looking at the lyrics and I definitely had
Speaker 3: a dance party in my office chair to the song.
Speaker 3: Mm hm, I believe that she's so dumb you should
Speaker 3: tip copy.
Speaker 4: Right, all right?
Speaker 1: So if this is something that you tipping, is this
Speaker 1: something you encounter a lot of stress with very frequently,
Speaker 1: then you're probably making a lot of purchases devices that
Speaker 1: turn around and ask you to tip them. Maybe they
Speaker 1: have just made you eggs and grits in the morning,
Speaker 1: and you should probably tip then, But there are a
Speaker 1: lot of.
Speaker 4: Times you shouldn't.
Speaker 1: So we have a couple episodes on eating food, Yeah,
Speaker 1: just a couple. One of our favorites is episode two
Speaker 1: forty seven, how to Save Money on food takeout specific
Speaker 1: it's take out Tips edition. And then if you're trying
Speaker 1: to eat out less, check out two sixty two meal
Speaker 1: prep and freezer meal tips. But we have so many
Speaker 1: food episodes. I think half of our episodes are food episodes.
Speaker 1: Not really, but it feels like, so this is something
Speaker 1: that comes up a lot. But we're not just going
Speaker 1: to talk about restaurants cafes. We are going to cover
Speaker 1: the gamut of places that you should tip, places that
Speaker 1: ask you to tip. Where we're covering it. And these
Speaker 1: are from like etiquette experts, from hospitality experts, people in
Speaker 1: the industry. We're not These are not things that we're
Speaker 1: making up. You know, we scour the Internet for what's
Speaker 1: out there, and we are discerning what Google has decided
Speaker 1: is the best of the best. You know, sometimes we agree,
Speaker 1: sometimes we don't. But I'm very pleased with these two articles,
Speaker 1: and I learned a lot. So let's get into the
Speaker 1: first one. And it is from Real Simple, and it's
Speaker 1: the ultimate guide to tipping etiquette in every situation and
Speaker 1: when not to tip. And so these articles also are
Speaker 1: written in twenty twenty three, or at the least updated
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three, so these are not antiquated.
Speaker 4: These are real time, up to date.
Speaker 3: I love their intro sentence, Tipping is like blockchain and Brexit,
Speaker 3: important but super confusing, which I can relate to. And again,
Speaker 3: especially in today's current circumstances, where it feels like tipping
Speaker 3: etiquette maybe has even shifted a bit from what it
Speaker 3: was five years ago. And of course we're talking from
Speaker 3: the perspective of being in the United States, where I
Speaker 3: know that there's plenty of other countries where it's not
Speaker 3: as common, but for us here, again, love it or
Speaker 3: hate it, it is a reality and it is how
Speaker 3: many people in the service industry are able to make
Speaker 3: a decent living. It really stinks that there are some
Speaker 3: states that allow their workers to earn only like two
Speaker 3: dollars and fifteen cents an hour and they're really banking
Speaker 3: on tips for their wages. That stinks. But our pushback
Speaker 3: on that should not be not tipping, because these are
Speaker 3: real individuals working hard to give us a service and
Speaker 3: it needs to be budgeted in or planned for in
Speaker 3: our spending plan. And we're going to start out in
Speaker 3: this article talking about the times and places where you
Speaker 3: absolutely do need to tip. These are some non negotiables.
Speaker 1: Yes and how much and how to discern. So the
Speaker 1: first place you always need to tip is at a restaurant,
Speaker 1: so the average is from fifteen to twenty percent. This
Speaker 1: Robin Di Pietro, PhD of Hospitality and Retail says, you
Speaker 1: could do fifteen percent for average service, twenty percent for
Speaker 1: very good service regardless of the level of service. Gratuity
Speaker 1: is non negotiable. And as a former server, I would
Speaker 1: so I know that there are some some people who
Speaker 1: are like twenty percent across the board, whether the service
Speaker 1: is good or bad. I would say my only pushback
Speaker 1: when I was a server, I would get kind of
Speaker 1: upset when somebody who was like serving their tables, spending
Speaker 1: all their time in the back talking to the cooks,
Speaker 1: I'm like refilling their people's drinks and like pre bussing
Speaker 1: for them, like they would get twenty percent and the
Speaker 1: same percentage as I would, and not taking a consideration
Speaker 1: they were like barely out on the floor and I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know, standing around babysitting almost. So I think it's
Speaker 1: not rude that if your service is poor to do.
Speaker 5: Eighteen and I'm not that was probably like yeah, right,
Speaker 5: hot take, hot take today, right, but it's it is,
Speaker 5: really And you can tell the difference between poor service
Speaker 5: and somebody who's very busy and who doesn't have time
Speaker 5: to babysit you, like, look around the restaurant if it's
Speaker 5: packed and your server, you see your server at three
Speaker 5: or four other tables. You're not getting a water refill
Speaker 5: when your drink is half full. Like, that's unreasonable to
Speaker 5: expect from somebody, and that is unfortunately where most service
Speaker 5: professionals are today. They have probably table like a table
Speaker 5: count that is above what they should. Uh So it's
Speaker 5: not poor service if your table is not babysat. But
Speaker 5: if you don't see your server for like the entirety of.
Speaker 1: The meal and you're waiting around really long times and
Speaker 1: the you know, the restaurant is not packed, then that's
Speaker 1: a different story. Most of the time, that's not the case.
Speaker 1: I would say that's kind of like a ten to
Speaker 1: that's probably like a twenty percent. You know, eighty percent
Speaker 1: of the time, your server's overworked and they're not giving
Speaker 1: you poor service, they're just not able to babysit your table.
Speaker 3: Alternatively, the way I approach this, because we're not the
Speaker 3: same person, is I am a twenty percent across the
Speaker 3: board when it comes to restaurants, and if you are phenomenal,
Speaker 3: I might do twenty five percent. There have been time
Speaker 3: I've even been known to do thirty person.
Speaker 1: And that's another that's like a surprise and delight.
Speaker 3: Like if you as a surprise and delight.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and there have been times where I have gotten
Speaker 1: service that has really exceeded what is required for their job,
Speaker 1: and yeah, I'll do twenty five or thirty for sure
Speaker 1: if that server is awesome.
Speaker 4: I love to do that.
Speaker 3: And this is where it coincides with values based spending.
Speaker 3: For me, it is going out to eat and it
Speaker 3: is generosity. And so when I'm able to do that
Speaker 3: with the as I'm going out to eat and interacting
Speaker 3: with people in the service industry, it's a really wonderful
Speaker 3: thing for me to know, I this is part of
Speaker 3: my spending plan. I can do this and be guilt
Speaker 3: free about the fact that now I've just spent even
Speaker 3: more in going out to eat to yeah, pace one
Speaker 3: for a job well done. So I enjoy it. I
Speaker 3: think it's kind of fun to tip, but it certainly
Speaker 3: does impact my decisions of how often can I go out,
Speaker 3: because you are going to for me, I have to
Speaker 3: factor in for a sit down restaurant an extra twenty
Speaker 3: percent and if that's not worth it to me, then
Speaker 3: that means I'm cooking at home myself. It doesn't mean
Speaker 3: I'm cheating someone out of a good wage.
Speaker 4: Amen.
Speaker 3: Okay, So then they also are moving into talking about
Speaker 3: how much to tip at a bar. I did find
Speaker 3: this one interesting and helpful, where they're chatting about if
Speaker 3: you're just kind of hanging out ordering drinks at just
Speaker 3: a bar, that going for more flat rate amounts could
Speaker 3: be a good idea. So leaving a dollar for a
Speaker 3: beer two dollars for a cocktail could be a really
Speaker 3: nice way of tipping. Usually that I guess that would
Speaker 3: be probably close to twenty percent. I think it's recognizing
Speaker 3: thating a beer is not as labor intensive as making
Speaker 3: a cocktail, which is one of the reasons I like
Speaker 3: kind of want to just go work at a brewery.
Speaker 3: You just get it off the wall, hand it to people,
Speaker 3: and you still make tips. I love it.
Speaker 6: Mm hmm.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think the only caveat there is if you're out
Speaker 1: a brewery and you taste like ten different beers from
Speaker 1: like ten different taps, and you really are taking up
Speaker 1: a lot of the bartender's time, then maybe you tip
Speaker 1: two dollars, because while that's not as like skill intensive,
Speaker 1: it is time intensive where they could be getting another
Speaker 1: beer for somebody else in the time you've taken to
Speaker 1: like decide.
Speaker 4: Which one you have, which one you want.
Speaker 1: The next one is how much to tip for a
Speaker 1: taxi or ride share And I always I never am
Speaker 1: like fully sure on this one, so I was glad
Speaker 1: to have a general rule. So the general rule for
Speaker 1: tipping in cab is fifteen to twenty percent per taxi ride,
Speaker 1: which usually equates to a dollar or two. For ride
Speaker 1: shares like Uber and Lyft, tip at least two dollars
Speaker 1: per ride. And that's from a former Uber driver and
Speaker 1: the director of outreach at Ridester, Jonathan Cussar. He's an
Speaker 1: online resource for ride share drivers. So that will be
Speaker 1: my rule of thumb from here on out. And I'm
Speaker 1: sure it also would depend on the length of the
Speaker 1: ride share two, but even if it's a short distance,
Speaker 1: at least two dollars per ride.
Speaker 3: The next one on here is how much to tip
Speaker 3: at a hotel And this does fall under the necessary
Speaker 3: too tip category, and so they give a recommendation of
Speaker 3: leaving about two to three dollars per day for housekeeping,
Speaker 3: referencing the fact that in many hotels, the housekeeper who
Speaker 3: cleans your room one day is not necessarily the same
Speaker 3: for the following day, So leaving a tip day today
Speaker 3: ensures that whoever is there in your room that day
Speaker 3: is getting that tip. They also give a recommendation that
Speaker 3: if you're staying with kids or pets, consider leaving a
Speaker 3: few extra bucks because you're probably making a little bit
Speaker 3: more of a mess, more of a labor intensive job
Speaker 3: for the person. I will say personally, I did not
Speaker 3: know that you were supposed to tip at a hotel
Speaker 3: until like much like very recently, so catching myself feeling
Speaker 3: very bad, I didn't. I didn't grow up going to
Speaker 3: a ton of hotels, but when we did as a family,
Speaker 3: that wasn't something that I saw my parents do. And
Speaker 3: maybe this is a relatively newer thing, maybe not. I
Speaker 3: don't know. I didn't know. Now I know, so I'm
Speaker 3: responsible with that knowledge. But in other articles I've also
Speaker 3: read someone talk about between ten to fifteen percent of
Speaker 3: your stay per night would be potentially a nice tip
Speaker 3: as well, although that would be a lot more than
Speaker 3: two to three dollars a day, So I don't know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's considering if you have housekeeping come daily,
Speaker 1: you can always put the sign on the door and
Speaker 1: they won't come and then you don't have to do
Speaker 1: that tip. But I didn't realize that it was you
Speaker 1: should do it per day because there's different housekeepers. I
Speaker 1: guess I realized that, but until reading this, I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, yes, like duh, so I usually don't
Speaker 1: have housekeepers come into my room daily, so don't I've
Speaker 1: never like really worried about that, but definitely yeah, at
Speaker 1: the end.
Speaker 3: At the end of this day, Yeah, I don't usually
Speaker 3: do housekeeping throughout this stay. But then when I'm leaving
Speaker 3: now that I know, leaving behind some money as like
Speaker 3: the one time.
Speaker 1: Yes, next is hair and nail salons. So and I
Speaker 1: learned something new on this because growing up, my mom
Speaker 1: would say, like to tip ten percent, but this article
Speaker 1: says a fifteen percent tip is the going rate at
Speaker 1: most salons. So that is like, I'm glad that I
Speaker 1: know that because growing up that was like what I
Speaker 1: was taught. It was like ten percent, and I didn't
Speaker 1: know any different.
Speaker 3: So well, I want to know that now. I looked
Speaker 3: this up because I only get my hair cut once
Speaker 3: a year, and I think I might have shared this
Speaker 3: on a previous podcast. I up until last year, had
Speaker 3: never gotten paid to get my haircut out of salon.
Speaker 3: So I was surprised by kind of a lot of
Speaker 3: the experience and including meaning to know, well, how much
Speaker 3: should I tip? And I was googling this and I
Speaker 3: found a lot of articles even saying twenty percent now
Speaker 3: is the going rate at hair and nail salons. And
Speaker 3: I will say that when I went to this salon
Speaker 3: and I paid for the haircut, then they flip their
Speaker 3: little machine around and they didn't even have an option,
Speaker 3: you know, you're kind of quick options for how much
Speaker 3: to tip. They didn't have an option for anything less
Speaker 3: than twenty percent like they And I see a lot
Speaker 3: of places doing this now where they're kind of setting
Speaker 3: the standard for what they're hoping you tip them, and
Speaker 3: less than twenty percent I am not seeing on a
Speaker 3: lot of these point of sales, like you can't press
Speaker 3: the fifteen percent button. You could press the other button
Speaker 3: and then insert your own amount. But sometimes that can
Speaker 3: feel like you're under pressure and there's a time constraint
Speaker 3: and it's like, yeah, I'm taking now extra time to
Speaker 3: tip you less than twenty percent now, and that's usually
Speaker 3: a shenanigan I don't want get involved in, but it
Speaker 3: really is quite shocking to see that kind of everywhere
Speaker 3: across the board is expecting twenty percent or more.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which is why this is such a big topic
Speaker 1: right now, which is why we're talking about it because
Speaker 1: in in the you know, the pandemic times, when things
Speaker 1: were the most rough for these tipped like professions, it
Speaker 1: was you were like doing a service for these people,
Speaker 1: and it was if you're going out and if you
Speaker 1: are blessed enough to like have money, then give back
Speaker 1: to these people who were out of jobs for six
Speaker 1: months or more. And now that we're kind of back
Speaker 1: to we are spending on these services is back to
Speaker 1: pre pandemic levels some I mean some industries even more,
Speaker 1: I think, so we kind of have to take a
Speaker 1: step back and reset.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 1: It's not being stingy, it's not being greedy. It's taking
Speaker 1: a time to not just reset, but also reevaluate the
Speaker 1: institution of tipping, the things that have been allowed to happen,
Speaker 1: the greed that's been allowed to happen by these companies
Speaker 1: that are allowed to pay their employees two dollars an
Speaker 1: hour because they're relying on their customers to foot that bill.
Speaker 1: So that's another reason we need to re examine tipping,
Speaker 1: because we need to be looking at these systems that
Speaker 1: have perpetuated this and realize it's not on us and
Speaker 1: our tipping to fix this problem. There are other ways
Speaker 1: that we need to be intentional, and we'll touch on
Speaker 1: that a little later.
Speaker 3: But again, it's not to say don't tip right right
Speaker 3: a mac problem with a micro level solution like hurting
Speaker 3: the person who just provided you the service, but it's
Speaker 3: worth having a bigger conversation about for sure. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 3: So the next one is tipping a babysitter or nanny.
Speaker 3: The still is falling under the category of necessary two tips.
Speaker 3: So even though you may have agreed on an hourly
Speaker 3: rate with your sitter already, rounding up would be a
Speaker 3: nice gesture so they're not necessarily giving a percentage. But
Speaker 3: let's say your total for an evening comes to forty
Speaker 3: five dollars based on the hourly rate you agreed upon,
Speaker 3: it's a kind gesture to give them a flat fifty
Speaker 3: rather than the exact forty five. So just kind of
Speaker 3: rounding up a few dollars, five dollars, seven dollars, whatever
Speaker 3: it is, would be a nice thing to do from
Speaker 3: time to time. Now, if you have a regular nanny,
Speaker 3: they are recommending giving an end of year bonus that
Speaker 3: would be equal to about one to two weeks of
Speaker 3: pay the equivalent of that amount as a gift to
Speaker 3: them at the end of the year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So this is primarily for maybe like a care
Speaker 1: dot com or somewhere where you don't set the price
Speaker 1: for your babysitter, because you can just be generous in
Speaker 1: how you pay and then you get better babysitters.
Speaker 4: But also I would say whether.
Speaker 1: Or not whether you're hiring them yourself or through a service.
Speaker 1: If something goes down while you're out and this babysitter
Speaker 1: or nanny handles it while you're gone, and so that
Speaker 1: you don't have to handle it when you get back,
Speaker 1: tip you got you have to tip for that. If
Speaker 1: the dog poops in the house and the babysitter cleans
Speaker 1: it up, and that's like not their job, right, so
Speaker 1: you have to tip for stuff. If the baby throws up,
Speaker 1: if something happens that is outside of the scope of
Speaker 1: just what like sitting there and you know, making your kid,
Speaker 1: making sure your kid doesn't annihilate themselves deserves a tip.
Speaker 1: Like they are not your child's parent, so definitely throw
Speaker 1: them extra money for handling problems that are really parent level,
Speaker 1: not babysitter level. And this would include senior caregivers too.
Speaker 1: If you're caring for a parent and you hire a granny.
Speaker 3: Nanny, yes, definitely necessary. Anyone who's caring for your loved
Speaker 3: ones tip them.
Speaker 4: Yes, okay.
Speaker 1: And so the last one on the mandatory list, I know.
Speaker 3: I just lets it out because I'm like, who's doing this?
Speaker 3: None of us are.
Speaker 1: Writing this is coad check. Very few people do a
Speaker 1: coat check, but general rule is one dollar per coat,
Speaker 1: two dollars for a larger bag. I don't know if
Speaker 1: maybe that's like I have checked a suitcase if I'm
Speaker 1: going out somewhere, so I would think maybe this is
Speaker 1: more applicable for a bag check.
Speaker 4: Two dollars for a larger bag. That's kind of the
Speaker 4: going rate.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well for all the wealthy people listening who do
Speaker 3: coat checks and bag checks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but then there's some gray areas and these are
Speaker 1: not not mandatory, and even the different articles will disagree
Speaker 1: on these and.
Speaker 4: We'll have our own opinions.
Speaker 3: Yes. So the first gray area is food delivery. How
Speaker 3: much to tip for food delivery? Now, to me, this
Speaker 3: isn't gray area like, oh, you don't have to. I
Speaker 3: feel like it's more gray area of how much too,
Speaker 3: because it's not necessarily that you have to tip fifteen
Speaker 3: to twenty percent on the price of the food for
Speaker 3: the person delivering the food, like they should still get
Speaker 3: a fair wage regardless of whether you just spent three
Speaker 3: dollars on your food or fifty dollars on the food
Speaker 3: that they're to you. But they're referencing how most delivery
Speaker 3: apps are going to let you tip within the app,
Speaker 3: which is different from a delivery fee, not the same.
Speaker 3: You can't pretend like you've already tipped them because there's
Speaker 3: just a fee that I think usually goes to the
Speaker 3: app itself. I don't know that that necessarily even goes
Speaker 3: to the driver. They're saying that a fair amount would
Speaker 3: usually be about three to five dollars per delivery. I
Speaker 3: do think you're going to need to take into consideration
Speaker 3: how far away was the food that they picked up
Speaker 3: and brought to you. What is the circumstances, Like is
Speaker 3: it snowing outside, is it raining? Is it the type
Speaker 3: of environment that you would not want to be out in,
Speaker 3: and yet you're making someone else be out in it.
Speaker 3: Maybe tip a little bit more. If it's a lot
Speaker 3: of bags, a lot to carry in, they're going to
Speaker 3: have to make multiple trips to and from their car
Speaker 3: to your door. These are the types of things that
Speaker 3: would add on additional amounts of money to that tip.
Speaker 3: But it seems as though you can do kind of
Speaker 3: like a flat rate for the delivery of about three
Speaker 3: to five and more if there's more things that are
Speaker 3: being required of the delivery driver.
Speaker 1: And then the other gray area is coffee shop. This
Speaker 1: surprised me right well, this is the place where I
Speaker 1: see the tipping you know thing most often, and this
Speaker 1: is the place where, in my soul I feel like
Speaker 1: the most burdened because making a latte is similar to
Speaker 1: making a cocktail depending on the type of latte you're getting,
Speaker 1: So it makes sense depending on what you're ordering, how
Speaker 1: complex your order is. If you've got a quite complex order,
Speaker 1: then you should probably be tipping. So they say rounding
Speaker 1: up to the nearest dollar on your coffee run is
Speaker 1: not necessary, but it's a nice gesture, especially if you
Speaker 1: have a regular or a barista that maybe like knows
Speaker 1: your order gets you in there and out of there quickly.
Speaker 1: So if you have exemplary service, again tip, or if
Speaker 1: you've got a barista that's doing latte art, or maybe
Speaker 1: you're traveling and your breista gives you a great recommendation
Speaker 1: for you know where to go, then go ahead and
Speaker 1: do like a twenty percent or you know, one or
Speaker 1: two dollars. And this is from the Emilio Bartadano, the
Speaker 1: founder of Eleva Coffee in Brooklyn, New York. So that's
Speaker 1: from a coffee shop owner.
Speaker 3: So this one was really surprising to me. And I
Speaker 3: did see this corroborated in multiple articles where they referred
Speaker 3: to coffee shops like a counter service and how tipping
Speaker 3: at a counter service is not necessary. It's generally a
Speaker 3: employees of counter service type establishments generally earn a hourly wage.
Speaker 3: It's not the situation where they're getting paid you two
Speaker 3: dollars and fifty cents and relying on tips. Now, again,
Speaker 3: it is a nice gesture. This is just what was
Speaker 3: surprising to me. I was kind of thinking, like, of course,
Speaker 3: at coffee shops and ice cream places and bakeries. But
Speaker 3: what I'm reading, just as far as etiquette goes again
Speaker 3: not from me, from other people on the internet saying
Speaker 3: it's not necessary. I don't know what I mean. I
Speaker 3: don't think it's totally going to impact the decisions I
Speaker 3: end up making when I go to these coffee shops.
Speaker 3: I do like to tip, but I did not realize
Speaker 3: that just because they flip the point of sale around
Speaker 3: and say give me twenty percent on the screen, that
Speaker 3: it's not actually like a necessary thing to do. But
Speaker 3: I think that again, ice cream shops, bakeries would probably
Speaker 3: fall under a similar category of counter service.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so. Like Starbucks, that's counter service to me.
Speaker 1: If you're going to a fancy coffee shop with the
Speaker 1: latte art and the housemade syrups, the barises have to
Speaker 1: make those. So I think it depends on the complexity
Speaker 1: of the coffee. Honestly, like I don't frequent fancy coffee shops,
Speaker 1: I'm not picky. I get cold brew with Starbucks.
Speaker 3: And I took my nephew to one of those yogurt
Speaker 3: places where you serve yourself the frozen yogurt and the
Speaker 3: toppings and then you pay by weight, and so sure,
Speaker 3: the people behind the counter put out the supplies and
Speaker 3: they're just there to make sure that the place doesn't
Speaker 3: get robbed and their gummies don't get stolen. But other
Speaker 3: we did not interact with them whatsoever. You walk in,
Speaker 3: you get your cup, you get your own thing, you
Speaker 3: put your own toppings on, and it's not until you
Speaker 3: put it on the scale that they then say, here's
Speaker 3: how much you owe me. And then again to flip
Speaker 3: around the screen and to have twenty percent tip be
Speaker 3: the lowest possible option. I felt like I was in
Speaker 3: a personal dilemma at that point. I'm looking at this
Speaker 3: person on the other side, thinking, oh goodness, how responsible
Speaker 3: am I for your wage in this circumstance. I'm not
Speaker 3: going to reveal what I did because I don't need
Speaker 3: I don't need emails. But it did feel like that
Speaker 3: gray area of man, I know that you've done something here,
Speaker 3: but twenty percent.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Well, let's transition to a few tipping dilemmas. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we're going to cover two tipping dilemmas and what
Speaker 1: this article has to say before we move on to
Speaker 1: when it's okay not to tip. So the first is
Speaker 1: if you are not satisfied with your service, And so
Speaker 1: I already talked about like, and I can have more
Speaker 1: discernment about this as a former server and bartender and
Speaker 1: host than somebody who's never been in the service industry, right,
Speaker 1: so I can have more of an intuition on when like,
Speaker 1: I'm not satisfied with the service. I think if you
Speaker 1: don't really understand the like what goes behind the scenes,
Speaker 1: it's harder. Like, it's easier to say I'm not satisfied,
Speaker 1: but do you really are your expectations too high? And
Speaker 1: I don't think, honestly for our listeners, like, I don't
Speaker 1: think that's most of your problems. I think everybody just
Speaker 1: wants to be so kind to the people serving them,
Speaker 1: but there there are times like maybe your stylist cut
Speaker 1: a few more inches than you asked, or your server
Speaker 1: brought out the wrong entree twice. The solution isn't like
Speaker 1: to stiff them on the tip. It's to speak up,
Speaker 1: let them know you're not happy. And I know that's
Speaker 1: going to be outside of the comfort zone for a
Speaker 1: lot of people. A lot of people don't like to
Speaker 1: do that, But so anybody can make a mistake you're
Speaker 1: not like getting somebody in trouble by by voicing what
Speaker 1: the mistake was. Well, hopefully if they're may if they
Speaker 1: have a series of mistakes, then you might, but that's
Speaker 1: not on you. And then they say this etiquette expert
Speaker 1: says that it is fine to tip less than you
Speaker 1: normally would, but it's not okay to not tip. They
Speaker 1: say as little as ten percent. Like my lowest if
Speaker 1: I receive service that's really bad is fifteen. But like
Speaker 1: I'm a standard twenty percenter, because nine times out of
Speaker 1: ten the service I get is twenty percent. You know
Speaker 1: it's good service. It's very rare that I'm not satisfied
Speaker 1: with service.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the next option or dilemma that can happen is
Speaker 3: the server's hovering over your bill, and so it's okay
Speaker 3: to ask for a little bit of privacy while you
Speaker 3: crunch some numbers to say thank you, I'll give it
Speaker 3: back to you shortly. I've not tried this one, especially
Speaker 3: with those digital point of sales that they just bring
Speaker 3: to your table and they're like, all right, you're ready
Speaker 3: for the check and they can take your credit card
Speaker 3: right there. I find those situations to be a little
Speaker 3: I don't know. I get flustered when they're right there,
Speaker 3: they're taking your credit card on the spot and you
Speaker 3: just have to pick a number that's on the screen.
Speaker 3: Not that I don't ever go below twenty percent, but
Speaker 3: sometimes I'd like some time to kind of think about
Speaker 3: it and yeah, do I want to give twenty five percent?
Speaker 3: Like is that? Do I want to go above and beyond?
Speaker 3: But I've never asked them. Can you leave this digital
Speaker 3: point of sale here and give me time? Eh? Maybe
Speaker 3: I could.
Speaker 1: Yeah, It's it's easier when you have kids and you
Speaker 1: can like focus on them and be like, oh, just
Speaker 1: leave this here and I'll take care of it in
Speaker 1: a second.
Speaker 4: My kid is it's crazy.
Speaker 3: So they're crazy.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The last one on this list that I think is
Speaker 1: probably my favorite one and is the most realist is
Speaker 1: the person you're with tips poorly and so the sad
Speaker 1: the article says, the sad truth is not everyone is
Speaker 1: a fair tipper, and you can if you are. If
Speaker 1: you are on a bat this is this is going
Speaker 1: to happen on a bad date for sure, and this
Speaker 1: is how you know you're you're not with you're not
Speaker 1: with the right person. But you can speak up and
Speaker 1: say I'm happy to con tribute a little bit to
Speaker 1: the tip, or even offer to cover the tip. And
Speaker 1: if speaking up isn't an option, then and they say,
Speaker 1: say you're with your boss, your boss is a horrible tipper,
Speaker 1: and you want to make sure your server gets paid fairly,
Speaker 1: excuse yourself to the restroom, and then discreetly hand the
Speaker 1: server some cash.
Speaker 4: I love that one.
Speaker 1: I love that recommendation a plus, real simple.
Speaker 3: It, Jen. I have a story that we can cut
Speaker 3: out if you're not comfortable with it. But there was
Speaker 3: a time when we went out to eat and you
Speaker 3: were not pleased with the service, understandably, so the waitress
Speaker 3: treated you definitely a lot differently than the rest of us.
Speaker 3: It wasn't a good experience. Mostly for you. You decided
Speaker 3: to tip, as you've already said, like, if you're not pleased,
Speaker 3: you'll do eighteen percent. And I think that that's what happened.
Speaker 3: And then once you got up to leave, I did
Speaker 3: leave a few extra dollars on the table because I
Speaker 3: felt that, wow, I'm so sorry I eighteen percent.
Speaker 1: It's not I mean, if you received if you felt
Speaker 1: you received like better service, like, then that's you raising
Speaker 1: your nut.
Speaker 3: That's true.
Speaker 4: That's true.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1: I don't remember this situation, but it is because you
Speaker 1: wouldn't have known one hundred Well, no, I don't remember,
Speaker 1: like receiving bad it's like a it's I just saw
Speaker 1: a snl skit where there's girls all at the table
Speaker 1: and the server picks out one girl to treat really poorly.
Speaker 4: And treats all the other ones. I was like, was
Speaker 4: I that girl?
Speaker 3: It was a female server, and they really they weren't
Speaker 3: doing their best that day. I totally understood. You didn't
Speaker 3: stiff them. You just stood by your principle of and
Speaker 3: you did complain. You did all of these steps. You
Speaker 3: were like, hey, I'm not pleased with this. It wasn't corrected,
Speaker 3: and so you did eighteen percent and I still felt bad. Wow.
Speaker 1: I'm probably got that gumption from my mother in law,
Speaker 1: who we cannot go out with her without her complaining
Speaker 1: about something to the manager.
Speaker 3: So don't be that person.
Speaker 1: Like, if you're complaining about something to a manager every
Speaker 1: time you go out, the problem is not the service,
Speaker 1: it's you. That's and that is my mother in law.
Speaker 1: I love her to death, but I hate going out
Speaker 1: with her, and I probably it was probably going out
Speaker 1: with her too much in that season, and that season
Speaker 1: we'll say that it's that it was probably before I
Speaker 1: realized what the problem was. So no, we tip.
Speaker 3: How many times we say we you could have a
Speaker 3: drinking game on this episode of how often we say
Speaker 3: we tip? We budget for tipping, we get.
Speaker 1: We get one negative content, We have one negative feedback,
Speaker 1: and now we're overcompensating, which is always what happens when
Speaker 1: you receive negative feedback.
Speaker 4: You overcompensate.
Speaker 1: Exactly forget the ten good receptions ten good things people say.
Speaker 3: So this article is coming from CNBC and it's titled
Speaker 3: tired of Tipflation. Five times It's okay not to tip
Speaker 3: according to etiquette experts. No one wants to take the
Speaker 3: responsibility for saying That's like even CNBC is like according
Speaker 3: to etiquette experts, and we're like, according to the Internet
Speaker 3: and etiquet experts, we're not making this up. But here's
Speaker 3: the times when they are saying you do not need
Speaker 3: to tip. And the first one is professionals. Now that
Speaker 3: seems a little bit unfair because people who work in
Speaker 3: the service industry are professionals. But what they mean by
Speaker 3: this are doctors, lawyers. Now I'm going to push back
Speaker 3: on some of these, but I'll read off to you
Speaker 3: what they say. They're listing doctors, lawyers, teachers, plumbers, cable technicians,
Speaker 3: also therapists. Unfortunately, it's like against ethics to tip a therapist,
Speaker 3: which is unfortunate. Sorry, they're saying that it could be
Speaker 3: seen as a bribe or some sort of way to
Speaker 3: curry favor with these individuals. But I'm going to push back,
Speaker 3: particularly on the teachers and the plumbers. The teachers maybe
Speaker 3: not like a monetary gift, but I feel like gift
Speaker 3: giving is very welcomed, very accepted, a very kind gesture
Speaker 3: throughout the year, especially at the end of the year.
Speaker 3: Giving teacher gifts of some sort could be in the
Speaker 3: form of a gift card or something else that you
Speaker 3: know about the teacher that they may like. That I
Speaker 3: would kind of equate to something similar to tipping. And
Speaker 3: then for people like plumbers or those in the construction industry,
Speaker 3: I wouldn't say it's a must have, but I wouldn't
Speaker 3: say it's an unacceptable on ethical thing to do to
Speaker 3: tip your service providers who are in those kind of
Speaker 3: like residential professional roles that the trades. I think you
Speaker 3: can tip a plumber, an electrician, a tree removal surface.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, especially with teachers. I think teachers deserve
Speaker 1: all the bribes like and honestly them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean kids educations on the line.
Speaker 1: Exactly, and not just bribe them to treat your child better,
Speaker 1: but bribe them to because children are insane and it's
Speaker 1: worth throwing your teacher an extra fifty dollars gift card
Speaker 1: throughout the year. It's I mean, I'll talk to my
Speaker 1: friends who are teachers and say, like, how, like what
Speaker 1: kind of gifts do you get? Like get like what
Speaker 1: And she's like, oh, I'll get like a five dollars
Speaker 1: Starbucks gift card at Christmas or like just like really
Speaker 1: small things. And I was like, man, I've heard your
Speaker 1: stories of your kindergarteners, like you deserve one hundred dollars
Speaker 1: Public's gift card from each of their parents for what
Speaker 1: you put up with. And I will stand by that.
Speaker 1: I'll stand by that you should always bribe your kids
Speaker 1: teachers as much as possible.
Speaker 3: It's not prising, it's showing appreciation.
Speaker 1: You should show a bright sorry, show appreciation to our teachers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: more than you think so just think back to how
Speaker 1: much you paid for daycare, or if you didn't pay
Speaker 1: for daycare, ask your friend how much they paid for daycare,
Speaker 1: and your still getting a good deal. We're still getting
Speaker 1: a good deal, all right. Next is counter service. So
Speaker 1: we touched on this a little that it's not required
Speaker 1: to tip at counter service. The people working a counter
Speaker 1: are earning a wage. If there's a person at a
Speaker 1: counter in a restaurant, they should be earning a wage
Speaker 1: because they are not serving tables. And so this is
Speaker 1: the one piece of negative feedback we got on tipping
Speaker 1: was that I so, I used to work at a
Speaker 1: restaurant as a host before I started serving, and I
Speaker 1: would do takeout orders. But I was a host and
Speaker 1: I got an hourly wage, so I didn't expect tips
Speaker 1: for doing the takeout orders I got. I got tips
Speaker 1: all the time, which was really greatly appreciated, but I
Speaker 1: didn't expect them. And so unless I'm doing like a
Speaker 1: catering order, I don't tip on takeout. And so I
Speaker 1: got a lot of backlash on that, saying like that
Speaker 1: servers are doing these takeout counters, and honestly, servers should
Speaker 1: not be doing takeout counters in my opinion, does it happen,
Speaker 1: I don't know, and unfortunately there's no way for you
Speaker 1: to tell, so we're kind of in this gray area, right, So,
Speaker 1: like you don't know if the person at the counter
Speaker 1: handing you your takeout is making ten dollars an hour
Speaker 1: or two dollars an hour.
Speaker 3: I guess I've generally the way I've approached it and
Speaker 3: understood it, not just based off of my own decision making,
Speaker 3: but through reading is with takeout, it might be acceptable
Speaker 3: to do like a ten percent tip because it is
Speaker 3: still different from sitting down where they are coming to
Speaker 3: your table regularly, bussing, giving you refills, all of these
Speaker 3: things where you're going to pay twenty percent for takeout.
Speaker 3: If you do tip, a ten percent tip is very kind.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and even as a host, like it is more
Speaker 1: labor intensive to run the takeout counter than it is
Speaker 1: to just be at the host stand, So I would
Speaker 1: tip in that sort of like example. But if I'm
Speaker 1: going to Chipotle, I'm not going to tip because that
Speaker 1: person should be paid a livable wage.
Speaker 4: And like that's a whole other.
Speaker 1: If you're if you're if you're fatigued by all the
Speaker 1: tipping conversation. Then this is something that you should be
Speaker 1: thinking about when you're like voting, when you're thinking about
Speaker 1: legislation and looking into what legislation is happening, like regarding
Speaker 1: minimum wage.
Speaker 3: It is wild to me what we think, Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: definitely tip at the counter. But if your cashier at
Speaker 3: the grocery restore flipped the point of sale around and said,
Speaker 3: all right, give me a tip, we'd be like, what
Speaker 3: is this? We don't tip here? But how is that
Speaker 3: any different from counter service at these other places where
Speaker 3: where their role is to bring you up among other things.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it's because into this speaking of the counter
Speaker 3: service though, at a coffee shop, I went in and
Speaker 3: did not get a warm drink. I just got a
Speaker 3: bag of coffee and they turned it around and like
Speaker 3: asked for a tip, And in that situation, I will
Speaker 3: boldly say I did not because I just purchased a
Speaker 3: bag of coffee like I would at a grocery store.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I don't feel as though I need to
Speaker 3: tip on purchasing bagged coffee like my groceries. I if
Speaker 3: you're making me a cappuccino one hundred percent, you'll get
Speaker 3: you'll get your extra money. But there's this we weird
Speaker 3: thing that is happening now when it's becoming so common
Speaker 3: that there still are certain things that we don't tip for,
Speaker 3: like buying groceries.
Speaker 6: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So needless to say, like, as you think about
Speaker 1: what your opinions are on legislature around the minimum wage,
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean that you don't tip. Like so if
Speaker 1: there's a gray area, like you don't know if the
Speaker 1: person doing your takeout is a tipped worker or a
Speaker 1: minimum wage worker, you assume they're a tipped worker and
Speaker 1: you tip them. But there are some places that you
Speaker 1: go where you know that person is making a minimum
Speaker 1: wage and it's above you know, the minimum wage isn't
Speaker 1: saying much, it's it's been the same since two thousand
Speaker 1: and nine. It's just north of seven bucks. So so
Speaker 1: still like that's enough. You know, there are things I
Speaker 1: can say on it, but we'll move on. Use your discretion,
Speaker 1: do what feels right.
Speaker 4: To you in those situations.
Speaker 3: The next one on here is open bar events. I
Speaker 3: have always been a little confused and wondering about this.
Speaker 3: So this is what the etiquette experts say that if
Speaker 3: you go to an event with an open bar. The
Speaker 3: bar stuff may or may not put out a tip jar,
Speaker 3: so that can be an indicator for you. If there's
Speaker 3: not a tip jar out, it's generally acceptable that you
Speaker 3: do not have to tip. Usually the person who is
Speaker 3: paying for that event is responsible for that tip. So,
Speaker 3: whether it's a wedding or an event of some sort,
Speaker 3: if they've hired this bartending or catering company, they are
Speaker 3: paying the over arching tip for their services. Of Course,
Speaker 3: it's still going to be welcomed if you want to
Speaker 3: thank the bartender for their heavy poor or you asked
Speaker 3: for a cup of ice or water, or you're making
Speaker 3: multiple visits. Of course, a dollar here, a dollar there,
Speaker 3: that's not too much to ask. And yeah, if you
Speaker 3: just want to throw them at twenty because you're feeling good, fine,
Speaker 3: But they're also saying it's not necessary because they are
Speaker 3: most likely being tipped by the person who hired them
Speaker 3: for that service. And I will affirm that just as
Speaker 3: I used to do some versions of catering and bartending
Speaker 3: at events, and the person who hired us always paid
Speaker 3: us like an over arching tip that was usually about
Speaker 3: twenty percent of the rate. Most people were kind in
Speaker 3: that way. I of course loved it when people threw
Speaker 3: me a few extra bucks, but I can affirm that
Speaker 3: the person who hired us gave us an over arching tip.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I would agree for this if it's like a beer
Speaker 1: and wine event, but if it's a full bar, I'm
Speaker 1: definitely throwing up five to twenty dollars, depending on how
Speaker 1: long the event is, just so that I am in
Speaker 1: the good graces.
Speaker 4: Of the bartender. That is my go too.
Speaker 1: You know what else is in everyone's good graces?
Speaker 3: Ooh? Is it zebill of the week?
Speaker 2: That's right, it's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 2: entire week.
Speaker 4: Maybe a baby was born and his name is Williams.
Speaker 4: Maybe you paid off your mortgage.
Speaker 2: Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have
Speaker 2: to pay that bill anymore.
Speaker 4: Duck bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton. This is the bill
Speaker 4: of the week.
Speaker 6: Hi, Jenn and Jel. My name is Emily, and my
Speaker 6: bill of the week is for my personal trainer. I
Speaker 6: started working with this trainer in September of twenty twenty one,
Speaker 6: and I absolutely loved it. I was exercising regularly and
Speaker 6: getting just really strong for the first time in my life.
Speaker 6: But it was also expensive and so in June of
Speaker 6: twenty twenty two, I decided to stop working with this
Speaker 6: trainer so I could prioritize other financial goals. Specifically, I'm
Speaker 6: trying to save up for a down payment on a house,
Speaker 6: and then without the trainer, I was not working out
Speaker 6: nearly as regularly. I'm still working out, just not quite
Speaker 6: as consistently, and I really missed having her around. And
Speaker 6: then at the end of twenty twenty two, my company
Speaker 6: did a major compensation market study and as a result,
Speaker 6: gave everyone a raise. So in January of this year,
Speaker 6: I got an eighteen percent raise, and with those funds,
Speaker 6: I was able to save both for the down payment
Speaker 6: and also pay the personal trainer, and I hired her
Speaker 6: back and this week I just paid for my second
Speaker 6: month working with her. And it's absolutely the best thing
Speaker 6: I could have done, one hundred percent worth the three
Speaker 6: hundred and fifteen dollars that I'm spending on it every month.
Speaker 4: Love the podcast, Thanks so much, Emma Lee.
Speaker 1: Yes, that is values space spending. I love hearing it
Speaker 1: because I love personal trainers. I feel like they're so
Speaker 1: undervalued and I'm so glad that you.
Speaker 4: Are paying them what they're worth.
Speaker 3: Oh, Emily Yes, what a celebratory bill because it was
Speaker 3: such a journey, and I think that's indicative of where
Speaker 3: many of us find ourselves. We've got to make different
Speaker 3: financial decisions at different points in life given the realities.
Speaker 3: And so you said no to it for a time,
Speaker 3: but that it only made you realize how much you
Speaker 3: valued having spent on that thing. Then you got this raise, congratulations,
Speaker 3: and now able to without guilt pay your personal trainer
Speaker 3: monthly and still have enough for a down payment on
Speaker 3: a house, which is just so amazing. And you are
Speaker 3: more and more zeroing in on the things that matter
Speaker 3: to you and being able to spend without guilt, which
Speaker 3: is the goal, and we love it for you, Emilie,
Speaker 3: if you want to smit your bill of the week
Speaker 3: because you are getting so close to discovering your values.
Speaker 3: You're being able to spend on things that super matter
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Speaker 1: Boo boo. All right, and if we haven't already gotten
Speaker 1: vulnerable in this episode, yes, I like, I feel so
Speaker 1: shaky now I've bared.
Speaker 3: You were looking forward to this episode and now you're like,
Speaker 3: I don't know if we should put it out.
Speaker 4: I know, right, I will, I am. I was excited.
Speaker 1: I did because I need this episode, like, I learned
Speaker 1: a lot, but talking about it was like, oh no,
Speaker 1: I shouldn't talk about my history with tipping. So best
Speaker 1: worst tipping story? I guess I will go first because
Speaker 1: my name is First. I was serving and this was
Speaker 1: my first serving job. And there are fine dining servers,
Speaker 1: and then there are casual servers, and then there are bartenders.
Speaker 4: I hated serving.
Speaker 1: My first serving job was fine dining and I really
Speaker 1: hated that, and so then I moved to more casual
Speaker 1: before like, I went to bartending, and that was really
Speaker 1: where I found my stride because I hate food, like
Speaker 1: delivery and taking orders and stuff, but I love small talk.
Speaker 1: I could not make the best cocktail, but I could
Speaker 1: get my patrons to sit for hours because I like
Speaker 1: small talk. And uh I so my very first fine
Speaker 1: dining serving job. I was serving a table and I
Speaker 1: was I felt like I was doing just fine. And
Speaker 1: then I went to pick up the check and it
Speaker 1: was a couple, a man and a woman, and it
Speaker 1: was a zero dollar tip.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: No, And it was the only time I'd ever received
Speaker 1: a zero dollar tip even I mean it was early
Speaker 1: on and I didn't I didn't think like I had
Speaker 1: had some bad experiences, but that one wasn't one of them.
Speaker 1: But what I like to think is that he tipped
Speaker 1: me in cash and his girlfriend took the cash and
Speaker 1: pocketed it. And I have no proof that that's what happened,
Speaker 1: but it's what I liked to think. It helps me
Speaker 1: sleep at night. Yeah, so that was my worst tipping story.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm so sorry I would tip you because you
Speaker 3: would die.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 1: I was not a great server, ever, so I was
Speaker 1: totally fine making eighteen percent tips because I knew that's
Speaker 1: what I was worth.
Speaker 3: Did you have a best story?
Speaker 1: So when I was bartending, I worked at a hotel,
Speaker 1: very casual vibes in Orlando, so it was all tourists,
Speaker 1: so sometimes you didn't know if you were going to
Speaker 1: get tipped or not. And because there were a lot
Speaker 1: of Europeans, right, and they don't tip. So I would
Speaker 1: do this open bar. I worked at the Embassy Suites
Speaker 1: and they have this happy hour, the open bar happy hour,
Speaker 1: and so I would do that most Sundays, and I
Speaker 1: really loved the speed and pace and I would just
Speaker 1: make that. I would make nothing all day and I
Speaker 1: would make all of my money in that.
Speaker 4: Two hour period.
Speaker 1: So I really love to work under pressure. But it
Speaker 1: was a casual vibe too, so it wasn't like that pressure.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So it's I guess not as in story in particular,
Speaker 1: but I just look back on that like time in
Speaker 1: my life and I was like, oh, I loved I
Speaker 1: loved open bar night at the Embassy Suites.
Speaker 3: Oh, the Embassy Suites.
Speaker 1: Love that right, the fish tail grill. I think that's
Speaker 1: what it was called.
Speaker 3: Wow. Yeah, right, Well, I don't have too many more
Speaker 3: silicious stories than what I've already chosen to share. You know,
Speaker 3: you know about me at the Yolk Frozen Yogurt place,
Speaker 3: me at the coffee shot, me at the hair salon.
Speaker 3: I just don't go out anymore. But best for me
Speaker 3: is when we got tipped. So Eric, when he had
Speaker 3: an electrical business, I think it is one of those
Speaker 3: things where it's not expected but it's appreciated, and I
Speaker 3: I didn't know what I didn't know. And he would
Speaker 3: have some customers who would tip him at the end
Speaker 3: of a job, and you know, ten fifteen percent on
Speaker 3: a few thousand dollars job was pretty significant. Like occasionally
Speaker 3: he would get a few hundred dollars worth of tip
Speaker 3: and that was a game changer for us at the
Speaker 3: time to come home with a few extra hundred dollars
Speaker 3: in his pockets, usually because we did not bid the
Speaker 3: jobs correctly, so sometimes we were hardly making any money
Speaker 3: off of his work. So it was like, oh, wow,
Speaker 3: he actually like got paid this time. Oh to be
Speaker 3: young again and bartending when we did the events, it
Speaker 3: was always so so. I mean, some people would just
Speaker 3: throw us twenty by for making them a drink, and
Speaker 3: that was a beautiful thing. We did love those people.
Speaker 3: I mean, honestly, if you want good service, if you
Speaker 3: want to be loved and looked on adoringly, throw someone
Speaker 3: a good tip and you get early right back at you. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you don't throw.
Speaker 4: It at the end.
Speaker 1: Throw the twenty on the table before you order it.
Speaker 1: That's what I do at open bars when I was saying, like,
Speaker 1: there's an open bar with a full liquor, that's what
Speaker 1: I do. I'll throw twenty down before I order my
Speaker 1: first drink. You're taking care of the whole night. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the only way to go.
Speaker 3: Because they never know, like, will they give me another twenty?
Speaker 3: Sometimes they will, sometimes they will, okay, And then my
Speaker 3: worst really would be beyond the other stories I've told
Speaker 3: is for me personally not being able to take a tip.
Speaker 3: There was a time that I was working and I
Speaker 3: was earning an hourly way at a retirement community, but
Speaker 3: at a restaurant in the retirement community, and we weren't
Speaker 3: allowed to take tips from the residents who were coming
Speaker 3: for dinner. But I remember at Christmas time one year,
Speaker 3: because you were serving the same residence day in and
Speaker 3: day out, and so at the end of the year,
Speaker 3: this one resident wanted to give me like a Christmas bonus,
Speaker 3: a Christmas tip, And me being as I have a
Speaker 3: conscience that doesn't allow me to step outside the bounds
Speaker 3: of the rules laid out before me, She's trying to
Speaker 3: like that, and I certain rules, certain rules. I'm like,
Speaker 3: there's cameras around here. I was like, no, I can't
Speaker 3: take that. She's like no, she's like trying to shove
Speaker 3: it into my pocket. It was like borderline harassment. And
Speaker 3: I'm like, a, Gan'm gonna get in drou I'm gonna
Speaker 3: get fired. I'm gonna lose my job. This tip isn't
Speaker 3: worth it because they did have a policy or if
Speaker 3: you wanted to tip the servers, you threw it all
Speaker 3: into one big bucket and then they were going to
Speaker 3: divvy that out amongst the servers. And so I said that.
Speaker 3: I was like, give it to the main thing. She's like,
Speaker 3: I don't like any of these other people.
Speaker 4: I just like you. I want you to take this tip.
Speaker 3: She did end up slipping it into my apron. But
Speaker 3: I went back to my boss, a little fifteen year
Speaker 3: old me, and I was like, this person insisted on
Speaker 3: giving this to me, but I understand it needs to
Speaker 3: go into the bigger pot. Still got fired from that job.
Speaker 3: But period what oh, they said, I know, Paul, Yeah,
Speaker 3: we don't have time.
Speaker 4: I don't want to know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's where you lost your conscience.
Speaker 4: Thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: We know that you have a conscience, and we we
Speaker 1: like to tread in these spicy conversations, but know that
Speaker 1: like this is really a tipping is a personal choice
Speaker 1: and it is situational too. There are some standard minimums
Speaker 1: that whether you agree with them or not, you should
Speaker 1: abide by. And if you don't want to, then don't
Speaker 1: receive the service. I think is the takeaway here, and
Speaker 1: gift people, be kind, be a blessing. Just surprise and
Speaker 1: delight people too. So yeah, that's another takeaway is that
Speaker 1: you don't have to live by the minimum that you
Speaker 1: can surprise and delight, Surprise and delight. Yeah, so many
Speaker 1: of you know we have a membership for our listeners
Speaker 1: who are paying off debt where we do monthly money
Speaker 1: challenges and offer accountability groups, and we want to congratulate
Speaker 1: one of our members for a big win. This one
Speaker 1: comes from Brittany and she says this is part of
Speaker 1: our when we did our declutter challenge. She says a
Speaker 1: great part of slowly going through all my belongings, I
Speaker 1: can remind myself of what I already have and put
Speaker 1: things in better locations. Example, I've recently been thinking I'm
Speaker 1: running out of ponytails. Well, decluttering, I found so many
Speaker 1: ponytails in random places I.
Speaker 3: Can relate to that so hard. What a good example, Brittany, congrats.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I actually said that this morning that I am
Speaker 1: running out of ponytails, but because I've overstretched them.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So thanks for listening. If you want to check out
Speaker 1: our membership where we have all kinds of courses, interviews,
Speaker 1: challenges and more, head to frugalfriendspodcast dot com slash club
Speaker 1: to check it out.
Speaker 3: See you next time.
Speaker 4: Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 3: I got fired because they said I was a no call,
Speaker 3: no show twice. However, I think that they're was some
Speaker 3: shady business going on and they were trying to undermine me.
Speaker 3: I think they wanted me gone. Still don't know why
Speaker 3: because I'm a dime piece. But on one particular time,
Speaker 3: at least of those two times, they didn't give me
Speaker 3: the schedule, like I didn't know that I was scheduled
Speaker 3: for a certain day. I think that they were sabotaging me,
Speaker 3: So of course I didn't call.
Speaker 4: I believe that to.
Speaker 3: Call off because I didn't know I was scheduled. So
Speaker 3: then it was a no call, no show, which gave
Speaker 3: them grounds to fire me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because even at fifteen years old, they felt threatened
Speaker 1: by you.
Speaker 3: Probably they're like, you know what, She's gonna go on
Speaker 3: to do bigger and better things like talking into a
Speaker 3: microphone in her living room. Someday she'll podcast.
Speaker 1: One day, her friend will tip eighteen percent on a check,
Speaker 1: and she will go behind her back and leave more
Speaker 1: cash to compensate.
Speaker 3: I'm so sorry, don't be sorry.
Speaker 1: I wish that I remembered. I wish I remembered the story,
Speaker 1: but honestly, I'm glad I've forgotten