Inappropriate tipping (?)

Few other thoughts:

Open-bar bartenders - $10 or $20 on the front end, depending on the length of the event.

I can't stand tipping the doorman at hotels when the cab is already sitting there and all he does is open the cab door for you. But I give them a buck or two, anyway.

Guys who deliver big things, like appliances, always get at least $10 per man. The guys who were in my house for two days installing a new boiler and hot water heater last week got an extra $40 because they were true professionals.

I never tip anyone at Starbucks for pouring an overpriced black coffee.

 

I'm just the opposite. I've gottten more generous as I get older.
Which prolly means I was a total fucking cheapskate in my 20s and mid-30s.

 

I always try to start a tab when I am at a bar. Many bartenders will not charge you for drinks on your tab, but they expect that to be made up at the time of the tip. If I am comped 2-3 beers, they are getting at least 2-3 extra per drink not charged.

Tipping movers is a must. If you tell ask from the start how many their are and how long will each be there, they know a tip is coming and they should take extra care. If moving a home, at least $20 would be my starting point. It also depends on your home and the slope of your driveway. As a mover once told my step-dad, "Mister, I will forget you, but I will never forget your driveway."

 

Jesus, yes, even if it's just $20 and water throughout the day. At least enough to cover their lunch.

 

6 days away. I'll let you kmow.

 

At my old haunt, I'd regularly drink four or five pints, which should have cost me anywhere between $20-28. And regularly, I'd ask for my tab and it would be $10-12. So I usually tipped $8-10. Seemed like a good give and take.

 

Bartenders: Typically $1/pour. I may give them $2 for the first drink, to get started off on the right foot.

Waiters: Generally 20 percent post-tax. Almost always cash, if I can, so they don't have to deal with the paper trail.

Barbers: I'm ridiculous with these tips. I usually get the head buzzed as well as the beard trimmed for about $15, which is very reasonable to me. I'll add in a $10 tip, just because. It's a local joint and almost all the ladies live in the neighborhood (which is now ridiculously expensive to live in). And more importantly, they somehow manage to make me look decent, that's a minor miracle.

Takeout: If it's a place I frequent, I occasionally throw a dollar or two in the jar. If the place is solely takeout, I assume they're paying their people non-waiter wages.

Hotel maids: I always forget. I'm a bad person.

I am a sucker for blue-collar workers. I'm far from wealthy, but consider myself to have had enough good fortune in life where I don't need to clean up a drunk's mess or cut someone's dandruff-ridden hair. I like to be generous toward them.

 

My rule of thumb on free drinks is that the tip should equal about two-thirds the cost of the drinks. So if you get three pints that go for $5 a pint, you tip $10.

 

Where I get my haircut, the hair stylist (female barber?) owns the shop. She charges me $15, I give her $20 and she always seems surprised that I am giving her that much.

I know she cuts the hair of the CEO and other honchos of my Fortune 100 company (it's in the building next door to HQ). So they must be real cheapskates. Or she's playing me.

 

I had a chair delivered to my apartment a few weeks ago. The chair wasn't that heavy, my building has a loading dock and the walk from the dock to the elevator to my apartment isn't very long. I tipped the two delivery guys $10 each. Either they were both excellent actors or no one ever tips them.