My cheap tipping friend had an epiphany!

[Phentex]

Over the years, she's gone from being a 10% tipper to 0% to 20% and really griped about it even though SHE is the person who asks for everything on the side, no tomatoes, etc. DU has discussed this before and I'm the person who felt like I had to tip more to make up for cheap friends.

Had a meal at a restaurant with her first time in a year and a half. No complaints at the service or food. The server brought out a handheld device where we could pay at the table. I overtipped and I couldn't see what she paid.

After he walked away, my friend tells me she now tips 40% every time she eats out.

I said WHAT?!!!!

Then she explained that she really enjoys eating out, having someone bring her a glass of wine and her meal, how hard the servers work and how restaurants can't find people to fill the spots and are having to reduce hours. She said, "I have the money and I want them to know how much I appreciate what they are doing."

My mouth was open. (Southern expression is I had to pick my eye teeth up off the floor!)

She said she started doing it a few months ago and she enjoyed watching how happy people were when they saw the tip.

Fingers crossed this isn't a fad for her.

[marble falls]

1. The same story between my dad and me. I love to over tip, and my MiL, of all people now ...

tips better than me. Somethings happening, because the owners have started to play with the tips.

[Aristus]

2. Non-tippers simply can't understand how much goodwill one can create

with a server when one is a regular customer. Always overtip. The servers will move Heaven and Earth to ensure you have a good dining experience. I don't want Heaven and Earth, just the good dining experience. Whatever I tip is always worth it.

[Ka-Dinh Oy]

3. I have a friend who never used to tip.

For some unexplainable reason when his father died he started tipping well. He never went out to eat with his father or talked about eating out.

He tips very well now.

I asked him why and he said he just figured he should be tipping.

I have always tipped. I tip 20% or more and hope I am not being cheap. I tend to round up when the tip is supposed to be something and a few cents.

I tip at drive through to. I know people who don't and I think that is not right. Those people work just as hard.

It pisses me off when some places don't give you a chance to tip when you have a card. I always try to have some cash on hand for them.

I went to one place once where they weren't allowed to take tips. What kind of bullshit is that?

[beaglelover]

4. I'm a big tipper, probably too big, but I'm at a point in my life where I make

good money and can afford to tip well for good service. For example, if I get an 80 minute massage I tip $80. Dinner is usually a 40% to 50% tip. And I always way over tip for breakfast since those servers are especially working their asses off and don't have the benefit of alcohol sales to increase the tab total. We tend to eat in the same restaurants over and over again and we are always treated like great customers. I'm assuming it's because we're known as great tippers. I like to spread the wealth a little bit.

[Ocelot II]

5. Seems like older people - by that I mean *older* older people,

like my parents' generation, since I am now old, too - mostly weren't in the habit of tipping generously, maybe because of growing up during the Depression and being pretty cautious with money; maybe because restaurant meals used to be a lot less expensive so they got used to leaving a buck or two and some change on the table because that was pretty much what everybody used to do. When my dad got old enough (he passed away 10 years ago at 92) that he couldn't go out on his own, sometimes my brother and I would take him to a restaurant for dinner. He'd often pick up the tab for all of us, which he could easily afford, but he was such an embarrassingly terrible tipper that we'd always sneak back and significantly augment the tip he'd left. I don't think he was intentionally stiffing the waitstaff; it was just what he'd always done.