Who and how do you tip during the Holidays?

[Momto2Boyz]

Just curious if anyone tips at the holidays?

I have a few people that I give holiday tips to, but I don't go overboard. I pretty much stick to the garbage man, recycler and mailman. I usually give them a plate of cookies and a gift card. This year, they are getting the AmEx gift cards so they can use them anywhere. I figure, these are the "underappreciated" workers who are out in the heat and cold, etc. and deserve a little extra thank you at least once a year!

I normally don't tip hairdressers (I actually don't have one anymore) or babysitters, etc. We don't have normal day care anymore, so I don't do gifts there. I do get small gifts for teachers, but our babysitters are in short supply around here, so I normally tip our babysitters for any extras they do throughout the year (coming on short notice, when we stay out really late, picking up the house while I'm gone, etc., just going the extra mile). That way, I figure I keep them happy throughout the year and wanting to come back an sit for us again!

So, I figure it's not very frugal of me...but it's something I want to do each year (I have skipped tipping these people during years when times were tough for us). So, I'm just curious, how all you frugalista's (and frugalisto's....I don't know, would that be the male term?) do it or do you do it at all????

[perSue]

You know what... I was just talking to a few people about this the other day.
Where I live, some people simply won't take 'em! I dont live in an unsafe area, or where you'd sorta expect people to make "choco-lax brownies"!

Like the Postal workers or other delivery people... they won't take anything. I dont know if it's in their contract not to - it may be! - but they wont take food or hot cocoa on a super cold day... nothing.

Same goes with the people who read your electric meters... but I know they're told not to take anything... but, c'mon... if it's cold outside, and someone offers you a hot drink.... I probly would!

Otherwise, no money is left EVER... it's just not wise. And if you try to hand them a card (w/money inside), they don't take it.

So there's not much of a reason to make/do anything since they won't take them... and that'd be waste.

[Jayne]

I don't tip postal people because we never have the same one, nor do I tip the trash men, same reason...There is a diner that dh and I go to alot and I give the girls there extra at Christmas...

[Pemberleyan]

Tipping people around here is generally not the custom. I had a very strange experience along this line. I didn't consider it tipping, but for a couple of years I made cookies for the mailman, just a small cellophane bag with a note. One year our route was divided between he and a female mail carrier, so I made cookies for her, too. Ever since then when I see this man, he avoids me like the plague and will not speak to me. If I see his wife, it's the same "if looks could kill" treatment. I'm not kidding! The only thing I can assume, of course, is that they thought I was making a pass at him! Nothing could have been further from my mind, and It's so awkward.

[Dutchie]

In principle I do tip at the holidays but only people who have been there the entire year.
One example, we have 2 free local weekly newspapers. To say that the delivery is haphazard is putting it mildly.
However around the beginning of Dec. they suddenly come in every week on schedule.
I do not tip these guys. However we have a daily subscribed newspaper and we give him a tip each year.
The only other folks we give a tip to is - may sound weird - the drs. assistants and our family dr.
We get him a nice bottle of wine and his assistants get a box of chocolates with a card thanking them for everything.
They are always very appreciative as we are of them.

[Neeley]

We don't do any tipping either.

Obviously, we tip our waiter/waitress when we go out to eat and the hairdressers throughout the year. Maybe a little more during Christmas time than normal, but nothing extravagant. And we don't tip people like the garbage men or the mailman.

[madhen]

I don't see most of the people who deliver stuff or take stuff away. My driveway is about 1/4 mile long and goes over a hill, so my paper just mysteriously appears in the box down at the road. I split my garbage collection with someone else who lives down the road, so I don't have anyone come here. Even if they did, I'd have to haul the cans all the way down to the road for them to collect. My mail is delivered at a post office. I used to have bottled water delivered, but the idiot driver left gates open about three times in a row, which resulted in the death of one of my goats and the loss of a couple of hundred dollars worth of feed, so after the third time I not only cancelled the service, I threatened to sue, and they credited me for that month's bill and never came back for their empties! (Gave them to my sister who got credit for them on HER water bill.) I tip a little more when I go out to eat, usually starting around T-Day, but I rarely go out, except to stop at a coffee shop on the way home once in a while. I did just tip my hairdresser, and I gave her a bit more because of the season, but that is about it.

[Momto2Boyz]

I'm curious to know about demographics where everyone is, now. We are in a small town, so maybe that makes the difference???? Here is our connections...I don't tip our electric meter reader, as he has been DH's best friend since kindergarten. We exchange family gifts with them, so I don't give him anything extra. DH works for Waste Management, so I know both our garbage man and recycler by name. Our mailman has been on our route forever, his name is Mike and our kids play little league together.

So, maybe I don't hesitate to tip these people becuase I know them so well. I wonder maybe if I didn't know them, if I wouldn't be as quick to tip them. However, DH recieves lots of tips at Christmas and throughout the year. He has people on his routes who give him pop in the summer time and coffee in the winter, and he is always grateful for it. There is one man who gives him banana bread at least once a month. DH makes sure he writes down the addresses of everyone, and I've been sending out thank you notes for all the cash tips and food tips that he has been getting. Also lots of cases of beer and a bottle of Jeager (ok, don't know if I spelled that right). We thought those gifts were pretty funny. DH just looked at me and said... "Do I look like a drinker?" I guess he must!

[cab54]

The Mail carrier
The paper guy
The 3 trash pickup guys (dirty job that deserves a tip, IMO)

[IntlMom]

We live in a really small rural, south central Kansas town. We don;t tip anyone extra during the Christmas season. I tip my haridresser, just like always, and maybe a bit more......that;s it though - I guess I never thought of tipping any one else.

[homesteadmamma]

We don't tip either.

We have no paper carrier, no mailman (we pick our mail up at the post office) and we don't go to the hairdresser.

[McD]

I don't tip anyone other than my daycare provider. I give her a hefty cash bonus.

[ahmom]

Rural PA here. I don't tip anyone.

[guest002]

Central Coast of California...

We don't tip beyond what I would normally do. And my newspaper delivery person is smoking something if they think they are getting a tip (they delivered the paper w/ a card w/ their address) after they didn't do the stop delivery request that I did and my house was robbed!

[Neeley]

I'm curious to know about demographics where everyone is, now.

We live in a city with a population a little over 200K.

We have 12 garbage men that come every week on 4 trucks (1 for regular trash, 1 for recyclables, 1 for leaves and grass and 1 for household discards like furniture, boxes, etc), 2 or 3 different mailmen, kids too old for daycare, the electric meter reader is a different person each month, water meter is read electronically, and do not get the newspaper.

We don't know any of them, hardly ever speak to any of them and rarely see most of them.