samsonite2100: You have over 1000 posts and you still started this topic? People on here take pride in being frugal. You should know better.

I am definitely leaving 50 cents if you charge 3.50 for a beer. If you arbitrarily charged 4 for a beer I'd be leaving 1 dollar. I don't really care about the competent service you provided.

To the UK guy, yeah tipping on drinks is standard in the US.

I will munch on some chips and salsa if they're free and would not pay 3 dollars for the experience.

Not everyone can be awesomely cool enough to pay for their friends like you.

It actually blows my mind that a bartender would be hiring people to do his laundry, unless he is working 65+ hours per week. Saving 10 bucks every two weeks= the money to buy a decent used washer and dryer in two years. When I did my laundry at a laundromat, I went at off-peak times and did every load at the same time.

High-stakes 2p2 ballas may be the exception, but most self-made rich people are very cheap. It's how they become rich. I'm not trying to become rich any time soon, and I value generosity over stinginess, but people who pinch pennies (and do their own laundry) end up with bank in the long run.

LOL, come the **** on!! its already $3.50 for piss water, WTF u expect?

Yes, it's standard.
You pretty much HAVE to tip.
I mean, you won't get arrested for not tipping but you will be a huge douche. This goes even for a $2 bottle of beer or some ultra-cheap night [tipping is actually somewhat more important then to my mind].

If you only tip 10% then you are already in the higher end of douchiness in the U.S. But if you don't tip at all then you are just a total prick.

I know it's different in England and other countries. But in the U.S. you really do pretty much HAVE to tip even if it's just them taking 5 seconds to pour a drink. I also know that it's totally stupid and seems even more stupid to other countries/cultures that don't "get it". But there's no way around it. Tipping is pretty close to mandatory here.

Also, the time spent in the laundromat might not be wasted time. When I was in college, I brought my books and studied when I waited. I would have been doing that at home anyway. Who just sits in there and stares at the wall for 4 hours? Some have TVs, so they aren't really spending 4 hours of work involved.

My favorite was visiting my GF's family in Lima, Peru.
You negotiate the price of the ride in a taxi before getting in. There are no standard fares as best I can tell.
We had a 40 minute or so drive back home and this would cost us around $4 which is 12 soles. GF's Mom asks taxi after taxi to take us where we are going for 10 soles and just won't settle for 12. After about 15 minutes consulting about 10 taxis we finally got one that agreed to the 10 soles price thus saving approximately 65 cents for our trip.

This whole bit about haggling over the price which is so common in other countries just cracks me up. It's like this big game of chicken. Of course, Americans like me are viewed as total fish in such situations and usually end up paying like triple what a local would.

If you can't handle getting tipped 14.3% for doing what my roommate does for free when we are predrinking together, then stop being a bartender. Do you seriously think you deserve an almost 29% tip for doing such a menial task? Your job is a joke and you still think you should be making more money. If you are the dude in your avatar, then you're an even bigger tool than you look like.

Ugg my mother is like this. She is a successful business woman whose time is valuable and yet she insists on scouring the newspaper for coupons. Also she refuses to pay someone to mow our lawn.

lol. How dare she? Let me guess, she makes you do it?

Wow is this a level? Maybe some people don't mind doing their own ****?

You know, like, they don't go through life day after day trying to maximise their EV every waking second. Because that's ****ing nitty as ****.

Equally it can become nitty when it's taken too far, like the burrito guy.

So OP wants $1 tip for opening a bottle of beer that took him less than 30 seconds. If you dont like it get a different job. I really dont see the point of tipping a bartender 33% for <30 seconds work.

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic.

Only taxi ride I ever took was in Manhattan and we haggled for the price of the ride. Afterwards the driver drove twice as fast as everyone around us and what took us 2 hours to walk took us 2 minutes or so in a cab, scary but fun while drunk.

If that is how you will feel you will never be rich. My parents are both self-made multi-millionaires (no inheritance, paid for own school etc.) and did it on the salaries of a pharmacist and a nurse and are only mid-40's. They use coupons, buy slightly used vehicles, buy clothes on sale, do own yardwork, etc. I am home for the weekend and guess what I got put to work doing? You got it, mowing the lawn.

Exactly, while a waitress spends way more time at your table and often only gets 15-20%.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?

Ok, with an added disclaimer that I'm assuming he will not win the lottery or a donkament, receive a large inheritance, and is not extremely intelligent. It is a well known fact that the most effective way to become rich is through using the time-value of money.

Surprise, surprise, this thread seems to be a magnet for cheapskates. A few things--

1) The only good point being made about the $.50 tip is that people don't want to carry around change, which is something I'd never really thought of b/c I like having a big jar of quarters at home. Saying it's 14.3% or whatever, is lol. A dollar a drink is the going rate for non-cheapskates, sorry, I didn't make this rule up. This may annoy you when you get a beer, but it also holds for complicated mixed drinks or whatever. I guarantee you if you're flipping quarters at your neighborhood bartender, you're not the first, second, or even next-to-last guy being served.

Also, the "I can do that so why tip" argument is stupid. You can presumably also carry your bags, drive a car, clean a hotel room, etc. You don't base tips on whether you can do something or not, you base them on what societal conventions dictate is the appropriate amount. Right now it's a dollar a drink at a bar. I, however, wholeheartedly approve of the guy that said he thinks tipping bartenders is stupid so he doesn't drink in restaurants.

2) I'm aware that people who pinch pennies wind up with more money. I also think their overall quality of life is pretty crap.

3) Yes, chips and salsa should be free, I agree.

4) At the fluff and fold where I live, they just kind of eyeball it, they don't do it by the lb. It's usually around 20 bucks, which I guess is on the way cheap side. Fwiw, I wouldn't spend 50 bucks on F and F.

Wow... lol.

This. Your lucky to get 50 cents for beer imo.

Edit: Just read your comment about societal conventions. You are a ****ing tool. Enjoy your tips. I tip for the service, not the item. If you were an interesting person and we struck up a conversation, I'd give you $20 as a tip. However if you just serve me my drink and that's that, your lucky to get those 2 quarters.

I don't believe you.

Good for you. If you truly did not believe it you would not even post, so obviously you have some jealousy issues. If you do not think that it is possible to have 2-3 million to your name and no debt on a little over 200k a year at 45 then you don't really know much and are like op wasting your money on useless things since "it's only a few dollars."

Even if we assume it is true what is the point? Live a miserable life so that when you die the executor can go wow they sure had a lot of money.