When does saving become stingy!

lynnexxxo

Think my 'moneysaving' spilled into stingyness a few weeks ago...

Was out with some friends and after numerous alcoholic beverages it was decided we'd go to a club. After paying £10 to get in (and being rather drunk) i decided that we'd be drinking half pints of lager rather than bottled beer or spirits. One friends face was a picture when I returned from the bar saying that I'd got her a half pint as its the same stuff as the bottles, just half the price.

full-time-mum

Picked up a whole load of those vegetable bags from Tesco yesterday. Perfect for lunch bags.

headoutthesand

I've done loads of things that are saving money but nothing that I would consider being stingy.

I don't really leave tips when eating out - I don't get tipped for my job.

I especially don't leave a tip if one is expected...mainly by taxi drivers who take an age to scour through their pots looking for change - that riles me.

If the tips in a resturant are pulled to make up to the minimum wage what happens if no-one leaves a tip? Does your husband only get £2 odds an hour? I'm sure that isn't legal.

Ever thought that the people who are expected to leave a tip might be in a worse off situation that yourself? We went to pizza hut with our 2 boys last week and didn't leave a tip. We were asked to leave before our drinks were finished because they needed the table.

I do leave a tip when i'm out in company.

If i go to the pub with the girls I'll put in the kitty too but if we go onto a club i only drink tap water. They are all single where as i have a house to run and 2 kids to look after. They don't seem to mind

rainbow_carnage

headoutthesand wrote: »

I don't really leave tips when eating out - I don't get tipped for my job.

I don't get tipped, either, but that's taken into account during salary negotiation. Does your salary reflect an expectation that you will get tipped? If not, then your argument is worthless. That's just the way the system works. If no one tipped, then waiters would be paid more. Consequently, your meal would be more expensive. Anyone who thinks otherwise is fooling themselves. You only have to look at societies where tipping is not part of their culture (i.e. Japan).

headoutthesand wrote: »

If the tips in a resturant are pulled to make up to the minimum wage what happens if no-one leaves a tip? Does your husband only get £2 odds an hour? I'm sure that isn't legal.

You're sure that it isn't legal? Are you an expert on employment law? It's perfectly legal and it happens all the time. Sadly, many people who claim to care about issues like poverty and social justice quickly forget their principles when it starts to cost them money. If no one tipped, there would be no expectation that tips would make up a portion of the employee's earning. Your meal would cost more. It's the basic economics of salary negotiations. It would mean that you would have to pay more even if you were unhappy with the service (i.e. when the staff at Pizza Hut asked you to leave the table).

headoutthesand wrote: »

I do leave a tip when i'm out in company.

That makes it even worse. It's not that you don't believe in tipping. You know that you should tip, but you only do it when someone else is looking.

Auzelia

found this on the web regarding Waiters / waitresses being paid NMW with their tips!

Tips, service charges,
gratuities and cover charges

Tips, service charges, gratuities
and cover charges only count
towards NMW pay if they are
paid to the worker by the
employer via the employer’s
payroll. They should be shown
on the payslip issued by the
employer. If they are not paid
to the worker through the
payroll the employer cannot
count them towards satisfying
his requirement to pay NMW.
Many hotel restaurants
operate systems known as
‘tronc’ schemes which are
administered by a troncmaster.
In these cases whether the
amounts allocated to workers
count towards NMW pay
depends on whether or not
each worker’s share is paid
to the worker by the employer

via the employer’s payroll.

So if the work uses a "Troncmaster" system or they receive their tips outwith their payslip, i.e cash in hand ! then they still have to receive NMW on top of the tips!

duchy

So let me see if I understand this.....
If you take your children out to eat -you don't tip.....but if you are out with adults you do ???????
I guess to me that says it doesn't matter to you what lessons you teach your kid's about dignity of labour but you'd hate your friends to know how cheap you are.
OK you win the prize !!

rainbow_carnage

Auzelia wrote: »

So if the work uses a "Troncmaster" system or they receive their tips outwith their payslip, i.e cash in hand ! then they still have to receive NMW on top of the tips!

You should always tip in cash. I usually ask the waiter what happens to the service charge. If it doesn't go directly to the staff, I'll ask to have it taken off the bill and tip in cash.

It's a tax loophole for the employer. Most often when you pay service charge, the bill will say that it's optional. The only reason for that is so the employer doesn't have to pay VAT on it. So if the employer is using service charge to pay the staff's wages, they are taking that extra income VAT-free.

The waiters do pay income tax on all tips and service charge that go through payroll.

My husband had a table the other day that refused to pay service charge on a £400 bill. He asked if there was a problem with the service. They said no, that he was wonderful, but that money is tight. They left £2 in cash. I hope they get hit by a bus.

MissHobit

rainbow_carnage wrote: »

My husband had a table the other day that refused to pay service charge on a £400 bill. He asked if there was a problem with the service. They said no, that he was wonderful, but that money is tight. They left £2 in cash. I hope they get hit by a bus.

What a hateful thing to say, what because they didn't leave a big tip?

Surely leaving a tip is a personnel choice and up to the customers discretion? I won't be bullied into leaving a tip at home or on holiday, why should I. There is no law to say that we have to do so. So it's all about freedom of choice.

sallyrsm

I tell you what is stingy. I work in a law firm and when a collection goes round, the senior partner puts in a quid. He can spend £60k on a new Audi every other year but can't put a note (fiver or tenner) in a card. We only have 70 staff so cards don't go round every month like in some workplaces. I always put in £2 minimum more if they're a mate but you don't buy them an individual present. Also he sends all his letters second class (personal ones) which he pays the 20 odd pence for but when he does a personal special delivery the before 9am one (£9.35 minimum) he doesn't pay for them. He's so tight you could put a piece of coal up his bum and in two weeks it'd be a diamond. He's about five foot, too. Don't know if the two correllate.

rainbow_carnage

MissHobit wrote: »

What a hateful thing to say, what because they didn't leave a big tip?

Surely leaving a tip is a personnel choice and up to the customers discretion? I won't be bullied into leaving a tip at home or on holiday, why should I. There is no law to say that we have to do so. So it's all about freedom of choice.

You're right. There is no law.

Nor is there a law about giving money to charity, or giving up your seat on the bus for someone less able than yourself. There's no law forcing you to recycle or dictating that should say "excuse me" when you bump into someone on the street. But without the majority of the people observing these basic customs, society would not function. There's an adjective that is commonly used to describe the sort of people who disregard the needs to society - anti-social.

No one is going to bully you into tipping, but I would hope that your own conscience would take care of that. If not, then at least you'll have the comfort of knowing that you are in good company, along with the other anti-social members of our society.