Five Tips to Make Holiday Tipping Painless
The winter holiday season is quickly approaching! Between the festive lights, cheerful music, and family gatherings, this truly is the most wonderful time of the year. One of the ways you can share goodwill toward others during the holiday season is by offering extra tips.
Giving a few extra dollars to your taxi driver, doorman, daycare provider, hair stylist, and other service people is a nice way to show you appreciate their work. But how do you budget for these tips and account for the extra costs? Here are a few tips for painless holiday tipping:
1. Make a List Ahead of Time
You don’t want to run out of funds halfway through the holiday season and realize you can’t afford to tip the people who deserve it. To avoid running out of funds, make a list of people you plan to tip. Next to their names, write the amount of tip you plan to give them. Then, total the amounts. You now know how much you need to save for holiday tipping purposes, so you can set that amount aside and tip with confidence.
2. Stay Within Your Means
While you might adore your hair stylist and love the idea of giving her an extra $200 as a holiday tip, don’t over-spend. It’s okay if that’s not within your budget. You need to balance generosity with your income.
For most service providers like a hair stylist, taxi driver, doorman, or valet, an extra $20 tip is sufficient, although you can certainly offer more if you can afford to do so. You may want to give more to someone who works for you full-time or weekly. For example, live-in au pairs are deserving of a few hundred dollars.
3. Consider Homemade Gifts
If you are struggling to save enough to tip everyone you would like to this holiday season, consider offering homemade gifts. Your mail delivery person and trash collector, for example, will often be just as appreciative of a tin of homemade cookies as an extra $20.
Package them nicely, include a hand-written “thank you” note, and deliver them with a smile. A warm mug of coffee or hot cocoa on a chilly day can be just as welcome as cash.
4. Spread Out Your Tips
You can also make holiday tipping more affordable by spreading out your tips. Offer extra tips to a few service providers in December, and then tip the rest in January. The people in your life will be just as appreciative of your gift in January once the holiday chaos has subsided. There may be people you don’t see every month, like your hair stylist or massage therapist, so simply tip them when you see them.
5. Check Company Guidelines
Some employers do not allow their employees to accept gifts from customers. If you normally tip service people, giving them extra for the holidays should not be a problem. If you do not normally tip someone, check with their employer to ensure tipping is acceptable.
The U.S. Postal Service, for example, does not allow their workers to accept cash, although they can accept gifts worth less than $20. These might be people you should gift cookies in lieu of cash.
Holiday tipping is a great way to show people you appreciate them, and using these “tips” can make it easy and painless this season.
Equal Housing Lender