holiday tipping.....

this is our first year owning a house so i was wondering who you all tip for the holidays and what sort of gifts do you give?

TIA

Re: holiday tipping.....

we tip the mailman ($20-25 giftcard)
garbage men ($20 cash)
cleaning person (1 visit's pay)

if you get regular deliveries to your house, also tip that delivery person too:
like newspaper (we don't get, so i dont know how much to tip)

Re: holiday tipping.....

I tip my cleaning lady one visits pay.

I rent so I don't tip the garbage men or mailperson (especially since they stink anyway).

If I get gas pumped for me, I usually give them $2 or 3 each time.

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I don't tip anyone except our maids (and barn staff, but that's really not relevant here). I would tip the garbage men, only because they always take everything and leave our common garbage area super clean... but I've never, ever seen them. We leave really early for work and live in a townhouse complex, where there is nowhere safe to leave a tip for them. I believe our condo association tips them, though.

Our condo association pays the gardener and tips them. It comes out of our condo fees.

I don't tip the mailman, UPS, FedEx, etc. Others obviously feel differently, as they are free to do.

Message edited 11/30/2009 2:29:28 PM.

Re: holiday tipping.....

If I was still in my house the only person that would have been tipped was the mailman. And even that would have been a stretch as my mailman was absolutely HORRIBLE this year.

My garbage men sucked too. Would consistently refuse to pick my boxes up, even when I had the folded down and occasionally tied. I even had to call the Town Of Hempstead sanitation department to complain and have them send the driver back on a number of occasions. They also routinely left my trashcan down the block tipped over.

I would have tipped my UPS guy since he was at my house practically every other day. If I had a cleaning lady, i'd tip her a week's pay. Maybe two if she was real good. I would gladly tip people if I felt I got good (above standard) service.

Re: holiday tipping.....

We tip our mailman.

THats it though. Our garbage men are awful! We are the first pick up street and they are here by 6am. They YELL, and honk the horn of the truck that early in the morning. Its obnoxious.

Re: holiday tipping.....

mailman - $25 cash
garbage men - no idea
UPS guy - $100 - I ordered A LOT of things online - big items. If I could afford to give more, I would - he deserves it.

Re: holiday tipping.....

Message edited 11/30/2009 3:13:08 PM.

Re: holiday tipping.....

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i agree w/ you ladies, i am in TOH and there is ALWAYS garbage littered all over my lawn after the garbage is picked up

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wow!!!! i guess we have it good in our area the garbage men take everything, but they must really love our neighbors bc they put the lids back on his pails and stand them up for him but not for us, i guess the previous owners were not good tippers.....LOL

sorry you all have such trouble with your garbage men

Re: holiday tipping.....

we def tip the garbage men. The amount of garbage they had to lift and trash for us this year was crazy. my DH demo'd the entire basement and threw it all out in the reg trash! we were surprised that they even took some of it.

we give them $20 each

Message edited 11/30/2009 4:47:28 PM.

Re: holiday tipping.....

Garbagemen-$20
Mailman-got him a gift card this year

Re: holiday tipping.....

My garbagemen are great and will take anything at anytime...so we give them $20 each

I also budget $80 for each kid for daycare. DS#1 has 4 teachers...so they will get $20/each, but DS#2 only has one teacher...so I think I'll give $40 and give the other $40 to the floaters.

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i do not tip anyone...


honestly i pay 10,000 a year in taxes and my garbage men make a fortune.... no one tips me to do my job and since the CLEARLY do not live on tips to me there is no reason


i never have the same mail man so no tip there

newsday... well when the person puts and envelope in my paper on the first paper ever witha note specifying how much of a tip she typically gets, well lets just say she has never gotten a tip....

Re: holiday tipping.....

in lindy they were all local and you saw the same guys over and over... i tipped them. i got exceptional service b/c of this. i would randomly give a $20.00 bill when i had a lot of stuff put out (after a yard sale, or an big project).

but, again, i "knew" who i was tipping. in the big towns, i don't know who will be running the route. my mom says she never sees the same people. i want to "know" who i am tipping.

mailman.. the one in lindy was a total and utter drip, dud and boob. i wouldn't have given him a smile in an envelope if i could have.

jerk. i still don't like him... four months out of that house...

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I tip the mailman 20 b/c I don't think he's allowed to accept more then that...and the garbage men 75 to split........

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I Will give the mailman maybe 20 bucks..And the garbagemen, nothing, they always drop garbage in front of house, throw pail right in middle of driveway, and then put a card on our door Saying have a great season i am sure because they want a tip or something like that..NO WAY!!!

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Last year we meant to tip the garbage men but we never actually did it - they come before we leave the house and we couldn't coordinate it. I was thinking of giving them a case of beer to split up.. figured they'd appreciate that.

Haven't made up my mind if i'm tipping the mailman or not.. he consistently delivers mail to the former owners of the house and we're always leaving it back out in the mailbox with a return to sender/not at this address on it.

Here's a question.. if you do tip something, do you just put it in an envelope and leave it? what do you write?

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I tip the mailman because he's great. I have a Town job and there is no way I am tipping another Town worker to do their job.

I generally leave a card taped inside the mailbox with his name on it, or I wait until the weekend when I will see him in person.

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We live in an apt. complex so I'll only tip the mailman. I think we'll give him a GC. He's very nice and he introduced himself when we first moved in and has been great with all of the packages we order thru the year.

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I don't tip anyone. Our garbage collectors, delivery people, etc. do not go above and beyond by any means, our mail is delivered to a community box so I've never even seen the mailman/woman, and we don't have a cleaning lady or gardeners.

Re: holiday tipping.....

The mail lady was so great this year after our mailbox fell over so she's getting a $25 gift card. Not sure where though, maybe just Target or BBB.

Will tip the newspaper person too, $10.

Our garbage men SUCK. I've seen them *hurl* our empty cans at our tree. They routinely put the empties right behind my car, too. No way will I give them anything extra.

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Mailman
Sanitation
UPS

I don't think we tip anyone else.

My parents live in a co-op and tip the porter, mailman and UPS.