My husband travels for work about once every other month for a week at a time. He returned home from Iceland a week ago. When he travels I treat myself to something at the spa for surviving on my own with a two year old and working. Usually it's for whatever I happen to have a coupon for and that's how I decide. This past trip I had a coupon for a free 1/2 hour facial and it could be upgraded to an hour for $25. So, of course, I upgraded. This service normally runs $65 for the hour treatment.
I am so looking forward to relaxing for the hour and possibly falling asleep. As the facial begins I relax. Then my mind begins to wonder and lands on the thought of "what do I tip?" I have to admit, I alway stress about the tip at a salon. So my stress this time is, do I pay on the discount price of $25 or on the usual price of $65. Throughout the one hour facial, which I still enjoyed very much, I am debating in my head about what to tip. I also wonder do you always tip 20% or somewhere around 15%?? I usually go with 20% or somewhere close unless of course the experience sucked.
This time I settled on tipping around $10. I still could not decide if I tip on the $65 because that would be almost as much as I paid to get the facial which make the coupon pointless.
Am I the only one who lives like this, freaking out about a tip during a relaxing spa day?? What is the proper tip? I look forward to de-stressing again when Nate travels 3 times in April!
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
At The Expense of Others
I am sitting here watching the Olympics and waiting for rice to finish in the kitchen. The rice is not for me but for our dog. He has had the runs for several days now and the vet says to keep him on a bland diet. So instead of heading to bed, I am waiting for the dog's breakfast for tomorrow to finish.
I have been racking my brain for a post idea when today I received two separate phone calls with excellent material. Although these are not my stories, they have excellent entertainment value.
First comes from Nathan who is in Iceland this week. He had a five hour flight and on the plane ride they showed one of his favorite TV shows, Burn Notice. I say "oh that is great you love that show" to which he responds, "yeah the show was good but the episode they showed was "to be continued", and there was no other shows during the flight"! Super Bummer!! He will only have to spend the next week wondering what happened and only hope on the flight home they will show the follow up episode. Highly unlikely since he is flying Icelandic air.
The second story involves a friends parents. They have for over 34 years kept all of their finances completely separate. He pays his 1/2 of things and she pays her 1/2 of things. I understand every couple has their own way of handling their finances and hopefully it works for them. I am an all for one, one for all mentality so this following story I just had to laugh.
My friend calls her dad to tell him that she will not be continuing the New York Times Sunday delivery service after the gift subscription expires. Her dad is disappointed as he really enjoys getting the Sunday Edition. He tells her "well don't cancel it just yet, let me talk to your mother. I know she too enjoys getting the paper. I will see if she is willing to chip in $15 per month for her half of the monthly subscription. If she is then I will pay my $15 and we will keep the subscription. If she is not willing to pay her half then we will cancel the subscription." My friend and I got a good laugh out of this one since her dad could not even fathom the idea of paying $30 a month, which he definitely can afford, to continue getting the paper he really enjoys and sharing it with his wife. Stories like this come from my friend at least once a month. It usually involves him taking my friend, his daughter, to dinner and then splitting the bill. Mind you this man is a retired high school guidance counselor!
This final story comes directly from my life. Thiis week when I was talking with a woman around my mother's age. We were talking about the movie, When in Rome. She says how much she loves Josh Duhamel especially from General Hospital. I then comment on how good looking he is and that he is married to Fergie. Her eyes get wide and in disbelief she says "What, he is married to the Dutchess!!" It took me a minute to figure out who she was referring too and then I just broke out into laughter and had to explain, no Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas!
Some day I will be having some 30 something laughing at me, what goes around comes around!
I have been racking my brain for a post idea when today I received two separate phone calls with excellent material. Although these are not my stories, they have excellent entertainment value.
First comes from Nathan who is in Iceland this week. He had a five hour flight and on the plane ride they showed one of his favorite TV shows, Burn Notice. I say "oh that is great you love that show" to which he responds, "yeah the show was good but the episode they showed was "to be continued", and there was no other shows during the flight"! Super Bummer!! He will only have to spend the next week wondering what happened and only hope on the flight home they will show the follow up episode. Highly unlikely since he is flying Icelandic air.
The second story involves a friends parents. They have for over 34 years kept all of their finances completely separate. He pays his 1/2 of things and she pays her 1/2 of things. I understand every couple has their own way of handling their finances and hopefully it works for them. I am an all for one, one for all mentality so this following story I just had to laugh.
My friend calls her dad to tell him that she will not be continuing the New York Times Sunday delivery service after the gift subscription expires. Her dad is disappointed as he really enjoys getting the Sunday Edition. He tells her "well don't cancel it just yet, let me talk to your mother. I know she too enjoys getting the paper. I will see if she is willing to chip in $15 per month for her half of the monthly subscription. If she is then I will pay my $15 and we will keep the subscription. If she is not willing to pay her half then we will cancel the subscription." My friend and I got a good laugh out of this one since her dad could not even fathom the idea of paying $30 a month, which he definitely can afford, to continue getting the paper he really enjoys and sharing it with his wife. Stories like this come from my friend at least once a month. It usually involves him taking my friend, his daughter, to dinner and then splitting the bill. Mind you this man is a retired high school guidance counselor!
This final story comes directly from my life. Thiis week when I was talking with a woman around my mother's age. We were talking about the movie, When in Rome. She says how much she loves Josh Duhamel especially from General Hospital. I then comment on how good looking he is and that he is married to Fergie. Her eyes get wide and in disbelief she says "What, he is married to the Dutchess!!" It took me a minute to figure out who she was referring too and then I just broke out into laughter and had to explain, no Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas!
Some day I will be having some 30 something laughing at me, what goes around comes around!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Budget Crunch
It only took a matter of about 3 minutes before I realized, we need a budget. With the holidays over but the fun of buying still running through our blood, the bank account took a hit. Now don't worry here, we are not talking like we are totally broke or need to live like refugees ( as my brother would say because we do not have an ice maker in our refrigerator), but we do need to live within our paychecks and not dip into our savings. So we have devised the all empowering budget!
Now this is not our first attempt at such measures. The other attempts have miserably failed within hours! We are now 2 days into it and so far so good. I am not sure how long it will last but if we want to have a second kid we need to be able to afford childcare and this will give us some insight.
I, of course, like to daydream about not being on a budget and having endless pots of gold at the end of my rainbow. This is why I play the lottery and , like my college roommate, get angry when I loose! If money were not an issue, I would be traveling the world at every opportunity.
If money were no object, what would you do or buy?
Now this is not our first attempt at such measures. The other attempts have miserably failed within hours! We are now 2 days into it and so far so good. I am not sure how long it will last but if we want to have a second kid we need to be able to afford childcare and this will give us some insight.
I, of course, like to daydream about not being on a budget and having endless pots of gold at the end of my rainbow. This is why I play the lottery and , like my college roommate, get angry when I loose! If money were not an issue, I would be traveling the world at every opportunity.
If money were no object, what would you do or buy?
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