Once in a while, we would take our family out to TGIF. Whenever we do so, we always go to www.couponcabin.com to get a TGIF discount coupon. The discount coupon gives you a free appetizer if your total order exceeds $15.00.

Our usual order is 2 kids meal (our youngest share with us) and a main course which both Mr Credit Card and I share. We also get our free appetizer. Our kids usual order a cheeseburger kids meal with french fries and a speghetti with tomato sauce, together with chocolate milk. As the portions are quite large, Mr Credit Card and I share a main course and we always try different appetizers.

We last went to TGIF last Friday and the bill came up to about $31.00, which is the usual amount. I left it to Mr Credit Card to pay the bill but knowing him, he would just have given the usual 15% tip on top of the $31.00 bill. I insisted that he give extra tips for the $8.00 appetizer that we got for free from the coupon. So he used his Amex Blue Cash to pay the $31.00 and we left an extra $6.00 in cash for the waiter, who was very nice to us. We figured that $4.50 for the normal tip plus $1.50 for the ‘appetizer’ that we got free was appropriate. If we had not used the coupon, our bill would have been about $39.00 and we would have paid $45.00 (with tips). So we still saved $8.00.

I wanted to write about this because I feel it is only ethical to give a tip on any ‘freebie’ you get from coupons to the person who served you. I’m sure there are lots of people who would have just given a tip based on the discounted price but I think that should tip based on what the total bill would have been without the discount.

Share your thoughts and comments if you feel differently.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 24th, 2007 at 1:45 am and is filed under Tips and Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.