Texas Waitress 2,000 Tip?

[micky]

www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/texas-waitress-receives-2-000-christmas-tip-but-restaurant-can-t-give-her-a-penny/ar-BB1byy4X?li=BBorjTa

Because I have no where else to post my ponderings on this one. So she "almost" got a $2,000 tip. She's a waitress and I assume money is very tight. She also has two small children, her thoughts on the windfall:

"I just opened it and started crying. I was like 'oh my god! My kids! I'm going to spend it all on my kids,'" said Bauer who has two boys, a 2-year-old and a 5-month-old. "I was like oh my god. I've never had a Christmas where I've been able to like splurge on them."

She was going to spend $2k on a 2 year old and 5 month old Anyone wonder if the person that tried to leave the tip is scratching their head. I don't spend $2k on grown ups or myself. How about spend $500 on the kids (still a lot) and put the rest into savings for, I don't know, a rainy day, an emergency. Am I just a judgey grinch? I know when one leaves charity for another that you don't think about how that money will be spent but I doubt the gifter on this one thought it would ALL go to two children under the age of 2 who won't remember this Christmas two weeks after it's over? They probably thought they would be helping her improve her lot in life, ease her money stress a bit? Anything but blowing it all on gifts for babies? It must be the cold weather and I'm just crabby but this one really perplexed me.

[Lizard Queen]

This is why people don't have two nickels to rub together. They think blowing money on crap for their kids is noble, but constantly scrambling for money because you're blowing it all on stupid stuff causes more harm than good.

[sesfw]

My guess is that was a first, shocked reaction. 'I have funds for the holidays'.

As hard as she works, I'm sure common sense would take over and other things would get done.

 It's sad she can't get the funds right now ........ but maybe this will slow things down a bit.

[thyme4change]

Dec 2, 2020 11:39:37 GMT -5 micky said:

www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/texas-waitress-receives-2-000-christmas-tip-but-restaurant-can-t-give-her-a-penny/ar-BB1byy4X?li=BBorjTa

Because I have no where else to post my ponderings on this one. So she "almost" got a $2,000 tip. She's a waitress and I assume money is very tight. She also has two small children, her thoughts on the windfall:

"I just opened it and started crying. I was like 'oh my god! My kids! I'm going to spend it all on my kids,'" said Bauer who has two boys, a 2-year-old and a 5-month-old. "I was like oh my god. I've never had a Christmas where I've been able to like splurge on them."

She was going to spend $2k on a 2 year old and 5 month old Anyone wonder if the person that tried to leave the tip is scratching their head. I don't spend $2k on grown ups or myself. How about spend $500 on the kids (still a lot) and put the rest into savings for, I don't know, a rainy day, an emergency. Am I just a judgey grinch? I know when one leaves charity for another that you don't think about how that money will be spent but I doubt the gifter on this one thought it would ALL go to two children under the age of 2 who won't remember this Christmas two weeks after it's over? They probably thought they would be helping her improve her lot in life, ease her money stress a bit? Anything but blowing it all on gifts for babies? It must be the cold weather and I'm just crabby but this one really perplexed me.

Maybe that includes food, clothing, new car seats, dr appointments, furniture and then toys. Getting a bed frame and a brand new mattress for the two year old would actually be a really reasonable way to spend the money. And maybe after she spends $500 on clothes and toys she would have some clarity. Maybe she doesn't know what it costs to have an indulgent Christmas.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

It's all a moot point, she gets nothing.  The restaurant can't process that large a tip, however I'm sure they'd be able to process that large a tab.

This stinks.

That being said, I don't understand the logic of those who will spend every penny NOW and not think about the future.  My steps are like this and TD and I have been dealing with the fallout.  

[TheOtherMe]

My guess is she knows nothing about money management.  She's been living on her small wage plus tips and it takes all of it to exist.

[haapai]

I'm much more focused on her employer's inability to process a tip that large and how silent and unhelpful they have been than what she briefly thought of doing with it. 

The way that I see it, she just got stiffed $2K (gross).  Why are we dumping filth on her head for what she wanted to do with it and ignoring the fact that she never got it? 

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Dec 2, 2020 17:26:57 GMT -5 haapai said:

I'm much more focused on her employer's inability to process a tip that large and how silent and unhelpful they have been than what she briefly thought of doing with it. 

The way that I see it, she just got stiffed $2K (gross).  Why are we dumping filth on her head for what she wanted to do with it and ignoring the fact that she never got it? 

I agree.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Ah YM.  Where we can take one phrase in a click bait article and extrapolate an entire woman's life, judge her for it and then bask in our financial superiority.


YM you never disappoint.

[lynnerself]

I hate what the restaurant did. Is there a valid reason? Would they have to pay the credit fee on the $2000 charge, but they made no income on the tip.? Still, we're talking what, about $60?

[Opti]

Dec 2, 2020 11:39:37 GMT -5 micky said:

www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/texas-waitress-receives-2-000-christmas-tip-but-restaurant-can-t-give-her-a-penny/ar-BB1byy4X?li=BBorjTa

Because I have no where else to post my ponderings on this one. So she "almost" got a $2,000 tip. She's a waitress and I assume money is very tight. She also has two small children, her thoughts on the windfall:

"I just opened it and started crying. I was like 'oh my god! My kids! I'm going to spend it all on my kids,'" said Bauer who has two boys, a 2-year-old and a 5-month-old. "I was like oh my god. I've never had a Christmas where I've been able to like splurge on them."

She was going to spend $2k on a 2 year old and 5 month old Anyone wonder if the person that tried to leave the tip is scratching their head. I don't spend $2k on grown ups or myself. How about spend $500 on the kids (still a lot) and put the rest into savings for, I don't know, a rainy day, an emergency. Am I just a judgey grinch? I know when one leaves charity for another that you don't think about how that money will be spent but I doubt the gifter on this one thought it would ALL go to two children under the age of 2 who won't remember this Christmas two weeks after it's over? They probably thought they would be helping her improve her lot in life, ease her money stress a bit? Anything but blowing it all on gifts for babies? It must be the cold weather and I'm just crabby but this one really perplexed me.

Some people are like that, but let's hope that's her emotional response now, not what she actually will do in the future. If she does not spend it all at once, hopefully her desire to survive past Christmas for her and her kids, will kick in. Haven't read the link yet, so this may not apply to her. For some people in the service industry they deal with very wealthy people who spend $2,000 or more on their kids for Christmas. Nostaglia is huge on radio stations and TV right now. Maybe she just wants to give her kids one of those TV Xmases she sees.

But again, what you say in the heat of a windfall and what you actually do when the camera and co-workers are gone are unlikely to fully match. Hopefuly some reason will kick in. With a two year old and a five month old, its not like there were many years of Christmases to angst over. Two at the outside for one kid. Emotional people. 

[Tennesseer]

Hopefully, the customer will come back with the tip money in cash for the server.

[Opti]

Dec 2, 2020 18:12:27 GMT -5 lynnerself said:

I hate what the restaurant did. Is there a valid reason? Would they have to pay the credit fee on the $2000 charge, but they made no income on the tip.? Still, we're talking what, about $60?

I would think they would have to pay the fee. The contract with the processors is generally a flat monthly fee plus a percentage. I doubt that there is an exclusion for certain CC transactions, but IDK. We always get a few stories this time of year with waiters w/ small children getting big tips.

[Opti]

Dec 2, 2020 18:09:45 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

Ah YM.  Where we can take one phrase in a click bait article and extrapolate an entire woman's life, judge her for it and then bask in our financial superiority.


YM you never disappoint.

And why I find bickering P&M more honest and safer to post.

[Opti]

Dec 2, 2020 16:03:08 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

It's all a moot point, she gets nothing.  The restaurant can't process that large a tip, however I'm sure they'd be able to process that large a tab.

This stinks.

That being said, I don't understand the logic of those who will spend every penny NOW and not think about the future.  My steps are like this and TD and I have been dealing with the fallout.  

Odds are its restaurant specific sw and it limits tips to 500 or less to combat fraud. (I tried to get a job with a bakery/restaurant that was looking into updating their sw and tieing it in to inventory and restaurant mgmt. Lots of stuff out there and various small companies that sell bundled solutions to restaurants, etc.)

If the guy really did own a restaurant, I'm surprised he didn't adjust the tip down to say $499, and then come back with cash or write a check to her. Odds are in the heat of the moment he wanted to do this, maybe he no longer feels as compelled?

[dannylion]

You know, the woman never specifically said she would spend the entire amount on Christmas for her kids.  She made a statement that she would "spend it all" on her kids.  Then in what was reported as an apparently separate comment, she stated that she could now splurge on Christmas for her kids.  The reporter inserted a descriptive comment between those two statements, which might be evidence that they were, indeed, entirely separate thoughts.  It is possible that she said one right after the other, thereby offering evidence that they are closely connected, but it is also possible that they were separated by some other statements that were not considered newsworthy by the reporter and were therefore not quoted.  She did not specifically state that she intended to spend all the money on Christmas gifts.  That is an assumption being made on the basis of the limited information available.  Of course she could have meant that, but we don't know that for sure because there is insufficient evidence provided in the article.  

While it is easy to jump to the conclusion that she has such poor money management skills that spending all the money on Christmas gifts (which many are probably assuming would be toys) would seem like a good way to use this windfall, it would be just as easy to conclude that her immediate reaction of "I'm going to spend it all on my kids" simply meant she likely recalled her long mental list of unmet practical needs regarding her kids followed by the thought that Christmas is near and realizing that she can now do more than she has ever been able to do for them.  We have no idea what dollar amount translates to "splurge" in her mind.  All of it?  Maybe; maybe not.  We don't have enough information to know for sure.  

In any event, she may not have any windfall about which to make decisions.  The fact that we are speculating on what she plans to do with it says more about us than it does about her.  

[bookkeeper]

I think servers already pay the 3% convenience fee on the tips they receive, rather than the restaurant.

This is why I try to tip in cash, it all goes directly where I intended.

[gs11rmb]

Dec 2, 2020 19:48:47 GMT -5 bookkeeper said:

I think servers already pay the 3% convenience fee on the tips they receive, rather than the restaurant.

This is why I try to tip in cash, it all goes directly where I intended.

That's really shitty.

[micky]

I guess my post wasn't super clear. I wasn't trying to disparage her. It was more an observation about certain bad instincts about money and that in my head for the first thought to be "splurge on Christmas" for two children under 2 just struck me as sad and why sometimes people can't get out of where they are in life. My dad always said "money doesn't solve money problems" is what I carry around, that you can always outspend what you earn and still be broke. I just thought it was an interesting look inside how some view money and in this case, what they would do with a windfall as my first instinct would be "put it away for an emergency or rainy day" and this person's was to spend it. You are all right, maybe she meant she would spend it on doctor's visits, car seats, all very practical stuff but that wasn't how the article portrayed her reaction. I agree it's sad she won't get it regardless because her employer couldn't figure it out (I don't really understand that part either).

[HoneyBBQ]

Someone will start a gofund me for her and she'll get 20,000$.

[thyme4change]

Dec 3, 2020 12:40:10 GMT -5 HoneyBBQ said:

Someone will start a gofund me for her and she'll get 20,000$.

Then her Christmas will be super awesome. I see the PS5 for her 8 month old seeming like a necessity. 🤪

[Deleted]

Dec 3, 2020 12:40:10 GMT -5 HoneyBBQ said:

Someone will start a gofund me for her and she'll get 20,000$.

Here you go.  She only has $50 so far.  Whoever started it kept it "modest" with a $3k goal.


2000 tip