To not give the postman a Christmas bung

Now I agree with this. My hairdresser owns the salon and has a nicer car and house than me so no tip. I did take her some hand cream on my last appointment before Xmas as a thank you.

I was also a bit weirded out that my new dog groomer (fully solo self employed, works from her home) had a very prominent tip jar on her counter. Why not just build the income you want in to the prices you charge rather than making people feel uncomfortable asking for tips?

There are so many people acting annoyingly, I’m convinced it’s Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer metaphorically hammering away at them to make them this way.

OP:

You could give the postman a Christmas treat, help anyone in any way you can, or offer a small monetary gift to whomever you like. Donating any amount to charities is also a great option. There’s no need to look for validation on Mumsnet—if you want to feel good, try AI platforms, which tend to be more encouraging than asking here, where people might judge harshly. AI can help find better outcomes for everyone without judgment. Use your common sense and skip the Mumsnet drama.

Exactly!

I was wondering if there were any Brummies on this thread !

My XMIL used to tell me that you had to tip the dustman or they wouldn't empty your bins full of Christmas wrapping etc.

Ours is only every 3 weeks and they always leave the bins right in front of my side gate so I can't open it.

Never occurred to me to do this TBH.

I've never given my postman any sort of tip/gift, and honestly, until reading this, it never occurred to me that people might!

Honestly, we've lived in this house 15 months now, and I've probably spoken to the postman 3 times, and one of those was the day we moved in, when he arrived with post as the removal men were coming in and out.

I'm quite friendly with my postie and he refused a tip, said he doesn't need it and I should keep it, so I did! He does work fantastically hard and always goes the extra mile, no pun intended! When we have replacement posties they're never as efficient. But yeah, I would give one if it would be accepted!

Postman folds most of my mail in half after asking him not to, or leaves post hanging out of the letter box, so not a chance of tipping.

We’ve always given the postie a card with a tenner in it but this year we haven’t had a regular one, and seem to get a different person delivering the post every day, so I probably won’t give anything this year. But this thread has reminded me that I should get a card and a tenner ready for the Evri driver.

I think they'd really appreciate anything you give them. I don't see why not. It's only a fiver.

But obviously if you don't want to just let your husband do it.

Who on earth has £50 to tip the Sainsbury delivery guy???

And why does the delivery driver get £50 whereas the guys in the warehouse, who might work much harder in a freezing environment to load up the vans, get nothing?

I appreciate the job the postman does but I don’t tip him. I also appreciate everyone else that keep life going all through the year, not just people like the hairdresser and the postman.

I don't think it really makes sense to tip people just based on their jobs, as many people will work hard jobs, but never interact with the public to receive anything. It does make sense to tip or give a box of chocolates to people who have gone out of their way to be helpful, so for some people that might be a tip for the postman and others might give a box of chocolates to their local pharmacy. I'm certainly not tipping the bin men anything after asking for more recycling bags two weeks in a row and not receiving any.

I give my postman a box of cholcaotes and 2 bottles of wine, he goes above and beyond for us. We live rurally and he always makes sure i get my parcels, as well he holds our post when away or put it in a safe space. They are run off their feet and deserve it all. I also give the couriers similar, them delivering stuff saves me so much time. If you can afford it then do it,

I don’t tip any of these people but if my husband wanted to I’d leave him to get on with it.

Not had a single bit of post in weeks, same as last year at Xmas and all my cards and letters went in the bin, never arrived even in January. Love my postie but no way would I consider giving them money! Bin men yes though never done it here. May do in the next house if they're good.

Well said! 👏

If you want to randomly tip people due to some arbitrary internal moral code thats entirely up to you but fuck right off with all this judgy, performative "you sound miserable", "but.... its Christmas", "its the decent thing to do" bull crap which is a mere thinly disguised "I'm better than YOU".

Not everyone can afford to hand out tenners to every random person they come across in December and some of us are decent and friendly and kind to people all year round without bragging about it on MN or social media in general.

Bragging about how much you tip some people but not others isnt making you sound like the mother Theresa you think it does. It actually makes you sound like someone who wants praise lavished on them for giving someone something which makes you sound like a bit of a dick actually.

i wouldn’t tip our bin people, they show up once a fortnight, leave the bins wherever they want and most of the time leave rubbish in the bottom of the bin, and the postman changes every week, they only do 2/3 days a week round here, some weeks not at all.

are they allowed to take the tip? always thought they wasn’t, Tesco especially

We give ours a tenner in a card. Although, DH is a postie in the local delivery office and when we moved here a few years ago, he felt a bit weird about giving a tip because they had been colleagues for over a decade at that point 😅

The only other person I tip is the woman who does my lashes. She's so bloody good at her job, I get about three months out of one lash lift so I don't have to book in very often. Having had some seriously bad beauty treatments elsewhere over the years, I don't mind showing my appreciation of her work!

My Evri driver is exceptional so I have bought her a tin of biscuits and a £20 voucher. Postman doesn't engage so nothing for him. When my son was at Uni and had a delivery driver job for Sainsburys, he would be made up if someone gave him a tip. He once got £50 - how lovely! And so unexpected. Some people are just lovely, not braggy.

Not the postman/woman - because we never have the same person two days running. But yes to window cleaner and the milkman. Bin Men usually get a tub of sweets!

I've just given our lovely post lady £20. She's cheerful, reliable and always leaves our parcels in a safe place.

Maybe it also depends on whether you have a regular one or not, obviously you wouldn't want to tip all of them if you have lots of different ones!

We live in a small village and it's usually her who does our deliveries. She always seems thrilled, which is nice and it makes me happy.

I've never given posties or binmen a tip. I used to give the paper boy a fiver in a card when I had papers delivered.