A Kid's Life: All About Tipping

All About Tipping

By Martin Takigawa

If you go to a restaurant or diner with your friends, remember to save enough money for a tip. A standard tip is about 15% of the bill. Don't be intimidated by the math! If you're lucky enough to live in an area where the local tax is 7 or 8 percent, just double the tax.

Here's another easy way to rough out 15%:

First figure out 10%, which is a snap. For instance, if your bill is $4.79, ten percent is about 48 cents. 10% of 11.39 is about $1.14, and so on.

Once you have 10%, just divide that number by two to get 5%. Add those two numbers together and you've got your 15% tip.

For example, your bill is $7.5l. Ten percent of that is about 75 cents. Half of .75 is 38 cents. Add those together to get $1.13 for a fifteen percent tip.

Since pennies irritate waiters, always round up to the nearest five; in this case, $1.15. The tip doesn't have to be exactly 15% - just approximately that amount.

Of course, you can cheat and use a calculator - but every boy should know how to figure 15%!

Waiters aren't the only ones who expect a tip. Plan on tipping cab drivers, barbers and delivery people, too.

Our question: What's the worst thing that ever happened to you in a restaurant? Give us your answer and win a free Kid's Life newsletter!

The book has a lot of other stuff about money -- including how to earn it, spend it and invest it!

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