Here's a tip: 20% is the new 15%

It's OK to keep it simple

The more folks we turn to for help, the more tipping situations we face. It used to be that eating out and travel presented the bulk of opportunities to tip, but now many people have fleets of people at home and at work to consider: babysitters, housekeepers, personal trainers, dog walkers, parking lot attendants, food deliverers, etc. Keeping the rules straight can be tough.

"When tipping is confusing," Post said, "it leads people not to do what they should do."

Many regular service providers, like housekeepers, are traditionally tipped once a year at the holidays with a bonus that equals the cost of one or two visits. Others, like hairdressers, are tipped during each visit and then again at the end of the year.

Furthermore, one visit to a hairdresser can produce a multitude of opportunities to tip: There might be one person who shampoos, another who colors, a third who cuts, perhaps a fourth who does the blow-dry. If you're lucky enough to lounge away an afternoon at the spa, you may face a locker room attendant, a towel attendant, a pool attendant and one or more therapists offering services.

That's why Post recommends simplifying the process whenever possible. Just add a 15% tip to your final bill at the hairdresser or spa and ask the checkout person to make sure the tips are distributed appropriately.

Other guidelines can help reduce confusion. If a person is considered a professional, such as a teacher or an attorney, you don't tip. If the person works on your home or vehicle, there's usually no need to tip. But if a person provides you a personal service, a tip is probably customary. When in doubt, ask the service provider what his or her other customers usually tip.

About those tip jars

These proliferating little buckets don't irritate me as much as they do other people. Post is among those who chafe at seeing them pop up everywhere from coffee shops to the corner bodega.

A tip jar indicates the folks behind the counter don't rely on tips to survive, which means your contribution is entirely optional. At some places, like my local caffeine station, I'm delighted to pop in a buck for their consistently good, cheerful service. At other spots, I just ignore them.

One thing I won't do is skimp on tipping out of a false sense of economy. I feel strongly that if you can't afford to tip properly, then you need to curtail the activity that leads to the tipping. In the years when money was tight, I saved by eating out infrequently, going to cheap places to have my hair cut and taking public transportation rather than taxis. I didn't try to save by stiffing the folks who provided me with services I opted to purchase.

One last tip

Some of you will doubtless want to argue about the role of tipping in U.S. society. Feel free; such debates are one of the reasons the Your Money message board exists.

Just don't e-mail me with supposed "definitions" for the word tip.

"Tip" is not an acronym for anything; it doesn't stand for "to improve performance" or "to insure promptness." The word tip, as currently defined, was in use by the mid-18th century, long before acronyms came into widespread use during the 1930s and 1940s. (Think of the classic World War II acronym SNAFU, for "situation normal -- all 'fouled' up.")

And even if "tip" were an acronym, "to insure promptness" is the wrong use of the word "insure"; to be correct, the word used would be "ensure."

There. End of lesson. No need to send me a tip.

Liz Pulliam Weston's latest book, "Easy Money: How to Simplify Your Finances and Get What You Want Out of Life," is now available. Columns by Weston, the Web's most-read personal-finance writer and winner of the 2007 Clarion Award for online journalism, appear every Monday and Thursday, exclusively on MSN Money. She also answers reader questions on the Your Money message board.

Updated Dec. 2, 2008

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