Hi Emily,

It’s not usual nor appropriate to tip medical professionals. The price they charge for their services (paid by the patient and/or the insurance company) is their fee and no tip is expected or required.

Hello Riley,

If the people helping you locally are the same people all the time, you could tip them monthly. You don’t have to tip on every visit, or every occasion that you see them.

The amount to tip is discretionary. A 10%-15% tip for a massage is common; so if you tip $50 for a $400 peso massage, that would be reasonable.

It’s not common to pay tips to the service people doing jobs as part of their arrangement with the condo association (e.g. pool, garden, etc.) but you could tip them occasionally if you feel you would like to.

A good way to express your appreciation is to give the people who help you regularly a ‘Christmas bonus’ tip — see the link below about the ‘Aguinaldo’ for details. Buy a small pack of Christmas cards and put your tip into the card (something between $200 and $500 pesos is probably fine) and give sometime between December 10 and December 20 to each of the people you see/help you regularly throughout the year. They will sincerely appreciate that gesture.

Details are here about the ‘Aguinaldo’
https://www.mexperience.com/the-christmas-aguinaldo-in-mexico/

Could not agree more! I do appreciate your comments. My husband and I feel the very same way. We find more appreciation and gratitude for tips in Mexico than you will ever find in the US. If you can afford to vacation or live in Mexico from the US you can afford to tip as you are contributing to their ability to feed their families and their livelihood while we live like royalty compared to living in the US. Thank you for speaking up:)

Mexican here. I tip 10 pesos if they do something more than just pumping the gas. If they don’t, maybe 5 pesos or nothing. I live in Monterrey (one of the most expensive cities in Mexico).

Definitely. 5-10 pesos would have been more than enough. You could have also gotten away with a smile and some basic politeness (i.e., flush the toilet and leave it as you found it).

I couldn’t agree with you more James. Thank you for clarifying my thoughts exactly On the previous comment

Absolutely! Put it right in the server’s hand and you are in the grace game. Plus you get the smile in return. It feels good to help others; social reciprocity is a built-in appliance for the human psyche. ~ Jan Gregory

Hi, Trim, friendly tip from English teacher: i.e. is for a definition (Everyone needs sustenance, i.e., food.) E.g,, is for an “egg-sample” (I enjoy fruit, e.g., pears, apples, bananas, etc.) Even at my age (i.e., old), I still go to Google several times a day to check on a proper spelling, a point of grammar, a punctuation question, or the like. We’re so fortunate to be able to do this!

Tips are part of the trading culture in Mexico–one that Mexicans and foreign visitors and residents actively participate in. Most Mexicans *do* tip, and not to “round up the bill to save change.” Tips are prevelant in the US, too, where some places imply that nothing less than 20% will suffice. To say that tips are a “scam tax on (American) foreigners” demonstrates a deep misunderstanding of the situation.