I was sitting with my family in a restaurant, and I could tell after ordering that the waitress had sized us up and figured she wasn't going to get much of a tip from us. We were using a coupon (two coupons, to be exact) and all of us had requested water as our drinks. We said no thanks to any appetizers.
We may rarely go out to eat without a coupon and we may drink water instead of soda most of the time, but we nearly always tip 20 percent of what the bill would have been, before any discounts. Even if the waiter or waitress isn't very attentive, we still fork over 15 percent. There are just some areas that we don't skimp. We have agreed that if we can't afford to give the wait staff a decent tip, we can't afford to go out to eat. Back at the restaurant, we tidied up our table, left a nice cash tip and slowly got ready to leave. On our way out, the waitress actually chased us down and told us to have a great evening and thanked us for coming in. The best part? She handed us some more coupons to use next time.