I always tip, and unless the service is bad, stick with the 20% rule. I don’t hesitate to leave a little extra if the service was better than expected, or if I have my kids with me and they leave the table messier than usual. And by messy I mean extra used napkins, straw wrappers, crayons and coloring pages supplied by the restaurant, etc. If they spill something or drop things on the floor, I don’t expect the server to deal with that.
For a haircut, I give a standard tip of $5. I don’t go to an expensive salon and the hair cut is always very simple. I give the same tip when my kids get their hair cut, even though it is cheaper, because it’s more difficult. Cutting a 5 year old’s hair must be a real challenge.
Until I met my husband, I never thought about tipping people like movers, tour guides, or other assorted people. When he’s not home and I have to tip a delivery person (other than the pizza dude), I obsess over the amount. I don’t want to be stingy, but I don’t want to be extravagant either. The first couple of times we used some kind of service that my husband felt I should tip for, but I didn’t, I felt terrible. Thank God for cell phones, because now I can call my husband and get his opinion if I really have no idea what an appropriate tip would be.
Slightly random story… When we were on vacation last week, the one thing I splurged on was a horseback ride with my daughter. We had a guide from the stable who took us on an hour-long ride, no other riders. He was really nice and went out of his way to be friendly and tell us all about the scenery and wildlife we saw. Toward the end of the ride, I suddenly realized that I would probably be expected to tip him, and all I had in my wallet was a $20 and a couple of singles. I gave him the $20, because the only other option was to seriously undertip him. I don’t know if that was too much or what, but I really need to start planning ahead for these things. :(