When last did you tip the petrol attendant well?
i was hanging out with my mate Wayne yesterday [lots of great stories begin with that very line!] and we got to talking.
He told me about something a mutual friend of ours [the incredible Linda Martindale] had told him a while back…
“Always fill your car at the same petrol station. Preferably with the same person. And tip them well.”
The most valuable tip
Tipping can feel like a bit of a mission in South Africa. We tip waiters and car guards and hairdressers and… um, who else? But it can add up, especially the car guards, who tend to be informal and often appear miraculously from nowhere just as you are about to leave a place. The having-change-in-your-wallet-or-car situation can be a constant headache. But we don’t tip cashiers/tellers, do we? Do we tip those people? i don’t think so. They get a big smile and a greeting.
But back to petrol attendants. When you realise just how much they get paid [Urgh, i just did the Google and it is not great] then it is worth investing a little more in their lives.
So Linda’s idea about returning to the same garage and tipping [preferably the same person] well is an amazing one. But beyond just being a good thing to do, there is the added benefit of relationship.
We always fill up at the Caltex near our house because we get uCount rewards if we use our Standard Bank cards there. But what this has meant is that we tend to know most of the men who work there.
The other day i went to fill up the car and realised that i had left my wallet at home. Fortunately it was before he had put the petrol in. So i told him what had happened and that i would go and get my wallet and come back and he said he would put the petrol in and then i could do that.
Which, for the record, i didn’t let him do, because you never know what could happen on the way home. But i think it was the level of trust and relationship built up over the past few years where this guy felt he knew me enough to trust me in that way.
For a lot of the men and women whose jobs involve pumping petrol in South Africa they will never own their own cars. As in never in their whole lives. It must be super challenging [dehumanising even?] to spend your life filling other people’s vehicles knowing you may never have one of your own. The very least we can do is be friendly and start building up a relationship and make sure that we tip well to let them know we see them and we value them and the work that they do.
Fill up with petrol well!
Some additional thoughts
Linda Martindale: Thanks Brett, yep, I see adding extra money to the cost of my petrol as one of the (teeny) acts of restitution – if I can afford to have a car and fill it, I feel I can add R50 or so to the bill. Which, sadly, is a few hours of pay — petrol attendants get such low wages, and as we know, had many had the opportunity, would have been lawyers, business owners and entrepreneurs, doctors, teachers … Thanks for the reminder to keep relationships going in this way, as well as moving money.
Corina, a friend, reminded me that this can work in other places as well:
Corina Anne Ash: Yes!! We try to do this within our suburb and through a variation of places – where we shop, get petrol, have coffee, eat out, park, etc, etc! I don’t think we’ve been taught how important it is to focus our resources into our local economy and essentially, the people keeping our suburbs running. There are so many opportunities to do more good and be better, thanks for this reminder 🙌
Just too many people to pay. The parking attendant, the car guard, the beggar, the big issue guy… Too much. Don’t do it anymore. Only social workers or NGO workers have money these days. Liberals. The real workers don’t have free time or money.
Thanks Albert. What do you mean by ‘the real workers’ though? The majority of the people in the circles i tend to hang out in have money and it just depends on what they choose to spend it on – so quality coffees [and lot of them], trips overseas, holiday houses, eating out… the list goes on.
This is obviously not a reflection of the majority of people in the country and so i am not suggesting that those who genuinely are struggling should be doing this, but the kinds of people who are in my blog and Facebook space have the resources and i am trying to challenge how they use them.
Brett “Fish”
Hi again,
Well definitely not me has money. I work 6 days a week and barely scrape R20k. Rent is R10k so that leaves R10k. Car is 2k. Insurance R2k. Petrol 1000. food 2000. that leaves 3000 for whatever else.
How does anyone cope these days? Would like to see a budget discussion.
Al
i would suggest the ‘R3000 for whatever else’ is more than the majority of people in the country live off, so there’s that. What if you took a tenth of that [R300] every month and found a worthwhile person or cause to donate to – or two things for R150 each – the more people who do that the more that stuff begins to add up and become significant…
But beyond money there is time and skills and networks – so many things we have to offer…
I mean a lawyer getting R500 000 per month is not a real worker. Neither is the government of cape town who get 250 000 a month! the top 12 get that! crasy hey?
Then Xanthea goes to clean up physically a place of litter. She gets paid R12 000 for the day! The woekers get like 300. SO UNFAIR.
Please expose these crooks.
Absolutely agree with you that so much out there is ridiculously unfair. Those salaries are insane!
You know how hard it is for a white oke in this country? I’m sure you know. To pay workers as I run a garden service, is expensive. sometimes they guys don’t pitch and you have to pay them if they sick. So its money out all the time. I make about 30 shifts a week but then its petrol, lawnmower repairs, weedeaters it adds up. I think on a good month I can pay myself the full R20k after deductions paye and company taxes. If i go under then have no idea what id do. I pay my guys well and they seem happy. Its pretty rustig work as we outdoors and some properties have us for a few days in Bishops court or Rondebosch mansions. R20k salary I could cut it if if lived elsewhere but rondebosch the average flat is 10k. What do you do?
Lets do some kind of article on what jobs and salaries people do and how they cope?
i am married which makes things a little easier in terms of money in at times although in the last five years for a lot of the time it’s been a lot of odd jobs – freelance writing and exam scribing and workshop facilitating to bring in money here and there but we have always managed to have some to give to others first [we support a person and a family and an organisation] and a lot of it is about the choices we make so we seldom ever go out to restaurants, we live as simply as we can, we make use of deals and discounts and specials and do some collective meals with friends which saves cooking time and money…
That article sounds great but most people don’t like talking about money they receive [probably because of how they spend it]…
That 3000 left over is more like 2000. Then some months are poor work, so I have to dip into that. So its money for car repairs, appliance repair or something that goes haywire. rent goes up 10 percent again soon so maybe i’ll have to relocate or buy a combi or mobile home. I know some guys who do that and it works for them, but you do need a campsite or spot to setup. I’ll of course give a tip now and then so do infact do that but not for all. Would you say its better to give R2 tips to lots or a single big tip to one or two people? Also to budget for the dentist or doc. So definitely not a miser but I think i’m driven by fear of the streets. When I see white guys at the robots I think it could be me in 3 months. If my bakkie broke down or a medical problem.
Now Xanthea and JP are the city council couple who together take in R500 000 per month! As piublic servants they get that? Wow!!!! A friend told me this last week and I did not believe it. I wake up in the rain during winter and sukkle to make ends meet even dometimes doing part-time plumbing if the homeowner needs it (outside pipes). So what is she doing and him to get what is it R12 000 per day?????!!!!??? Surely this is a scam and they can’t be getting that? If they are then the system is way corrupt.
I know some people work Mr D at night and get R300 a night. Its not much, but its something. Uber eats is a bit more at R500. I was doing the Mr D at one stage, but its not profitable with a bakkie.
I have 1 Malawian gentleman and 2 local Xhosa guys and they live in the camps. They work 2 other jobs too and on weekend. I think he said he gets about 8000.
What sort of jobs are there where people can get quick money? Legal of course.
Jobs jobs is the key.
You know that you can purchase 100s of acres of land inland for even one million. If you could get 500 people to join in at 2000 each, we could setup a commune with each house on an acre. I think small new towns is the answer.
Look for farms for sale and make it happen dude. 500 people could easily buy one and we live there.
Have a awesome day and thanks for the chat.
We live in Diep River and pay closer to R8000 for rent. So might be a case of looking around. An extra one or two thousand a month goes a long way. We actually have been looking at farm spaces in Philippi where there are some really nice farms and we are considering the idea of a number of people living on the same big property but in our own spaces so little towns like you said – might be the way forward – money together definitely seems to go further than money alone – i guess a halfway alternative for you might be finding someone to live with in a two-bedroom and so you each pay a little less and have a bigger space to share – but it is harder to find the right people to live with, especially if you’re a bit older [easier when you’re a college student!]
One of the giving things we do is via a group system called Common Change where a group of friends all donate to a common fund every month and then we use that money to meet the needs of people we know – so again the principle of combining money and being able to do more – have seen some amazing needs met over the last year or two…
Great chatting and good luck to you
brett “Fish”
Please tell us about this farm idea. There are so many couples out there who struggle to pay even R10 000 per month rent. If we could get 10 couples together, we could pay say R70 000 per month and have a small holding or farm and work it, growing vegetables and crops.
Look at this website: https://www.privateproperty.co.za/farms-for-sale/western-cape/boland/ceres/ceres/929
This shows you that you can buy farms in Ceres (just an example) for a few hundred thousand rand. These farms are often 100’s of hectares so huge in size!
There are other places too with 16 houses on (probably used for storage in the past).
So worth a look into. A small commune where everyone paid R30 000 could get you 10 hectares on a big 100 hectare farm. Or a similar type setup.
Big city living is overrated and expensive! We are just conditioned to believe it is normal.
If you could do a blog piece on communes or farms, get people thinking along those lines. It could be interesting.
All the best,
Greg
Yeah, it’s pretty much as you’ve said with the idea that we can do more together than we can do by ourselves and then being careful about who you decide to do community with – we definitely would want diversity in our space and so definitely not looking for an all-white space [how boring] but at the moment are in conversation with various people and keeping our eyes open, possibly for a five year period rather than right now but we will see what makes it self available…
We did go and take a look at a farm in Philippi a few months ago…