It's All About the Money: Tipping, Tax, and Paying With Cash

In America, you get used to paying more than the price tag or the bill. It's ingrained in your brain from a young age to expect the tax. Because when your mom gives you a dollar and the price is 99 cents, that dollar will not be enough... That dang $1.05 price was the worst, right??

A penguin, a kiwi and 5 queens walk into a bar... in
someone's pocket.
Bad joke.
Their currency has people and birds all over it.
Photo by Erin Grigson
 

In the same way, as you got older, you realized when you went out to Perico's (Paris), or Pazzo's (Lexington), or Applebee's, you learned that you had to factor in the tip. If you're feeling generous, it'd be 20%. If the service was bad (or if you were broke), you tried to at least scrape up 10%. But you always knew to expect to pay more.

Coming here, shopping or eating out (not that I'm doing a whole lot of either what with not having a job) has become a learning experience.

First, you have to consider the value of a dollar here versus in America. The New Zealand Dollar would equal about 66 cents in America. Putting it differently, when I exchanged $1,000 U.S. Dollars, I received back about $1,440 New Zealand Dollars.

(As you might guess, the exchange rate is definitely working in my benefit right now.)

So when I get to a restaurant and I see that most items on the menu are around $20, I have to change my frame of mind. In America, that would be an expensive place to go. But that's about the norm here.

Then when you get the bill and it's high (or higher than I'm used to), you worry because then you have to add the - WAIT!

There isn't tipping here (or at least it's not expected in the vast majority of places), so the amount on the bill is the price you pay.

Happy wallet!

But wait... there's more.

Let's say we go shopping at the mall. We want to buy some clothes from Canterbury Clothing Company, also known as CCC. We find a really great pair of running shorts (also known here as stubbies). The price tag says $39.99.

Here's where it gets confusing:

While you won't be paying tax on that item, you also will never pay $39.99 - at least not in cash.

If you're using cash to pay in any store, be prepared to round to the ten.

I desperately wanted to get $100 bills so I could feel better
about making it rain... but I'm not complaining.
Photo by Erin Grigson

New Zealand currency only goes down to the 10 cent piece. After that you'll put those rounding skills to good use. So those shorts we wanted to buy will cost us $40.00 even... but only if you're paying in cash.

The good news for rounding is that it only happens with cash, so you'd still pay $39.99 with a card.

Here's another example. If we wanted a singlet (tank top) from that store and it was on sale for $14.94, we would only be paying $14.90 in cash, but it would still cost 14.94 on the card.

So there isn't tax, but you might be stuck paying up to 5 cents more than the price, but since they only have coins of 10 cents, just carry one in your pocket and you'll be covered.

And if you're really smart, you could work the system and pay with cash when it rounds down and card when it would round up.

But that could get to be a hassle.

I like that I finally have a really great reason to use something I learned in the 3rd grade.