H.H posted:

I broke up with my girlfriend after months of arguing over one thing that seems petty - tipping.

I believe in always tipping at least 15% unless service is exceptionally bad, and will tip as much as I feel like. She believed 15% was only for completely perfect above average service.

Every time we went out to eat we would argue over this. I bought the food and believed the tip was my right. She would always grab some of the money I left and discretely put it in her purse.

The final breakup happened after an excellent meal at a BBQ place. The waiter was awesome - got us refills before we had to ask, explained things on the menu to the both of us, and even let my girlfriend try the different types of BBQ sauce to see what she liked most. At the end the bill came and I planned to tip really generously.

My girlfriend goes "That guy sucked, he kept hovering over us way too much" and wanted to leave just 2 bucks (on a 70 dollar bill). I calmly explained that he was just helping us out and deserved a good tip, and left him 30 dollars. As we got up to leave she tried to grab the 20. I caught her, told her to put it back, and we left in silence.

On the ride home she didn't say a word. At home she went right up to bed and locked the door behind her. I slept on the couch. The next day I told her why I felt the way I did (grew up poor, worked a lot of jobs like that, barely made ends meet and struggled to make it through school and better myself). She just laughed in my face.