This Woman’s Hack For Making More Tip Money On Valentine’s Day Will Make You Laugh Out Loud

People often use Valentine’s Day as a chance to splurge on their significant other, but one waitress figured out a (low key amazing) way to spend the day making a little extra money for herself. Twitter user Ellie shared her pretty brilliant plan to make more tips while working on Valentine’s Day: fake a break-up for few extra pity bucks. She even took the plan a step further, saying that she’d tell customers she had taken another waiter’s shift after her own Valentine’s Day plans fell through. Equal parts devious and genius.

Twitter was apparently a fan of the plan — by publication time, more than 315,000 people had liked Ellie’s tweet, and her initial post had more than 800 comments, many of which were from waiters sharing the idea with fellow Twitter users in the service industry. 2018 should be the year of friends helping friends make that money with arguably harmless schemes.

Listen, until we all agree that paying people a livable wage is a good idea and get rid of a system that can be influenced by personal bias and the whim of a crabby customer, I am all for this bold and beautiful plan. Make that money, Ellie. Dry your fake tears with those extra dollars. Sob dramatically as you deposit them into your bank account.

Of course, not everyone was a fan of the plan. One Twitter user chimed in saying that her boyfriend actually had dumped her. To which Ellie responded, “Omg I'm so sorry babe!! DM me he's trash.” I repeat, this is 2018: the year we make our money and help our friends and fellow womxn.

Excuse me while I wax sentimental for a hot second, but isn’t it kind of beautiful that this interaction, these two simple tweets, unfolded the way they did? No one felt the need to go on the defensive. There was no apparent intention to shame some else. Just a genuine, supportive interaction between two internet strangers. Believe it or not, sometimes the internet can be good and nice.

Lest you feel a little too hopeful, though, another Twitter user decided to respond to this interaction with a sarcastic meme that, as you might imagine, fell pretty flat. Usually, I am all for a sarcastic meme, especially when it involves Kermit the Frog, but this one was trying to taint a nice moment. The meme in question is essentially a joke about guys not being intimidated by the idea of a woman calling a person out for their bad dating behavior. Thankfully, Twitter swiftly responded to the meme with a resounding, “Nope.”

“Jeeze, dudes really hate it when girls support each other,” one person tweeted. That’s a pretty succinct summary of the situation.

This is the obligatory part in the piece where I remind you to tip your service workers. Be kind to your waitstaff. Don’t stiff on the tip. Again, there are legitimate reasons why tipping should be banned, but your next restaurant bill isn’t the best or most effective place to take that stand. Between 15 to 20 percent is about how much you should tip a waiter. Also, maybe show your waiter this tweet to help them hustle a few extra dollars in tips. Honestly, they probably deserve it.

Most importantly did Ellie’s plan work? It appears so. According to a follow-up tweet, she made more than double what she usually makes in tips, and the internet was there to applaud her for it. "I made $153 on a night I usually make about $70," Ellie tweeted, adding "I should do this more often."

Happy Valentine’s Day, indeed.