After the expenses of the holiday season, many of us struggle to make ends meet in January.
But one teenager has gone viral for his bizarre attempt to cut costs.
Instead of tipping his waiter, the teen presented them with an Amazon gift card.
Twenty-one-year-old Kaitlyn Lomera from California posted a video of the incident on her TikTok, where she goes by the username @kaittwest.
In the clip, she shows her 17-year-old brother Gustavo in a restaurant handing over a $25 Amazon gift card and placing it on top of the bill.
"He asked if he could tip with an Amazon gift card," read the overlay text on the video.
"Holidays left us #broke," she captioned the clip.
Lombera gave some more details about what happened in an interview with Fox News.
She explained that she and Gustavo were out for dinner with their older sister Ashley. When it came to paying the bill, Ashley decided to cover it for her two younger siblings.
"My brother wanted to contribute somehow, so he offered to tip with the Amazon gift card," Lombera said. "Our waiter was super nice, we loved him…so my brother thought a $25 gift would be a good tip."
However, the waiter laughed when Gustavo presented him with the gift card - so Ashley ended up tipping on her card instead.
Since being posted last week, the video has already racked up over 625,600 views and over 1,800 comments. Some users pointed out that, though he meant well, Gustavo replacing a tip with a gift card doesn't much help servers.
"I didn’t know that Amazon cards [paid] rent now," one user wrote.
"You can’t pay your rent or bills with an Amazon gift card. Would you be ok with your job giving you an Amazon gift card instead of a paycheck?" another added.
However, the comments were also full of people jumping to his defense - many of them hospitality workers themselves.
"As a waitress I would love it ! Lol $25 that’s more than 20% too," one wrote.
"I’m a bartender. I WOULD HAVE LOVED THAT AS A TIP!!!" another agreed.
"You can get toiletries and food on amazon too, if you don't want to buy just "stuff". It's a pretty universal tip," a third pointed out.
