I'm an early bird. I have a pretty good idea of what I'm buying everyone for the holidays, if I haven't done the actual buying already. But when my mind wandered to the long list of teachers and other service people in my life, panic set in. How much do I tip my newspaper delivery guy? And what about the assorted child care providers that take care of my most precious assets each week?

Honestly, I'm pretty inconsistent. One year I neglected to buy holiday gifts for my son's preschool teachers. But the year before forked over a couple hundreds bucks so each of them could enjoy a 60 minute massage.

Below are some suggestions from the etiquette experts. But I hope you'll share your holiday tip list in the comments section too. In particular, I'd like to hear your strategies for thoughtful tipping on a tough times budget.

Of course Emily Post would have a comprehensive holiday tip list with suggested dollar amounts depending on the service provider. For example, Post suggests a $25 to $75 gift plus a small gift from your child for a day care provider. A newspaper carrier should get $10 to $30. She even suggests tipping the garbage collector, which never occurred to me. A heartfelt two to three sentence note should accompany each tip, she notes.

Martha Stewart has her own handy tip sheet. I particularly like her suggestion to choose a few truly valued individuals and give them a nice tip instead of handing out $5 bills to 25 folks.

Consumer Reports delves into holiday tipping in its latest issue. The magazine's survey found that the median tip is $35, but many people don't tip at all.

Here are some of CR's suggestions:

  • Give cash equal to the value of one session or a week's wage to self-employed or lower-wage earners.
  • Gift cards can be useful for tipping mail carriers. They aren't supposed to accept cash, but can accept gift cards valued at $20 or less that can't be exchanged for cash.

Consumer Reports cautions you from using gift cards because of fees. However, the law in Minnesota prohibits many types of fees on restaurant and store gift cards. Plus the new credit card rules from the Federal Reserve make gift cards more consumer-friendly, but fees can still be charged to purchase gift cards and if the card lies dormant for more than a year.

I've found gift cards to be an extremely convenient and affordable gift because I often store up credit card rewards points until the holidays and then cash them in for gift cards to give as presents. So I'm pro-gift card, but I dont' forget to read the fine print.

Finally, a tip for you: Retail reporter Jackie Crosby launched her cleverly named holiday retail blog Jingle Sells today. She'll be keeping you up-to-date on retailers' latest Black Friday strategies and consumer shopping trends. I'll be keeping you in the know next week while she's taking in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and Black Friday festivities from New York City. See you over there.