• Welcome to AlpineZone, the largest online community of skiers and snowboarders in the Northeast!

    You may have to REGISTER before you can post. Registering is FREE, gets rid of the majority of advertisements, and lets you participate in giveaways and other AlpineZone events!

Paying for Snow Plowing

HD333

New member
Joined
Apr 15, 2009
Messages
1,312
Points
0
Location
Central Mass/Lakes Region NH
I have a real first world problem on my hands.

A good buddy of mine has been plowing our driveway this year, which has been a lifesaver.

He does it to be nice not for the $, he's got plenty of it. Hence my problem, other than showing my extreme thank fullness and picking up random bar tabs when he lets me what is the best way to thank him? Gift certificate, how much? Take him and his wife out for a nice dinner?






Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

wa-loaf

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 7, 2007
Messages
15,109
Points
48
Location
Mordor
Dinner sounds good if you guys are good friends. My plow guy costs me $40 a storm, so it's been adding up.
 

Glenn

Active member
Joined
Oct 1, 2008
Messages
7,691
Points
38
Location
CT & VT
It does add up. In CT, I do the driveway myself. But if it snows and we're not home, it's $40 a plow. In VT, $30 a plow. Our bill for February was $190 in VT.
 

drjeff

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 18, 2006
Messages
19,213
Points
113
Location
Brooklyn, CT
Dinner out sounds like a good idea.

Considering the impeller in my snowblower had a major failure this AM (something in the drive belts I'm guessing broke and the impeller now rest against the lining of the steel drum leading up to the discharge chute on one side and has a huge gap on the other and it won't spin!!) I'm going to be very nice to my neighbor and his plow truck who has helped me out a few times in the past until my snowblower gets fixed!!!
 

hammer

Active member
Joined
Apr 28, 2004
Messages
5,493
Points
38
Location
flatlands of Mass.
I'd like to say that I save a ton of money by using the snowblower, but in all honesty if my driveway and yard layout allowed for it I would have considered having my driveway plowed this year...
 

Cannonball

New member
Joined
Oct 18, 2007
Messages
3,669
Points
0
Location
This user has been deleted
High-end and/or hard to get Scotch, cigars, oysters, lobsters, etc. Whatever he likes but wouldn't buy. I've been on the giving and receiving ends of deals like this. If you are the person doing the helping out (i.e. you plow guy) you don't expect anything in return. But damn do you savor a gift bestowed on you.

Not saying that the dinner out thing is a bad idea. But sometimes it's sweetest to savor your reward/gift without the person who gave it to you. I've done a lot of free consulting etc over the years. When someone hands me a bottle of scotch I enjoy it most when I can savor it later alone or with some other friends where I can say "Yeah, this guy gave me this nice bottle, all I did was help him out a bit, woulda done it anyway. Dude is cool!"
 

mlctvt

Active member
Joined
Mar 24, 2006
Messages
1,533
Points
38
Location
CT
+1 on the snow blower.
Last year when we got the 30" storm down in CT I used our snow blower to clear all of my neighbors driveways since their plow guys couldn't get there or couldn't move that much snow anyway. No problem for the Ariens.

Two neighbors gave us some very good wine. Nice but I wasn't looking for anything.
Two of our neighbors both went and bought Ariens machines after seeing what ours could do!
 

BeanoNYC

Active member
Joined
Feb 6, 2005
Messages
5,080
Points
38
Location
Long Island, NY
My elderly neighbor once gave me a filled 5 gallon gas can for always taking care of his walks with my snow thrower. Perhaps a gas gift card? I also like the high end cigar and whiskey route mentioned above.
 

Puck it

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Messages
9,691
Points
48
Location
Franconia, NH
I have been doing my neighbors driveway for a few years after I bought my own snowblower. Before that I would use her snowblower and do both driveways. When I started using my own after hers broke, I have not even a beer. I think I have gotten a thank you once in a while. I am not doing it anymore.
 
Top