Blossom, I'm hoping everything goes well with your hubby's surgery
and you get someone willing to help out with the prescription. This won't be a good time for you to be stressed
Taxi fare can certainly add up. This reminds of a conference my coworker and I went to last year. We took an airport taxi to our hotel and the driver overcharged us (a lot), and he wanted a tip at the back of it. I offered him $1 (that was a manifestation of my "
you've got to be kidding me"). He got upset and actually asked for a bigger tip! I told him I wasn't giving him a cent more. He took his fare and left. He didn't take the dollar, though
When we told front desk about it, they were appalled - taxi fare between the hotel and the airport was half what he charged us. We were furious
On another note, the tipping thing still gets to me whenever I travel to the US. I always feel put upon to tip, whereas in my country, tipping is voluntary and we mostly only tip really good/exceptional service. I normally tip the supermarket porters who take our groceries to the vehicle but I only do that because they're usually young kids with after-school or summer jobs. In almost all our hotels, guests aren't supposed to tip the staff, and the staff either aren't supposed to accept tips or it's supposed to go in some sort of tip fund and shared equally. Employees can lose their jobs if they're found accepting tips.