Thank you gift for neighbor use of snow blower?

[andrews_dad]

What should I give the neighbor? He allowed me to use his snow blower for the past two storms the last week or so. Each one brought us about 20-24 inches. Needless to say, that blower was a lifesaver with my long sidewalk and longer driveway. I'd say I had the blower for 5 hours total between the two storms. I did have gas to re-fill the tank each time. Thoughts?

 

[ohanaMAMA]

I think I would bake a batch of cookies or brownies to take over. How nice of your neighbor!

 

[crisi]

How well do you know him? Case of beer? Bottle of wine? Homemade cookies? That would be the direction I'd head, but if you deliver a case of beer to a recovering alcoholic, its bad form. Or cookies to a diabetic.

(I have been known to say "do you drink beer?" and ask the brand they prefer - that way I don't have the whole - "ummm, we are Mormon" problem.)

If you don't know him well, a gift certificate to somewhere practical works (Target, WalMart).

 

[My2BabiesLexis&Dill]

How about a GC for a dinner out?

 

[Green Tea]

How about a GC for a dinner out?

My thought exactly!

 

[phred52]

My DH is usually the one doing the lending in our neighborhood. Filling the gas tank before returning is HUGE, as you already did do... We've received warm pies and cookies, too. Most times its a verbal thank you with nothing added into the gas tank. That gets me, but DH has a big heart. He'll give the shirt off his back if someone needs it.

 

[andrews_dad]

He has 2 kids, about 8 and 6 years old. Not a big drinker.

How much might you give in terms of a GC?

 

[Green Tea]

Maybe $25 or so to someplace kid friendly, like Applebees or TGIFridays?

 

[lindsmom]

Our neighbor has a mini plow and a snowblower, so he does our neighborhood each season (4 houses). We give him a $50 Home Depot GC at xmas; some years there's hardly any snow, other years we feel we owe him more. but it works out in the end.

I would agree that a $25 gc is very nice, but you might want to wait a couple more weeks to see if there are any more big storms. In the meantime, some cookies etc would be thoughtful.

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

I vote for cookies now..................and a GC once the season is over

 

[puffkin]

Even though you did refill the gas, I would give a gas gift card or something along those lines. Probably $25.

 

[rynosmom]

My wonderful neighbor is getting a case of his favorite beer....Blue Moon!

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

I vote for cookies now..................and a GC once the season is over

And at the risk of sounding sexist, but I think a man would like a HD GC better than one for a restaurant. Plus a GC at a restaurant probably won't cover the entire bill, but he can find lots of stuff at HD!

 

[DCbride]

Our neighbor did the same thing. We gave him a GC to Dunkin Donuts for $30 (myabe $40- DH bought it) last big storm, but I never thought about filling the gas tank. Great idea!

Now that he did it again this past week, I'm not sure what to do. Do I give him a GC every time? This has been an unusual winter for snow that's for sure.

 

[lovesmurfs]

I would make banana bread or cookies for now, then a GC at the end of the season -- maybe Starbucks if he likes coffee?

 

[NVDisMom]

When we lived in Lake Tahoe we had it worked out amongst the neighbors with snow blowers, lawn mowers, log splitters etc. Basically the neighbors shared with one another, always kept the gas tanks full (if you used it you filled it) and we all agreed there would be no further compensation besides the normal neighborly stuff. Put my dog in the yard if he gets out, water my yard when I'm gone and make sure the neighborhood kids are always spied on, that kind of stuff. Its how we all were, we simply took care of each other. Man I miss my neighbors. We would have all been broke in no time if we were always buying each other GC for neighborly acts.

 

[NeedaVacation03]

Our neighbor did ours twice this week. The first night we took over dinner- Chili, homemade bread and brownies. The next night we took over homemade blueberry muffins. They just had twins and I have teenage daughters so I think that in the future we will offer to help out with the babies so that they can get some work done. I think that in most neighborhoods it all works out in the end. We all have things that we can do for each other that do not have to always be monetary.
I think gas back in the tank is an unspoken rule.

 

[DizzyFORDisney]

My husband does our entire shared driveway EVERY storm with the blower (and by hand this past one). Then does all of the main sidewalks on our side of the block. My driveway-sharing nieghbors (who have two teenage kids) wait until it's all done and then come out and clean their cars off.....that's it - not even a verbal thank you! They still have done their front walk today... Unbelievable.....

 

[akcire]

Our neighbor does not loan us his snow blower, but actually snow blows our snow if it is very deep. He has this 1980's contraption that I would be afraid to use, it is enormous. The neighbor always tells my hubby that once the snow blower is out, it is no problem to do more than one house.

In return: if there is a very light snow that is shovel only some times my husband will shovel for them too, it depends on what time he gets home vs. the neighbor.

Also every winter and sometimes more than once, we give the neighbor a gift card to the gas station to cover the gas (we don't operate he does--plus we wouldn't know how to mix properly--our lawnmower has a battery) and six packs of better beer. Additionally, whenever we travel in winter we always bring him some regional beer from our destination (the neighbor thinks we should spend a week each month in Canada during the winter He loves Canadian beer!).

 

[PaulaSue]

Gas GC would be nice but you said you refilled it so ???