Oh yes, I also have a very hard time paying ANY fees for credit cards. It really bugs me, even if I get great benefits from them.
I just booked D2 into a NYC hotel and believe me, free room wifi and less expensive parking made the choice. She can walk the extra blocks. And free full breakfast. But I did use my hotel credit card points for the room.
A more convenient hotel, closer to her 2 destinations was same points value, but wifi was 20 and parking 90 (yes, 90,) vs free wifi and 55. No breakfast.
Yes, annual fee on the card, but it works for us.
We enjoy staying at really nice hotels - it’s part of our vacation experience. We also have no $ limit on dining out when we are on vacation.
We won’t, however, touch the mini bar.
I do not buy bottled water, since I live in a place where the tap water is perfectly fine. When the tap water is fine bottled water is just a waste of money (with negative external effects if you care about such).
Has anyone figured out how much money and energy is wasted when people have to buy bottled water or boil the tap water because the tap water is unsafe where they live?
@BunsenBurner - It takes me 10 minutes to drive each way to work at peak traffic times, and parking is $20.00 per month in a secure garage. I’ll never complain about driving to work again.
I read all my books on Kindle or I pad . I like to read curled up on my side and it’s just 100 times easier to read on my screen then trying to hold a large book open with one hand. Thus I buy books instead of getting them from the library which I used to do more.
We drive our cars til they die. Don’t buy expensive ones, though. I don’t spend a lot on clothes. I go through the toes on socks too quickly to spend money on them. Learned that the hard way when I got some nice wool hiking socks. I have to move my toes when they are in my shoes. this is not conducive to long-lived socks.
Did not buy as much house as we could afford. Nice that our mortgage is really low, but it will not appreciate as much as other neighborhoods might have.
We do great vacations, but use FF/points and buy groceries for some meals to keep it affordable.
Used to be cheap with shoes – not any more. Gotta protect my knees and feet.
DH refuses to pay for taxis when he’s on business travel. Has me drive him to the airport and back.
I am not sure anything falls under “uncharacteristically” cheap because I am cheap on everything. Out of necessity.
One thing I haven’t seen others mention that I am really cheap on is a cell phone - I still have a dumb phone.
Vehicles . . . wow I want a new(er) something. Every time I rent a car out of town I get car fever.
@maya54…you can get your library books on your kindle.
@maya54 I prefer old-school print format but my library has several services for borrowing ebooks. Have you looked into that from your local library?
I’m always cheap, LOL.
Yes, I also have a thing about mini bar. My kids were trained well as little kids on mini bar too. For one of their birthdays I had a slumber party at a hotel. The first thing D1 said to all her friends was, “No one touches the mini bar,” without any coaching from me.
Benefit of smartphone I’m reading C C while on an exercise bike at the gym while listening to music on my phone
When something breaks we really really try to fix it ourselves. We have repaired: washer, dryer, oven, stove top, refrigerator, lights, dishwasher. We did have to call a company for the hot water tank when it needed to be replaced and have called for furnace/ac repairs. There are so many excellent resources on line to buy the parts and tubes for tutorials.
I will drive around before I will pay at a parking lot. Lucky for me finding parking is one of my gifts.
splurge–really nice hotels if it is a destination. When only a night on the road it does not matter. I go for the larger room with a view. H used to not approve until we landed in a mediocre hotel and he hated it. I do, though, do really thorough research for deals.
Food. Anytime.
Electronics.
I’m not deliberately cheap, but buying them is so frustrating and confusing for me that I usually just don’t. Last month my computer broke and I’m just making do with my kindle. Right now the only electronics I own are a kindle and a flip phone. Period. My GPS quit working more than a year ago… If the kindle goes, I may just go off line entirely.
Well…as long as we are talking about things like a minibar…what about the overpriced food at the movies?
We never buy that. I mean really…we aren going to starve to death in under three hours! Last time I bought popcorn and a beverage, it,was almost double the cost of the ticket…ridiculous. Never again!
I don’t have many things that I am super cheap about, but I agree on the movie food & drinks. I tend to buy good quality durable goods (cars, clothes, computer, etc.) and use them until they are worn out/obsolete. My car is almost 10 years old, my computer is 9 years old, and I’m still wearing the navy Burberry overcoat I bought on sale in NYC in 1987 several times each winter. I am a quality over quantity person on many things.
We don’t buy food at the movies either.
A. It is junk. b) It distracts from viewing experience. and iii) We don’t want to mess up our fellow movie theater patrons’ experience with food noises and appreciate if they do the same onto us. 
D2 and I like having popcorn (extra butter) and coke at the movies.