It’s well known that I am a cheapskate – you can see the budget for my family of 8 here. Sometimes I like to call myself “frugal” as it has much better connotations, but I have come to admit that at times, I took it to the next level. It even caused me to wonder last week if I travel differently when someone else is paying for it.
For example, take this past Saturday. I had just taken a red eye flight from Salt Lake City to Charlotte, in preparation for the Family Travel for Real Life Conference.
(SEE ALSO: 4 tips for surviving a red eye flight)
My flight got in a bit earlier than expected (about 5:45 a.m.), so I had some time to kill. The hotel where the conference was (Hyatt House Charlotte Center City) does not offer an airport shuttle, but there is an express bus (the “Sprinter”) that goes from the airport to within a block of the hotel.
Unfortunately, early in the morning on weekends, it only runs every hour, and I just missed the one that left at 6:05 a.m., so I had some time to kill
Frustration with the Charlotte transit authority (CATS)
I made my way out to the bus stop, where the sign first indicated that the next Sprinter would come by at 6:20 a.m. Now remember that the CATS website said it would be 7:05, and a bus schedule I found inside the airport said it would come at 6:55 a.m. Is there anything more frustrating than having 3 DIFFERENT TIMES to expect?!?!?
Anyways, 6:20 a.m. came and went with no bus, and then the sign changed to expect my bus at 6:50 a.m.
In the meantime, 2 other buses came. I asked one of the drivers when I could expect the Sprinter. He was frankly, pretty rude about it, and said he had no idea what the Sprinter’s schedule was. I called the number listed on the bus stop sign and the automated prompts seemed to indicate 7:05 as well.
So all of that is a long way of saying that I had some time to kill. The bus fare was $2.20, and all I had was a $10 bill. Since typically buses do NOT give change, I went inside and got some change from one of the few airport vendors that was open. He had singles, but no coins.
It was killing me that I was going to “waste” 80 cents, so, since I had time to kill anyways, I did one of my favorite activities – looking for luggage carts to return :-). I actually belong to a Facebook group called “Finding Coins on the Ground” – since we started tracking a few years ago, we have found about $430 in coins and bills.
After maybe 2-3 minutes, I found one that someone had left on the sidewalk.
I picked it up, brought it back into the terminal, and collected my 25 cents refund. Feeling better about my bus fare prospects, I sat down to wait for the bus. That generated the following tweet
@TravelisFree @FreakinFlyers you guys ever returned an airport luggage cart to make bus fare? #hobostyle #FT4RL pic.twitter.com/rhgrHUmVth
— Points with a Crew (@PointsWithACrew) March 7, 2015
Finally the bus came (at 7:05, go figure!)
and I was on my way to the conference!
Cue commenters mentioning the time value of money in 3… 2… 1…
This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as thepointsguy.com. This may impact how and where links appear on this site. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them
User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Time only has value if you can do something else more productive at the time you are scrounging for change. Sitting at the hotel is less profitable than hunting for carts….
LOL – now we’re talking! I do subscribe to the opinions of your time having value, but I also totally agree that you can’t just say “oh i’m ‘worth’ $50 / hr’ unless you have people actually willing to pay you $50 each hour (which is true for some but not most people)
No offense to you, but I wouldn’t be proud of this post.
IMHO