I still think that while tubes aren't that expensive, if you've got 5 or so punctured tubes you can repair in 15 minutes, that's a pretty good return on your money. Especially if you run the Bontrager tubes (they feel noticeably thicker than the Nashbar ones which I've had several pop while inflating with a hand pump) which run about $7 each.

I'm not a penny pincher, but $35 for 5 tubes repaired in 15 minutes is pretty decent, especially since it's actually pretty satisfying and very easy to patch a tube. Even at $3/tube, that's pretty good.

Plus, I hate throwing out perfectly good tubes that just have a near-microscopic hole in them, particularly near-new ones. The waste definitely bugs me even more than the cost of the tube, and I'm very happy if I can put in a trivial amount of work to keep on using an otherwise perfectly good product without adding to a landfill.