Folks, if your patches leak (assuming they're not glueless) then you're doing it wrong, period. Most of the time it's because people don't let the glue dry before putting the patch on. At least 5 minutes is required. Maybe there are junky patch kits out there, but I'm using what's got to be the cheapest one in the world (< $3 for 20+ patches) and I've never had one leak or come off.

For me it's as much a matter of not being wasteful as saving money. I hardly ever get a flat, maybe one or two a year, so it's not going to make much difference to me dollar-wise but it's a waste to throw a tube away due to a pinhole when a square inch of rubber and some glue could fix it perfectly.

And there's absolutely no way you can feel a bump due to a patch inside the tire. I don't think it's even physically possible. The patch pushes the tube INWARD, not the tire outward. I bet if you did a blind test and had someone else put a patched or unpatched tube in, you'd not be able to tell which was which.