Cheap or savvy?

Dear anonymous,

As evidenced by various situations, my family is quite cheap. We buy things on sale and shy away from expensive stores (my sister and I occasionally being an exception to this rule). If we can haggle, we haggle.

It puts me off however, to work like this. The current situation is as given: my sister and I need a parking spot in our building. The developer is asking $125 a month which is typical for the city we live in and the fact that we live in a new condo building. There is a notice up on the notice board where a tenant currently holds a spot but is hoping to rent it.

Emailing him, he stated he was asking the going price. We offered to take his spot but asked for a discount. His response was to bring it down to $115 which is a 9% reduction. My sister looks at this price and counter-offers a price of $95.

Perhaps this is just me but, it seems very cheap to be asking for approximately a 25% discount. Understanding that we are university students with very little money, it is our choice to have the car with us as opposed to having it at home with our parents. It is also slightly cheaper for us to drive as opposed to taking transit but, this man is already paying $125 a month for his spot. It seems like we are cheating him.

Maybe it's just me.

Love,
Michelle