Yesterday I attempted a basic explanation of how transaction fees work, why they vary, and how you can take charge and pay less in fees.
At the time, I considered sending my daughter her allowance, a $10 transaction. The suggested fee for next-block inclusion was 300 satoshis/byte. $3 to send $10? Too rich for my blood, so I took my own advice and waited a day. The Mempool has since contracted significantly, and is mostly full of low-fee transactions, although I can still see 300 satoshi/byte transactions still streaming in at TradeBlock, evidence that plenty of wallets use broken fee estimators.
Today, I sent the same transaction for 20 satoshis/byte. About $0.18. And it went into the very next block, less than a minute after I broadcast the transaction.
The lesson: Don't be a sucker. Figure out your transaction fees yourself, or use a wallet that does the job well.
The other lesson: When you see people posting about how fees are completely out of hand, consider their agenda. And check the Mempool yourself! here and here.
Now stop paying too much for your transactions.