I could see that if they were eating catfood and living under a bridge. But what if the retiree is living a perfectly fine life with everything he or she wants, and just is not blowing money right and left beyond that point? I don't know.
I think my parents-in-law were the inspiration for this article.
When gasoline gets "too expensive" (an arbitrary price based on my FIL's memories of driving in the 1950s) then all sightseeing trips are restricted to the radius of one tank of gas. Sometimes they even skip the hotel (driving for 6-8 hours) because it's "too much money".
They essentially live in the dark because electricity costs money. At night the entire room is dark with one small light for whoever's reading. Lighting the whole room? Frivolous.
My FIL refused to spend more than $5/month on Internet access (dial-up on a 28.8K modem in 2006). Then they moved to a FIOS area where the Internet is "free" with their "cable TV" and phone service. He thinks he's paying $100/month for the latter two and getting ISP broadband for free.
My FIL spent hours working on his Subaru's ignition problem. I finally backed out of it when I didn't have the special sockets to remove its spark plugs, but then my FIL embarked on an expensive Easter-egg troubleshooting pilgrimage to the auto parts store. Then "the kid" up the street (in his 20s) mentioned that he had an OBD-II fault-code reader. More trips to the auto-parts store. End result: $500 in parts and a week of troubleshooting before he called the tow truck. (I refused to tow him with any of our vehicles.) The problem cost a $30 relay and a $75 mechanic. But "those bahstids" at the garage are always ripping off the old folks.
My MIL spends hours of each week writing letters (you know, in an envelope with a stamp) to manufacturers to praise or complain about their products. She does this in the hope of receiving coupons. She's a scrivener for less than minimum wage.
When they were renting our house, they absolutely refused to spend any money on repairs or maintenance. We literally had to sneak in there when they were on vacation to replace toilet parts or to clean the carpets or even to prune some of the shrubbery. (By that point we needed helicopter-deployed chainsaws.) Of course when they eventually moved out we spent thousands of dollars (and a couple months without rent) hosting the parade of contractors through the property to get it livable for real humans.
I could go on and on. But this is how these people choose to live their lives. We're going to have to step in when one of them starts shopping for cut-rate surgery tools or second-hand dental picks.