When I opened a checking account with my bank, they automatically gave me a quite generous supply of checks. There were no fees involved.
I find your described experience surprising. Are you perhaps using some other type of account which is not primarily a checking account?
Nope, it's a regular checking account which came with 3 free checks. I wasn't sure if there are generally fees involved; I think that in Australia there's some kind of ongoing cost to have a checkbook, but that's fine since virtually none of us use checks there anyway.
With Alicorn's permission, I'm resurrecting this thread.
I'll start off with one of my own: What kinds of exercise can I do at home (I do have 5- and 20-pound weights), and what are good ways to get motivation to do so regularly?