What are some innocent signs of deeper personality conflicts?

I think that attitudes about food can be very telling about a person’s personality. I think that a very serious relationship I had once foundered because she could not throw away any food. We had to eat it all. We had to take any uneaten food home from the restaurant. Throwing any food away, no matter how old or unpalatable was like committing suicide.

That attitude of scarcity eventually took the fun out of the relationship for me. I could never relax. I was always worrying about whether my SO would tolerate my “profligacy.” I couldn’t spend money on anything fun for fear of upsetting her.

So that, as much as anything, I believe was an underlying cause for our breakup—the reason why we no longer respected and loved each other as we once had.

Are there things like this in your life? Either with food or some other seemingly innocent thing that hid a much deeper personality conflict?