Money Beagle

We got an early start on Christmas decorating this weekend.  Usually, we go in full force the day after Thanksgiving, but we decided to start a bit earlier this year, only because of how quickly Mrs. Beagle tires out now due to the pregnancy (which is going very well so far!).

Last year, and this year, I’ve spent time thinking about the switch to LED bulbs instead of the traditional bulbs.  So far, we haven’t made the switch.

According to the site Holiday LEDs, there are many benefits of switching to LED lights, which include:

• Much less energy use - They say that LEDs use about 90% less energy than traditional light strings.
• Longer life - They say that the bulbs last 50,000 hours, which is up to 20 times longer than a normal set of bulbs
• Safer - LED bulbs throw off a lot less heat than normal bulbs, which reduces the risk of fire caused by overheating
• Easier to use - Many LED light sets do not suffer from the frustrating problem of a loose, missing, or broken bulb causing the entire line to fail.
• Brighter - The LED lights typically emit a more bright, crisp light, so you don’t use as many lights on the tree.

These seem like great reasons, so then why haven’t we switched?

• Price - The up front cost is very high compared to traditional bulbs.  I would guess they’re probably about 10 times more expensive.
• Availability - Last year I saw quite a few stores carrying them, but most had a limited selection or were sold out quite early.

We definitely see a bump in our electricity bill during the holiday months, so I have no doubt that the energy savings would be there with the switch.  But, the up front cost is the biggest obstacle.  We have 900 lights outside, for example, and the replacement cost of that would be several hundred dollars.  That’s a pretty steep bill.

I’m thinking maybe starting to set aside $10-15 per month might make it so that we can start switching them out over the next couple of year.  Heck, maybe the price will start to fall as prices on newer technology usually do over time.

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I heard on the radio that people are buying cheaper candy to save money this Halloween.  So, kids that are used to the ‘good stuff’ might have a little less of that in their pillowcases this year (people still use pillowcases, right?) and find more of the stuff you usually save for last.

We still got the ‘good stuff’ this year (in other words, chocolate) but we saved money regardless.  Here’s how we saved:

• Bought less candy - Last Halloween was the first year we lived in our house so we had no idea what to expect.  Given that most of the people in the neighborhood have kids, we bought a lot of candy, and probably didn’t use even half of what we had.  So, we got a couple less bags this year.
• Bought on sale - The candy was normally $3.19 a bag, but we got it on sale for $1.88 per bag.
• Used coupons - We also had two coupons, each for $1 off two bags.  Since we got four bags, that worked out to $0.50 off per bag.

All said, we got four bags of the ‘good stuff’ for $5.52 which isn’t bad at all!

Gotta run, it’s time to carve our pumpkins!

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