Anyone else saving up for a light bulb?

That did make me smile gmelon as we've recently been on a bulb buying mission and were shocked at the prices! B&Q and Tesco were possibly the highest but we did manage to find some for slightly less, although for the life of me cant remember where - might have been B&M. I know they are now more energy efficient and last longer but I don't think the price is justified at all. The spotlights in our kitchen seem to go all the time and we've arranged for an electrician to come and check them as he might cost a bit but the bulbs are costing a fortune!

Go online. Buy them on ebay. Also consider how much you save in electricity costs.

We have two three light spotlight bars in our kitchen. When we moved here 22 years ago there were 6 x 60 old fashioned bulbs in them consuming 360w of electricity every hour. Those same light bars now have 6 x 6 LED spots in them, that is 36w, those lights now use only 10% of the power they used to. That is quite a saving and more than offsets the cost of the bulbs.

We are planning to change our kitchen lights to LED. The bulbs keeping needing changed. Expensive to change, but our electrician says we will save a fortune in the long run.

We changed over the whole house over to LEDs a while ago it cost a lot but we got them on a 3for 2 on sale but they do use much less power.

I recently changed the 6 kitchen spotlights to LED at a cost of about £20, so not too expensive, so I decided that, as each other bulb in the house expired, I would change that to LED too. I hope it's going to be a slow process because just 1 bulb was £4.99. Online may be the way to go for future replacements. Hope they last a long time!

I usually buy them on Amazon although I have found there is a difference in the G10 bulbs - we had some which were really bright but I can't remember where from - it might have been Sainsburys. They made a big difference in the kitchen so on the hunt for them again.

The bulb in my bedside light cost me almost £15 so I cherish it. It is long life, I hope that it will "see me out" and unusually very bright but I still have not recovered from the price although it was fitted at least a couple of years ago.

Aldi have some long life bulbs at the moment that seem to be a good price.

Oh this made me smile. Recently I bought a new shade for our upstairs landing and fancied one of those vintage bulbs with the exposed elements, IYSWIM? Our lovely little hardware shop plugged one in to show me, I said OK, then had to clutch the counter as I forked out almost £18.00. . It does look lovely though.

The other issue with these expensive new bulbs is that there are so many types, unlike the old days when we just had bayonet caps. I recently spent £4 on a new LED bulb for my bedroom but it didn't fit though it said it was the same style as the previous non LED bulb. I reverted to another non LED one. I only recently realised/was t old that the new lED bulbs are brighter than the old long life bulbs in traditional fittings. Also, that in modern fittings LED bulbs that cost more are cheaper to run. I always looked for halogen.

A while ago I "won" a lightbulb at IKEA. I didn't think much of it at the time but they cost £10 to buy, its a really good light and supposed to last for years.

I agree with MOnica I tend to use Amazon, though Ebay may have better prices.

Further to my above msg: I have recently ordered the following from Amazon for my hallway;
10 x R50 Reflector E14 Bulbs 40W Small Edison Screw Cap Halogen 28w=40 Watt Spot Lamps [Energy Class C]
by Hare
4.0 out of 5 stars 2 customer reviews
Price:£14.39 & FREE UK delivery

What you pay for one now days, you could get about 3 light bulbs, we mostly buy our in bulk from Amazon, works out much cheaper

Pound shops do very good light bulbs for £1.

I agree, it’s a minefield out there. I now buy them in an electrical shop,saves money in the long run!

Have swapped energy supplier to Utility Warehouse, they replaced every bulb in the house for LEDs, and when they break will replace for free. Had to have their telephone line and broadband also, but we are definitely saving. Oops I forgot it comes with a sort of 'credit card' which you put money on and when you spend it it in certain shops (there are a lot, Sainsbury's, Debenhams, Boots to name a few) you get money back, which is a form of saving if you were going to use these shops anyway.

I buy mine at Aldi

In the south west we have some shops called "This is It" which we found , after a survey, sell the cheapest in the high street, but if you can get to a Screw Fix, they are REALLY competitive.

I bought mine online from LEDhut. Much cheaper than the shops. We had ten halogen spotlights in the kitchen at 50w each. We have 4.5w LEDs now and they are excellent.
There’s a wider choice online. Although not obvious from the website, they offer wide angle replacements- you have to type wide angle into the search bar. Also there are three options- warm white, daylight (which we have in the kitchen) and cool white which looks very cold to me.

LED lights may be expensive but they very rarely blow. My DH has replaced all our bulbs with LED ones and there has been a significant drop in our electricity bill. They come in bright or warm and come on instantly unlike the first low power bulbs. The light is as bright or in some instances brighter than they were before.

the reason they are expensive is that the materials, labour and parts turning an LED into a light bulb requires the integration of sophisticated technologies. They are hoping some new technologies may bring prices down.
I agree, they are expensive. We had a 'Homebase' now taken over by 'Dunnings' which is proving quite a lot cheaper for items.
The idea that the new low energy bulbs last longer - up to 10 years, in my experience, does not live up to the claim!

Great that you are happy with Utility Warehouse - and it is a British company!

My husband buys then in the pound shops & they are fine.