I wake up every morning and start my ritual by walking to Starbucks and order my “Skinny Vanilla Latte Grande” Of course I present Jill (We are on a first name basis) my Starbucks Black Card for a grand total of $4.81.

All we hear is about how bad the economy is doing so I started to think about where my family could cut back. I wanted to justify my $80.00 (gulp) a month coffee habit to my wife and had to do some quick math on what I spend each month. I was wondering on how I could keep my coffee and still lower our monthly expenditures.

First thing I needed to do… besides gulping my coffee like it was the last drop of water on the earth was to get a plan for saving money. My hands were shaking just thinking about giving up my morning brew. Use compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) to save money….. Hmmmm

Lighting accounts for 11-15% of of the typical household’s electric bill. Installing CFL Lights and other new lighting technologies such as LED Light Bulbs can save between 50-80% on lighting costs. So, I decided to break down the math and see if I could afford to keep my morning coffee habit….
Average monthly home energy bill: $200
Typical lighting costs per month: $22
Savings/month with new CFL Bulbs: $11.00-$17.00
Savings/year: $132-$204.00

Let’s be fair, it costs up front money to replace old incandescent light bulbs. According to the EnergyStar web page, the difference on average is a little more than $3 per bulb. The United States Government claims that one CFL light bulb, including product cost, will save you $14 per year and $50 over the lifetime of the bulb.

I told my wife about my great idea and I got “Nice Try” but we have been using CFL’s for 5 years now. So, I guess I have to give up my Starbucks for now but I still plan on sneaking into Dunkin Donuts for a great “cup of joe” So there you have it, by committing to replacing one incandescent light bulb with a CFL Light bulb you can get a cup of coffee on the house for months to come and also do your part to reduce the human impact on the earth. That’s a bargain!

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