I normally buy a Sunday paper that costs me $2.50 locally. Today on the way back from the Home and Garden show, I stopped at the truck stop 10 miles away and the same paper cost me $1.50. What’s with that I ask? Next Sunday though, I have no intention of driving 20 miles to save $1 on a Sunday paper. Same with light bulbs. Frugal is one thing but . . .
I expect everybody understands it makes no sense to drive 20 miles to save $2. But if you are going to that 20 mile away place anyway, why not wait and buy the item there and save the $2?
There are times when you need an item NOW and can’t afford to wait until next weekend when you’ll drive 20 miles to that other place
I’m not sure about all states but mine does not require side marker lights. I could wait until it was convenient to replace it but probably wouldn’t.
I don’t know if side markers are a legal requirement here or not, but one of them has been out for 3 years, so I expect that isn’t an enforcement priority. What’s more, the license plate light bulb has never worked … lol …
Oregon does require a license plate light but I suspect it is not an enforcement priority. When I lived in SoCal mid 1970s there was no safety inspection and my pre 1968 car did not have side marker lights.
We had safety inspections in my area of Colorado, and they made sure every exterior light worked. And they pulled the brake drums on a front wheel and inspected the linings. They even tested the wipers and replaced the wiper blades if they thought they looked worn out. The front brake lining is a big job for 4WD trucks with free running hubs. But here in my area of Calif, safety inspections aren’t done. They focus on emissions testing instead I guess. Here, smog is thought to be worse than cars with no brakes and no lights … lol … its interesting how politics works.
Congratulations.
They say one of the signs of a natural-born engineer is spending an entire weekend and $250 repairing something you can replace for $19.99. Your persistence in this and your need to know fit the same category. IMHO the money isn’t driving you, the question is. 
194 bulb.
at the Ford DEALERSHIP. . full retail is . . . 94 cents !
WE buy by the box of 10, re-packaged and part numbered for Ford, Sylvania bulbs.
I can buy a box of 10 Eiko brand 194 bulbs for $2.23 and retail those out one at a time for a whopping 49 cents. ( the 10 box of Sylvania NOT re-numberd for Ford is 3.31 my cost. )
So . . .keep shopping.
I mail order this stuff and gladly pay shipping to not waste energy driving about or fretting.
Do you put a value on your own time driving about?
There’s a local parts store (Robbins) that carries them in bulk. They store the lamps in plastic bin storage cabinets behind the counter. I actually feel bad buying just a lamp or two from them as it is less than $0.50 most of the time. I bought one marker lamp a month ago for 25c.
You’re paying for the packaging and shelf space at the big box stores…
You can avoid the large, corporate, parts stores and many times get a better deal at a franchise store.
I went to my local Parts Plus (franchise) this weekend for some hose and clamps. At O’Reilly’s/Autozone the clamps come in blister packs with a cost of about $3 for 2 or 4 clamps (depending on size). I paid 25 cents each.
I’m sure the bulbs would be similar.
You can’t mail so much as a post card for $0.17. Those peppermint candies by the cash register? A quarter, minimum. A flippin’ newspaper is close to a buck!
I don’t see why you sweat the price for something small like that: even if you grossly overpay, you’re still talking about buying the bulbs with the change you find, digging in your sofa cushions.
We don’t seem to have Parts Plus or Robbins here in San Jose, else I’d give them a go. We do have some Dollar Store like places, so I’ll take a look there when it finally stops raining. The best vendor price-wise so far I’ve found locally for purchasing a single bulb is about $1.50 each at both Home Depot and Frys electronics. Fry’s is a local area chain that sell electronics gadgets and hobbyist supplies, sort of like a super-radio-shack. Either are definitely better than $5 for 2 bulbs.
The best local price seems to be at Walmart, where 20 LED version of the 194 lamps go for about $10. 50 cents each. I don’t have a regular Walmart near by, but there is a local Walmart Foods, and they’ll ship anything walmart.com stocks there for pick-up w/no shipping charges.
Edit: re the queries about it being penny wise and pound foolish to spend much time worrying about a $2.50 purchase, I can’t argue w/that. It’s possible others reading this thread might find a frugal place to buy auto lamps useful though, so that’s worth some time exploring the issue. And there’s the principle of the thing … lol …
O’Reilly auto parts has a box of ten 194 bulbs for $11, display package of two for $4.50.
I usually buy a list of parts from Rock auto every six months, things like this I just add to my order.
Just how often does one have to buy side marker lights? Not often I would imagine.
While at the grocery store I picked up an oven light. now I know I could have gotten one for less money but the last one was good for 16 years so why worry about it?
Well, I used to buy quite a few of them. I was buying and running a number of 8-10 year old vehicles and about that time in their life, lamps start going out. So I inherited the replacement of the lamps, usually en-mass.
My current TB is about 11 years old. It has consumed a side marker light at a rate of about 1 every 6 months. For some reason it eats them for lunch.
But why does that even matter? Who cares why someone wants to save a bit on a particular expenditure. Maybe they just think of it as a game or it gives them some good feeling to make the “find”. Who cares what motivates them? It makes no sense to some people but I’m willing to bet you have some activity/hobby/quirk or whatever that others might find ridiculous. So why go throwing stones? If it doesn’t fit into your idea of being worthwhile, just move on. If you have something constructive to add, then by all means contribute. But I don’t see the value in posting if all you have to say is, this makes no sense (to me)…
Thanks Volvo. I just had to go look again. I knew I had a spare bulb for the refridge and the dryer but couldn’t for the life of me remember where they were exactly. They were right with all my other miscellaneous bulbs so I’m ready for the once in ten year event. I don’t know what I paid at the hardware store but I’m ready to re-bulb at a moments notice 24-7. Then I took a peek in my couple of auto bulb drawers. I’ve got 57s, 168s, 194s, etc. plus the little maglite bulbs and some others that I’m not sure what they are for. Then I’ve got a bunch of the old style fuses too so maybe its time to clean house. That’s the cost of stocking up and convenience-obsolescence.
Here’s my solution to the expensive side-marker light bulb. It’s a freebie!
How it happened, I was taking a neighborhood walk when I notice a small led flashlight in the middle of the street having been run over by a car or two and squashed. It was the kind that businesses give away to their customers once in a while, you know, the $1 or $2 cheapo kind. I brought it back to my lab and took it apart, to discover three led’s inside, wired in parallel. It was powered by 4 button cells. That was it, the four batteries and the leds and a switch. The batteries tested no good. But I figure 4 batteries means each led uses 6 volts, right? I looked at the leds under a microscope and could tell they had the small resistor wire, self contained. So I cut them apart and soldered two of the leds together in series, yielding – in theory – a 12 volt led auto side-marker lamp. Tested out well, a nice white light when connected to the car battery by test leads. Only worked in the right direction of current flow of course. Ask me how I learned this … lol …
All I had to do then was solder on to each end some wire of appropriate thickness so it would match up to the dimension of the contacts in the car’s side-marker lamp light fixture. Friction fit. Inserted. Re-inserted to get the right current-direction orientation. Done.
Plus I have an extra led.
Wow. George, I hereby find you to have beaten me as “the world’s most frugal person”. Your trophy is forthcoming. Congratulations.