31 Days: Day 30 - Recharging

If this is your first visit I welcome you to my little corner of the world! You might want to start at the introduction of this series. It explains what 31 Days of Change is, and has links to each day's post as they occur. Just click on the 31 Days to Slash Your Budget Painlessly button at the top of my sidebar on the right.

I've been using rechargeable batteries for my camera for some time now. But for everything else we have continued to use regular alkaline batteries. I guess it was the initial cost that kept me from investing in more batteries. But now that I've been able to save in so many other areas, I am going to order more rechargeables.

My favorite brand is Sanyo eneloop. They come pre-charged, have a very slow discharge rate, meaning they maintain 75% of their charge even after 3 years of non-use and they can be recharged up to 1500 times. They also last a long time even in my camera.

The first package I bought from Amazon included the charger and 4 AA batteries. There are different packages available. I am going to purchase a package of 8 AA batteries that include a storage case for $20.45 (free shipping) and a package of 4 AAA for $9.35 (including shipping). If you average that out it comes to $2.47 per battery.

About the best deal I've gotten on regular batteries within the last year, is 9.99 for 16 Walgreen brand batteries, which averages .62 cents per battery. After 4 uses, the rechargeables will pay for themselves. Everything after that is savings.

These batteries are supposed to recharge up to 1500 times. Let's just say they only last 1200 recharges. Even at that, my savings would theoretically add up to $744 per battery. Multiply that by 16 batteries (I already have 4), and that's $11,904 over the life of the batteries. Say what?!!! I should have gone all rechargeable a long time ago.

I'm pretty sure I'll never have to buy more AA or AAA batteries in my lifetime. I also know I wouldn't use that many batteries in the rest of my life. When my kids were young, with more battery operated toys, I used far more batteries than I do now. I probably go through 60 AA and AAA batteries a year. Even so, rechargeables will save me about $37 per year or $3.08 per month.

If you use more batteries, and/or buy name brand batteries, especially in small packages of 4, which run around $5 these days, you could save considerably more than that.

If you are benefiting from this series, I’d love it if you would grab my button from the top of my sidebar.  I will be back with another money saving tip tomorrow.  I will keep up a running tally of my savings at the bottom of each new post. Just scroll down to the bottom to see.  Thanks for stopping by. I hope you'll be back!

My tally so far:
$4936.82/year
$411.40/month