Who doesn’t love candlelight?. It’s warm, festive, romantic, and flattering (the reason it’s romantic?). It can also be a little expensive. Until recently, I never paid much attention to the cost of candles. Except for pricey artisanal beeswax models, the price of candles always seemed reasonable –$2 or $3 for a taper, $8 – $20 for a chunky pillar, sometimes a little more or less depending on where I was shopping or how many I bought at a time. Reasonable, that is, until you really consider the fact that you’re going to burn them.
It adds up. For example, we’ve got six large lanterns on the back porch in Southampton, each takes a large (I like 3″x8″) pillar candle that can cost from $7.95 (cb2) to $19 (for a 4″x8″ at Pottery Barn, on sale from $24). If you change them, say, three times a season, that’s over $143 up in flames, and that’s using the cheaper option. (Using the pricier pillars (which, I’m sorry to say, I have done), brings the bill to an embarrassing $342.) Similarly, I like to light a lot of tapers on the dinner table, often using 10 or 12, particularly in the dark winter months. At $2 to $3 a piece, that’s like burning up a nice bottle of wine.
Fortunately, my wise and thrifty mother recently taught me to buy candles at IKEA. Like much of their flat-pack furniture, IKEA candles are almost unbelievably cheap, except here there are no hidden costs of time and marital discord associated with “some assembly required.” The quality is also solid: there’s no smoke, dripping or unpleasant odor, and the burn time is comparable to other moderately priced candles. The “Fenomen” 3″x8″ pillars pictured above are just $3.49, which brings our seasonal lantern bill down to a defensible $62.82. The “Jubla” tapers above are just $7.99 for a box of 20 ($0.40 each), which makes the tab for lighting the table more like the price of a glass of house red than a good bottle of Oregon Pinot.
Thanks, Mom.
