Diy cost breakdown!?

[levisdaddy]

I was wondering if anyone had a spreadsheet or similar information on the costs of DIY, broken down to cost per ml (with or without bottle)? I know this is kinda vague, but I am becoming interested in DIY and would like to know what Im getting into financially. Thank you in advance

 

[Hoosier]

The "Cost to juice by the ml" tab in Scubabatdan's calculator, in the stickys above, is already a spreadsheet and you can input your costs of the various components.

 

[markfm]

I'm running about $2.50/30 ml for high flavor (20%) 10 mg/ml, includes S&H on the nic base and flavorings but excluding the bottle. I use US Plastics for bottles, pretty cheap 6/10/15 ml, and their 2 and 4 ounce blue PET for larger batches, just keep total order at under $20 or $25 (I forget which) to get in on the lowest shipping cost.

 

[Blackbeard]

I've discovered that the cost per milliliter of DIY is inversely proportionate to the amount of certainty I have of which flavor I want to vape.

In other words, when I first started considering DIY, I wasn't sure which flavor I wanted to end up vaping. They all sounded good and I tried a bunch of flavorings, driving up the cost of that ml I was shooting for, along with the wasted nicotine juice. Once I decided on the flavor(s) I liked, the strength of NIC and the ratio of PG and VG I wanted, I can now make about 30 ml for under $2.00. I only use one or two flavors in any juice, and I very seldom use over 15% of any juice. So to be on the safe side, that's about 7 cents per milliliter. That doesn't include bottles, measuring equipment, shipping, etc, but once those are acquired, the cost of that goes to zero.

 

[ethebull]

The larger quantities you buy up front, the more you save.

I buy 100mg/ml nic 500ml at a time which costs about $55. PG & VG runs about $20 for 1000ml To make 2500ml of flavorless juice at 20mg/ml costs $95, or $.04/ml

Flavors work out to about $.02-.03/ml, so total cost per ml is less than $.07/ml When it's that cheap, I don't sweat the pennies.

It would be even cheaper if you want less than a 18mg/ml nicotine concentration, or bought PG & VG a gallon at a time.

 

[levisdaddy]

Thank you for the responses!!! When I get home tonight from work I am going to do some math, and see what I can afford. What a HUGE difference in DIY compared to vendor juice. I figure if i can make it at under 12cents a ml I am doing it right (monetarily)

 

[markfm]

That's a very reachable number, though early on expect to run a bit higher, as you build up some base items like graduated beakers, flavors that you turn out not to like so much, etc.

Right now goodprophets is having a sale on their DIY items, HALFOFF. Their nic price isn't as low as you can get, in terms of mg of nic per $, but 36 mg/ml can be nice as a starting level to work with, and they're handy to pick up other DIY items.

My number is using the GP sale nic price point. I only buy nic on sale, and find 36 convenient, less filler to add at the end.

 

[Blackbeard]

I think I did some calculating once to see how much I saved if I bought 100 mg NIC instead of 24 mg NIC. Surprisingly, there was only a fraction of a penny difference per ml of mixed juice. Seems the cost of high mg NIC and using a smaller amount per juice is about equal to the lower cost of low mg NIC and the need to use more of it. You may want to do the math yourself first since you're just starting. Using high mg NIC can be dangerous and if you're not accustomed to using it and have not developed your mixing habits, you might run into a little problem. Low mg NIC is also cheaper, so your initial cost will be lower until you find out if you really want to do this.

The advantage of high mg NIC is that you can make a lot more juice from it than you can with the same amount of low mg NIC, and if the FDA comes down on us like everyone thinks, have a stockpile might be important. High mg NIC also takes up less space on your shelf.

 

[samazon]

That's a very reachable number, though early on expect to run a bit higher, as you build up some base items like graduated beakers, flavors that you turn out not to like so much, etc.

Right now goodprophets is having a sale on their DIY items, HALFOFF. Their nic price isn't as low as you can get, in terms of mg of nic per $, but 36 mg/ml can be nice as a starting level to work with, and they're handy to pick up other DIY items.

My number is using the GP sale nic price point. I only buy nic on sale, and find 36 convenient, less filler to add at the end.

Just ordered some bottles from them. They sent me a shipping notification in under 20 minutes. ... Sheesh. That's fast. Mmmm sales.

I'm working on a speadsheet but it's super incomplete right now.

 

[ethebull]

Here are my notes from my spread sheet when I first started diy -

Getting into DIY juice will save a lot! Here's my initial order thoughts:

100mg Nicotine (PG) 500ml $70.00
VG liquid 500ml $19.00
PG liquid 1000ml $30.00
Flavor Concentrate 5ml $4ea $80.00 20 flavors
Flavor Concentrate 10ml $6ea later maybe
Menthol crystals 1oz $6.00
Koolada Ice 30ml $15.00
50ml Pyrex measuring cylinder $12.00
500ml bottles 2 $5.00
50ml bottles 10 $10.00
30ml bottles 20 $16.00
5ml syringe w/ needle tip $2.00

$265.00 $238.50 w/10% off + free shipping
20% offered so I did it. $214.93 for everything. Saved $46 and free shipping

Vapingzone.com has offered 20% off in the past too. (Liquids only)

Your first 1800ml will cost $215, or $.12/ml. Subsequent batches
will cost $.07/ml when buying 10ml bottles of concentrate. Less if I continue to
order $200 or more per order or only buy when on sale.

Since then I have found PG and VG for a good bit lower cost / ml, and some other items for less too.

Vapingzone, Wizard Labs, and RTS are my preferred suppliers.

 

[levisdaddy]

Awesome, thank you for the break down, that is quite manageable!! I am going to use this page for reference for my future order, thank you again!!