It's been my experience that the additional joose usage levels out after awhile. I went from 24mg to 18mg and my joose intake went up for about three days, but when I went from 18mg to 12mg it went up for about three weeks.
I had made it down to 0mg and was comfortable until the spousal unit started smoking again. I don't blame her for my addictions but I started smoking again for a few weeks and am now back up to 25mg and it's working pretty well.
I guess when I get ready to reduce nic again I could either not worry about the increased joose usage or maybe taper things off a little slower, like going from 25mg to 21mg, then 18, 15, 12 and so on. Both approaches make sense to me so I'm not sure yet which route I'll take.