How to do the math?

[CoughingBad]

So this is the third day I started with ecig (umm still just buying stuff), I have already spent $200, two kits, some accessories, juices. Yesterday I spent 20 bucks and bought an over the counter ecig kit (xHale) that has a battery and 5 cartridges. I already am on the second cart, with this rate i will be done with the 20 bucks in 5 days, which is much quicker than I was hoping for.

Smoking ecig is supposed to be more cost effective than regular cigarettes, but I still dont know how to do the math, can someone help me out? How has eCig help you save? How long does a decent battery last? After I am done with the xHale will i be able to reuse the battery?

Sorry for all the newbie questions, still a bit confused

 

[Sorrid]

Once you get setup with hardware the cost per month drops considerably. All you should be buying after is an atomizer or two every so often and juice to refill those cartridges with and maybe a battery if one of yours goes south on you.

I only need to spend maybe $20 a week on juice and that much will actually last me almost two weeks. The problem is that I love trying different juices and atomizers at different voltages so I end up spending quite a bit more.

Vaping has turned into a rather fun hobby and not just a smoking alternative for me.

You can use the juice you have to refill your cartridges when they go dry. This is the key to saving money when vaping.

I couldn't find much info on that xhale brand but you should be able to recharge that battery.

 

[NCC]

IMO, if your primary motivation is to save money, you've got a real battle ahead of you.

I can't answer your questions from personal experience. Because, I'm nearly a year smoke free and have spent considerably more on vaping than I would have spent on cigarettes. The trade off is that I can BREATHE freely, I can taste my food, I can smell the roses (literally), and I don't stink (unless I need a shower), I can hold my breath for 90 seconds, I don't get winded climbing a flight of stairs, and I have reason for optimism that I've added time to the end of my life.

Priceless.

Many of us get into the hobby aspect of it, and find that replacing the obsession with cigarettes is more easily replaced by an obsession with vaping ... rather than just going cold turkey.

Many people do find $$ savings via vaping. My sincerest wishes of good luck, if that is your motivation. It can be done. And, you will breathe easier if you succeed, literally.

 

[Hawkins]

Also avoid the over the counter stuff, you can find stuff alot cheaper online.

 

[Hawkins]

Also, I would suggest checking this thread out: I made videos for newbies! In particular, broke newbies...

 

[CoughingBad]

Thanks for all the responses!!

Lets see how i should put this.. Yes saving money is one of the motivations, thats a very tempting reason too, dont you agree?

The reason why I even started looking into eCig, as my name implies, is because of my ever getting worse cough, so my main motivation, is not to save money. I smoke Benson and Hedges which is not the cheapest brand I am one of those whos willing to pay for what i enjoy. But if I can pay less for the same amount of satisfaction, heck why not?!?

But I asked this question due to my curiousity. I see a lot of your signatures saying how much money has been saved, so i thought, did i do my calculations wrong?!? Also, if this works for me (i bought the OTC because I am not patient enough to wait for my orders, a kr8 and an ego), I'd like to sell the idea to people around me who smokes. But I need to give them the facts, and if saving money should not be conveyed as a reason for switching, then maybe I shouldnt even mention it

 

[Automaton]

I gotta disagree with NCC. With a bit of planning, saving money with e-cigs is really easy.

I only spent $50 a month to support a heavy smoking habit. I did that by buying bulk rolling tobacco cleverly marketed as "thin-cut pipe tobacco" to avoid cigarette taxes.

And even with how little I spent on smoking, I STILL started to save money by switching to e-cigs after 3 months or so. And it wasn't even that hard. I started with a budget of $100 to get me going strong.

I bought my kit generic. An unbranded Kr808. Cost me $35. An extra battery - $10. Extra cartos - $7.

I only bought one 20ml bottle of juice - $10. I spent the rest of my juice budget on DIY supplies. 60mg unflavored nic juice, 4 flavors, PG, pipettes, bottles, and a syringe - $35 or so.

Total there is just under $100 to get myself VERY well set-up.

That kept me going for a while. Along the way I spent a little on stuff I just wanted. I got a PCC - $12, more cartos - $7, and got in on a juice sale - $15. Didn't need 'em, but wanted 'em, and could afford it.

Total about a month and a half into when I started vaping was about $132.

Then I started getting active on PIF. Trading juice, DIY supplies, etc, for more cartos or other DIY supplies I needed. Eventually my vaping habit became completely self-sustaining and I even got to try new things. I also got to help people out who needed it.

I even wound up with a big enough stock pile that I was able to trade enough stuff to get a whole set-up (kit, juice, PCC, etc) for my dad using nothing but PIF. And all I spent was a couple bucks here or there for shipping.

6 months into vaping, I haven't spent much more than $175. If I had been smoking, I would have spent $300. And I had enough stuff that I was able to give away my original Kr808 kit, extra batteries, PCC, and juice, to a couple I know who smoke.

I spent almost nothing on cigarettes compared to most people who smoke as heavily as I did, and I still managed to cut my spending almost in half.

And I still got to enjoy the hobby. I have tried half a dozen different models, probably 100 different juices, and I even got 3 smokers I know completely set up to start vaping.

 

[Ardeagold]

I was spending $220 per month on cigarettes, and had to go to a neighboring state to get them that cheaply (so add a few gallons of gas to that amount)

I've spent a lot on my set up because I have back up everything in multiples. But I didn't have to do that. I could have done just fine spending about $100-$125, and then getting things as I need them.

I feel you do need a couple of back ups of batteries, attys/carts or cartos, and a way to keep spare batteries charged so you have them when you're not home (via a PCC or a passthru, etc) ... and of course you don't want to run out of juice, but truly, once you get yourself set up so that you know you won't run out of anything, vaping can be MUCH less expensive than smoking.

As it is, I'll break even in about 2 mos and with the amount of juice I vape, I'll quickly be FAR ahead, financially.

Do as one of the above posters said and research a good setup here on the site. There are a lot of great sales appearing daily, so you can get some nice kits inexpensively.

Best of luck!

 

[Firefly13]

I gotta disagree with NCC. With a bit of restraint, saving money with e-cigs is really easy.

I only spent $50 a month to support a heavy smoking habit. I did that by buying bulk rolling tobacco cleverly marketed as "thin-cut pipe tobacco" to avoid cigarette taxes.

And even with how little I spent on smoking, I STILL started to save money by switching to e-cigs after 3 months or so. And it wasn't even that hard. I started with a budget of $100 to get me going strong.

I bought my kit generic. An unbranded Kr808. Cost me $35. An extra battery - $10. Extra cartos - $7.

I only bought one 20ml bottle of juice - $10. I spent the rest of my juice budget on DIY supplies. 60mg unflavored nic juice, 4 flavors, PG, pipettes, bottles, and a syringe - $35 or so.

Total there is just under $100 to get myself VERY well set-up.

That kept me going for a while. Along the way I spent a little on stuff I just wanted. I got a PCC - $12, more cartos - $7, and got in on a juice sale - $15. Didn't need 'em, but wanted 'em, and could afford it.

Total about a month and a half into when I started vaping was about $132.

Then I started getting active on PIF. Trading juice, DIY supplies, etc, for more cartos or other DIY supplies I needed. Eventually my vaping habit became completely self-sustaining and I even got to try new things. I also got to help people out who needed it.

I even wound up with a big enough stock pile that I was able to trade enough stuff to get a whole set-up (kit, juice, PCC, etc) for my dad using nothing but PIF. And all I spent was a couple bucks here or there for shipping.

6 months into vaping, I haven't spent much more than $175. If I had been smoking, I would have spent $300. And I had enough stuff that I was able to give away my original Kr808 kit, extra batteries, PCC, and juice, to a couple I know who smoke.

I spent almost nothing on cigarettes compared to most people who smoke as heavily as I did, and I still managed to cut my spending almost in half.

And I still got to enjoy the hobby. I have tried half a dozen different models, probably 100 different juices, and I even got 3 smokers I know completely set up to start vaping.

You really are a clever girl working it out like that, i think i've spent close to 500 dollars just this month on new mods and juices / cartos. It's not about what you WANT, it's about what you NEED But the 'new toys' factor has gotten the better of me this month.

 

[vapomike]

You can save money by vaping. I don't know how much you smoke, so maybe you only smoked $20 a week. As you know from my other thread I'm just getting back into this. I spend right at $200 a month though. Once you get your hardware, you will start seeing the savings. You may not see it with your setup right now. I recommend doing some research and see what is available.

This is how I did it.
1. Research the models and accessories (Find the models that appeal to you, and the accessories that you want such as PT, Chargers, atomizers, carrying cases, and etc.)
2. Find suitable liquid(s) for you. (Flavor, strength, vg/pg)
3. Research the suppliers (Find the dealers that have good reps and have the supplies you want at a price you can stand.)
4. Once you find your suppliers, build your vaping kit and find the best deals on what you want.

If you do each of these steps you should be able to find something that fits you and your budget. The great thing about these steps is you can pretty much do it all from this great site. I got a riva 510 se starter kit, 5 extra lr atomizers, and 30ml of 24mg juice for $79.97 shipped from liberty-flight. So I didn't even spend 2 weeks of my normal smoking habit and should be covered for 2-3 weeks on the liquid. Even if I had to buy everything every month, I'm still coming out $120 a head. Once you get it where you can buy a few bottles of liquid and a few atomizers a month you will really start seeing the savings.

P.S. A little warning. If you do get into the hobbyist side: it can dwindle those savings, but even if you do you should save some money. That is if you smoked heavy enough.

EDIT: Some of those sigs only calculate money saved by quitting, not the money that you're still spending for the e-cigarette.

 

[atom48]

I smoked about a carton of analogs a week @ $46.00 carton. (Here in CO.) That's around $2392/yr, $200/month. (I never bought cigs by the pack.) I paid around $175.00 for my most recent kit (eGO) with all the extras...case, 3 extra attys, carts, cartos, and ejuice.

If that were all I spent, I would have broken even in the first month, with $25 to spare. Then add in about $30/mo for juice, maybe another $10 for more carts, and I figure that over a year's period of time I would save about $1777.

This of course is barring buying more attys/batteries, more kits for backup, trying out many juice flavors , moving to HV , and all the other impulse buying I do .

Nevertheless, the savings can be quite considerable. Not to mention the other savings...like to my health (fewer doctor bills), clothes cleaning, work production, etc., etc.

Now if I could just get rid of my Starbucks habit....(I have an espresso machine, but just not the same. )

 

[CoughingBad]

Ahhhh, so those signatures are a bit "misleading" eh!!

Thanks again for all the responses, yes agree with firefly MistressNomad is very resourceful, thanks for those videos you posted!!

I smoke a pack a day, I do go to DFS to purchase my cig from time to time but on average like most of you i spend roughly 200 a month.

The kits i ordered are not very expensive, there were discounts here and there but after adding all the accessories they both came out to be about 70 bucks. And then i ordered some more juices, and the OTC kit so i now am already at 200, in 2 days!!!!

Anyways, as i said earlier, whats important to me is to be able to quit cigarette, if i can quit, i will be so overjoyed and will totally forget the 200 dollars spent. And like i said, i just want to get a feel of the spending after conversion, just to be a more educated vaper!!

 

[CoughingBad]

and all the other impulse buying I do

oh no, i already am an impulse buyer (my husbands nodding), that will be a downside of vaping!!

 

[Automaton]

Well, necessity is the mother of invention. I did what I needed to, working with what I had.

I just don't want any budgeting newbies to think you can't vape on a very tight budget. You can. You basically just have to work out your first purchase wisely, and after that everything gets easier.

Now my budget is a bit more free, but I'm 6 months into it, and I'm pretty settled in what I like. I don't really have a driving urge to continue trying new things for now. So I don't imagine my spending is going to go up much.

That's the other thing. Vaping has a high initial cost, but as you move along you will most likely get a good stock going and settle into your routine. At that point, your spending will drop. My very first purchase still accounts for most of the money I've spent on vaping.

Of course, some people do get very into buying every mod and every juice and really indulging in it. If you've got the money, why not? But a lot of people don't do that, and it certainly isn't necessary.

 

[Harlequin]

Math has never been my strongest suit, but I definitely spend considerably less vaping than I did smoking. Until November 2009 I had a pack-a-day habit and now in a given month I spend roughly $55.00 on niquid, plus occasional replacement atomizers and even more occasional replacement passthroughs. Fulltime dripping means I don't buy cartridges or cartomizers (in fact, I'm not even sure what the latter are).

Mainly, I think that I save $$ because as much as I enjoy vaping and am interested in the emerging vaping subculture, I'm not that much of a hobbyist. The eGo allows me to vape as much as I want wherever I want, and I'm free of the cigarette habit - that's plenty for me.

 

[clark8876]

I can say that I have saved mega money since starting vaping 8 months ago. However, a lot depends on how much you currently pay for analogues. In May of this year our beloved government increase taxes on cigs so that my analogues went $18/pack and I was smoking 1.5 packs/day = $27/day or approx $190/week.

I now vape approx 3ml of juice per day so approx 20ml/week which costs me $4.00 (Dekang and DIY).

I have found I need to allow for 1 atty every 3 weeks (approx $1.70/week) and 1 Riva/eGo battery every 3 months (approx $1.70/week). Cartos work out cheaper.

So overall running costs $7.40/week. Saving: $190 - $7.40 = $182.60/week.

When I have a convert, I recommend that they set themselves up with a Riva/eGo kit and tell them that it will cost them approx $120.00 landed. The kits will have 5 extra attys and an extra USB charger plus 5x20ml bottles of juice. I tell them to order a couple of extra batteries next time they place a juice order.

To clarify, I'm on the other side of the world from the USA so I purchase mainly from China (mainly because we can't buy nic juice in Australia) but also support our local guys for hardware and 0mg juice etc. China is faster and cheaper in freight for me, rather than the US.

So over the past 8 months I can definitely say I have saved money.

EDIT: Mind you I have spent more money on trying some new attys & cartos etc but still way in front.

 

[mistinthewoods]

I started buying prepaid visa cards to do my online ecig supply shopping because I had 3 CC numbers stolen in a 2 month period. I buy a $50.00 card every month for cartos, attys and DIY juice supplies. I didn't even need to buy one in November because I had a pretty good stash of supplies.
When I smoked I was paying about $8.50 a pack for my Benson & Hedges and smoking more than a pack of those a day which comes to more than $255.00 a month. I could buy a GGTS every month AND my supplies for that kind of money

 

[NCC]

Ahhhh, so those signatures are a bit "misleading" eh!!

Incomplete, I would say. Keep accurate records of your actual expenses. Include everything (tackle box, blue foam, tweezers, anything you buy for vaping or to make vaping better). I use MS Excel, but a piece of paper and a pencil would do.

I tried fooling those banners by entering data with a tweak here and there. Gave up. For what it's worth, I smoked More Reds 120s for 35 years. They're a premium brand, were selling for close to $7 a pack one year ago ... and in 35 years I never, not once, found them on sale. So, like the OP, I was willing to pay the premium price for what I wanted. My point was, and is, primarily that you can do a better track than ANY of the banners can when it comes to "doing the math".

 

[grandmato5]

When people that are thinking about switching to vaping ask me about how much it will cost and if they will save money I tell them to expect to spend as much on vaping for the first 3 months as they spent on smoking. After those first 3 months they will will likely start saving a lot of money IF they want to. Then I explain just a little bit about finding what hardware they really are happy with and what flavors they really like. Yes, I know that's not always true, but I think it gives them a realistic idea of what to likely expect.

 

[markfm]

A full Riva 510 or KR808D-1 kit run $30 - $50, catch a spare battery for < $15 and a spare charger for around $10. Typical modern lithium batteries are good for about 300 charge cycles.
Assume you will go through the full base kit in 1/2 year (180 days), that both batteries and your charger will magically go bye-bye. This is pretty conservative, as you should only have done about 180 charge cycles on the equipment. You don't count the backup battery and charger on this -- they are "carrying spares", things that only get used if you have an early failure.
$50/180 days = 27 cents a day base hardware cost.

Assume you run 3 ml of liquid a day, 90 ml a month -- fairly typical moderate to heavy vaping. I likely run more like 5 ml or so, but I do absolutely chain-vape at work and am into the hobbyist side, trying lots of things. 90 ml runs about $45 for purchased juice, good quality but not ultra-premium. That's about $1.50/day.

So far we're at 0.27 + $1.50 = $1.77/day.

All that's left is cartos/atomizers/HW at the mouth end. Budget about $1/day for those replaceable items and you are at $1.77 + $1 = $2.77/day.

So, I come out to about $2.77/day for someone who is a moderately heavy vaper replacing a pack a day habit (3 ml is a healthy amount of vaping). I mainly DIY, which brings my juice cost down to < $5 an ounce (including S&H on the things I use); factor in that I'm up at the 5 ml end and still buy some commercial liquid and I come up with my cost roughly $2.50/day.

So, about $2.50/day is my outlay for ecigs, base. In loverly NY a pack at a gas station is up at around $10, so my daily savings are nominally somewhere around $7.50, and even at a local reservation prices aren't that cheap for name brand cigs, I'd be saving about $5/day.

For me, then, I look at my weekly savings as somewhere between $35 and $50 compared to still smoking analogs. If I choose to use anything up to that amount on hobbyist aspects of ecigs, or PIF, it doesn't hurt my head in the slightest, since I didn't start vaping as a money saving thing.