Old Folks On A Fixed Income

[Dave L]

Oldsters on a fixed income....izzat you? Do you smoke? How much are you spending? You know you can't afford it. You probably hack up a lung or two or three every day. What can you do? Maybe you've just accepted that you'll die of lung cancer.

That was me.

I can't even tell you how many times I've quit smoking. Once I quit for 14 years. Doesn't count for much when you started at ten, and when you're in your sixties. After a while maybe you just give up and accept your fate. It doesn't have to be that way!

Three weeks ago my wife and I were looking at our budget. We're seniors on a fixed income, and we desperately want to move. We need a car. It's been impossible for us to save a dime. We were discouraged. When we looked at our yearly expenditures, one figure jumped out at us: We were spending more than $3,200 per year on cigarettes!!!

This was unacceptable....but we've both tried to quit more times than you can count. We've chewed gum, plastered on patches, my wife was even hypnotized. We always ended up smoking again. And why? It gave us pleasure! When you're old, pleasure is important! We watch our diet. We give up things. We've even eaten cat food. It isn't fair!!!

Then we discovered e-cigs. We purchased a pair of joyetech passthroughs, and later a couple 510s for backup. We quit smoking in one day. One. Day. Got that? One day. No cravings, no backsliding.

A nonsmoker cannot possibly realize what a miracle that seems.

No more cravings, no more stinky clothes, no more expensive cartons, no more standing out in the rain for a cig.....

And three thousand bucks a year to add to our income.

Any questions?

 

[Scoop224]

Here's to your continued success!! Keep reading, there's a lot of good info on here that will help you get the most out of your vaping fund.... This is a great time to twke advantage of the advancements in vaping technology!

 

[ScarletAbby]

Amazing story! It is never too late. I hope some other people read your story and change their lives.

 

[HyperRealist]

You really ate cat food?

 

[bilbobaggins30]

Wow! Congratulations to you! It really, really seems like research needs to go here, to read all of the testimonies (including my own), about these devices being cessation devices. Research shows that using e-cigs is the EQUIVALENT of quitting smoking all together! Congrats to you both, and happy vaping!

 

[daventura]

Congrats from one David to another.

 

[juicejunky]

Congrats to you and your wife on quitting and welcome to the forum and the world of vaping. Quitting for 14 years sounds pretty impressive to me, I made it a little over a year twice, now working toward 3 years with vaping.

So you really think you can both vape for $200 a year? You could if you are frugal and learn to make DIY ejuice and maybe even RBA (rebuildable attys). Watch the Treasure Chest in the PIF forum http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...group-treasure-chest-usa-revised-edition.html . People sometimes give their extras away so others can try new ejuice flavors and hardware.

 

[The Ocelot]

Congratulations to you both!

 

[trishdadish]

Yeah good luck on that 200 year. Sounds a little unrealistic.But if you can, do it. So, were dying to know here, what do you use as a side dish to cat food?

 

[cherrycakes]

Guys if that's true it's not funny

 

[Devilok]

Congratulations to you both that is awesome!

 

[HK-47]

My parents are going to be on a fixed income soon, and my old man is a rather heavy smoker. I'm hoping after I get all this figured out myself that I can show some of this to my old man and get him to try vaping.

He smokes harder than I do, and I smoke a bit over a pack a day. Well, not now since I started vaping, haven't quit entirely yet but I've cut down dramatically. Keep up the success!

I'm not sure you can meet the $200 a year budget like posted above without using rebuildables and making your own juice, but if you do it right you should still slash your cigarette costs previously in at least half, or more.

 

[vernhall]

Congratulations to you and your spouse! And it's amazing, isn't it, that the Gov't wants to 'regulate' e-cigs because they may be bad for us? Anything that helps folk quit smoking is a good thing no matter how you look at it!

 

[Abe_Katz]

The $200 budget is possible to do, however, one would have to practically rebuild their all atties, not spend much on batts and DIY all juice. If a battery dies (and they do die) it would come to a choice between juice or a battery. No juice = no vape, and also no battery = no vape. Not to mention various incidentals.

I understand the desire to have 3K in basically extra money from not smoking, and it is doable. However I think a vape budget of 1000 bucks a year is more reasonable and in this specific case would yield $2200 extra (as its not spent on smoking). Yes it is 800 less in savings, but it is more managable I think.

I know that I have to carefully plan my vape budget and I'm working. I can get by on only 30 bucks every two weeks but if I want hardware I have to sacrifice on juice, and vice versa. Sometimes its not an easy choice. This week I had to skimp on juice (I only got 30mL instead of my regular 40mL because I needed some new clearomizers--but I got quasi-rebuild-able kind so it will be cheaper in the long run, its cheaper to replace a coil-wick assembly than the whole clearomizer).

 

[Faylool]

Always count your blessings I say and glad you have enough to get in the ecigs. Non flavored ejuice happens to a preferred "flavor" for some and that simplifies things too. It can be as expensive or as cheap at this time in this market. Keep it simple! I got caught up in the try everything because I can right now. That is going to change and the great thing is I'll be able to have my little or big pleasure actually still because it can be done very cheaply. Yay for you guys. What a relief
Just an added thought. I recently got a 5volt Passthrough from vapor4life. Really, no batteries. Just call their customer service for details and treat the thing carefully I don't think it could be cheaper than that but to use it properly you need to have some little extra education and understanding plus that also will help you make the best choice for delivery devices that you would use....which is really important to the whole experience. Don't run out and buy it but keep it mind for when you decide to save even more money or you are finding your budget goal not being achieved

 

[pfaber11]

i make my own juice out of concentrated nicotine solution and don't use favouring . my atomizers cost of about 1 pound a week they last at least a month if not quite a lot longer. altogether that works out at about 4.50 pounds a week . so not far off and that's vaping about 4 ml a day.

 

[pfaber11]

by the way i use a homemade usb pass thru without battery nice at 5v and a home made battery pack for when i am out and about.. I vape for under 300 pounds a year. and love it.

 

[tj99959]

At 72 I know all about the fixed income thing, but I have still managed to cough up about $100/month for vaping. Not because I needed to, but because I wanted to. However at this point I have plenty of PV's that will still be working fine long after I'm gone. So the only reason I would ever buy another one would be because I wanted to.

IMO the key to vaping cheap is to not buy junk. Been there, done that, and it didn't work out. Buy quality gear as soon as you know that vaping will work for you, and never have to replace it.

 

[cocacola31173]

I only spend about 75 a month. But I have found the juices I like and plus the cost of my tank cartos. I put aside 10 dollars a month for when I need to buy new batteries if mine die.

The hardest part is to resist trying every new thing that comes out. So far I am settled with my carto tanks and my Kanger t3's. Im still saving at least 80 a month then when I was smoking but the way I feel is priceless!

 

[aikanae1]

Congratz. I wish you luck and hopefully you'll share the tips you discover that work for you in keeping costs down. I'm tempted to go with rebuildables but realistically I don't know if I want to put that much time into it. I'll be interested in hearing what you discover.