Old Folks On A Fixed Income

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Dave L

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Just hope you realize that you can't safely distill nicotine from leaf tobacco without lab conditions, it would be very dangerous and is not recommended. It's not like brewing your own beer or distilling your own spirits.

Did I mention I'm an herbalist? I'm not a distiller or a brewer or a chemist, though I fill all those functions at one time or another. An herbalist is like a shaman who is really in tune with plants. Unless he's a "certified herbalist" in which case he has a bunch of book learning.
 

HK-47

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Yes I know what an herbalist is, I just saw you comment about the leaf tobacco and hoped you didn't get some crazy notion in your head to try and start extracting it's nicotine-y goodness all by your onesie. No offense meant, mate. Because I did, and since I possess futuristic levels of precognition I am simply preparing you for defending against yourself.
 

cherrycakes

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I think there are some threads on the DIY forum about nicotine extraction?
but yea be careful it would suck if someone who didn't know what they were doing accidently poisoned themselves

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/liquid-extraction-tobacco/

ok maybe I'm dumb and this is actually about extracting tobacco flavoring, not nicotine.
I'm not sure lol

I am pretty sure that they have strict rules over there about what % of nicotine you are allowed to talk about...

No discussion / sourcing of nic strengths over 200mg/20% in any of the public forums. This also includes the classifieds.
Pure nicotine may be mentioned, but not discussed in detail or sourced / linked in public discussion forums. The moderators have discretionary power to determine "how much is too much".
 
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vernhall

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Learn to rebuild your own attys and DIY you own juice... Neither are rocket science and both can go a long way toward saving you $$... As far as DIY goes you'll miss out on all the fancy designer juices, but the savings is worth the sacrifice IMO... And, even though I'm a newbie to both disciplines, as far as juice goes I can tell you that homemade can be just as delicious as store-bought... :)
 

Ken62

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I don't think $200 per year is unrealistic, not easy but not unrealistic. The juice won't be the struggle if you are making your own. The delivery system will be the struggle but like some here have said, if you rebuild your atty's the "expensive" part would be the batteries. If you are good with electronics you can build your own power supplies and the $200 per year is pretty easy to do.

Keep us updated on your journey!
 

eHuman

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Don't let people discourage you on your savings goals. Shoot for them and if you only get "close", it's a win/win. You will always invest more initially than it takes to maintain vaping supplies. Let me share what is realistically possible.

For my wife and I, we started this year already owning a SS ZMax2 and a modded maxi roughstack, 4 18650 IMRs, 1 AGA-T, 1 IGO-L, 1 Chalice.
Investments this year: x2 K100s, x8 batteries, x2 evolv kicks, x2 IGO-Ls, x2 AGA-Ts, enough nic/pg/vg and flavor for our favorite recipe to make 950 ml of juice, and enough wick and wire to easily last the year.
Total investment this year to date: $270

So we each have a PV and a back up, 12 batteries, 7 rbas, wick and wire to last the entire year, and enough juice to last 10 months.
Cost to replace wick n wire for another year, $20.
Cost to replace Juice to last another 10 months, $50.

Total expected investment this year <$400
Total savings per your numbers $2800 per year

Get dependable gear including backups, use co-ops when possible.
Avoid the I-must-have-the-newest-xyz-every-time-i see-something.
Replace consumables as you need to, buying in bulk for savings when possible.
Smoking was costing you $8.77 per day.
Budget $1 a piece per day for vaping materials and save ~$2500 per year
 

Ken_A

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Don't let the designer juices discourage you is a good piece of advice. I make my own blueberry and blackberry. I mix various fruit flavors together and get some nice vapes out of it. 10 ml of juice will cost me between $0.30 and $0.98 depending on the nic strength. The "designer" juices are nice, but not necessary.
 

Abe_Katz

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Edit: You have to buy your nicotine, mix it with PG/VG and non oil based flavoring and you have ejuice. Simple to do, but no so simple to do well.

In my limited experimentations with DIY juice (I've not had enough time yet to really get started on it good) I've noticed that like making candy the "simpler" the recipe, the more exactly each step has to be carried out. With DIY juice it seems to me that unless one is making rather large batches trying to do without a graduated syringe is incredibly difficult.

Like cooking it probably takes patience and practice to do well.
 

DJ RyckRak

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200.00 a year for two vapers is totally doable.
Simple equipment, Rebuildables and DIY juice= great savings.

I have Mods and such, plus a lot of vendors juices I bought when I started out....

but I could do very well with just my Natural mechanical PV, and the Octopus RDA with my DIY juice.
Cost for me to vape all day= $1.00 (and going down as I am now down to 8mg/ml and discovered the magic of VG clouds)
Suck on that taxman and Philip Morris..:mad:..You got all your going to get from me- forever!!!!!!!
 

juicejunky

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200.00 a year for two vapers is totally doable.
Simple equipment, Rebuildables and DIY juice= great savings.

I have Mods and such, plus a lot of vendors juices I bought when I started out....

but I could do very well with just my Natural mechanical PV, and the Octopus RDA with my DIY juice.
Cost for me to vape all day= $1.00 (and going down as I am now down to 8mg/ml and discovered the magic of VG clouds)
Suck on that taxman and Philip Morris..:mad:..You got all your going to get from me- forever!!!!!!!

$1.00 X 365 X 2 = $730 per year, not accounting for the hardware purchase, and battery replacements.

He'd have to get it down to 27¢ per person per day with everything to stay under $200 for 2 people. A lofty goal.

In my limited experimentations with DIY juice (I've not had enough time yet to really get started on it good) I've noticed that like making candy the "simpler" the recipe, the more exactly each step has to be carried out. With DIY juice it seems to me that unless one is making rather large batches trying to do without a graduated syringe is incredibly difficult.

Like cooking it probably takes patience and practice to do well.

Agree, very much like cooking. I'm just as bad at that and feel guilt throwing away the mistakes, so I consume it and get frustrated with the entire endeavor. I'm working on the discipline of making specific, repeatable measurements and writing things down. I'll eventually make something I like. Fortunately, I'm good with unflavored and like it better than anything I have concocted so far.
 

eHuman

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Wiz labs bulk nic, pg, vg, TPA bulk flavor = $78 delivered and makes 1620ml of 8% flavor, 18mg juice at 4.8¢ per/ml or $1.44 per 30ml bottle.

My wife and I combined go through 20¢ to 25¢ a day in juice. Less than $100 per year. Another $100 can be used for extra batteries (yours don't last a year?) a replacement PV or RBA, more wick n wire etc...

If you have your gear upfront, you can make it for $200 per year easily if you only buy what you need.
 
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