Simple E cig break even calculator

[Jaebihn]

Hi all. I was bored tonight at work and so I decided to generate a calculator to find out when I would break even in terms of money vs smoking. I stopped smoking after Labor Day and I have 49 more days to "break even" assuming I don't spend any more money on e cigs and never buy a pack again. This is all based on the price of a pack and how many packs per day I smoked.

I have uploaded the file. There are no viruses on it nor does it do anything but simple math. To use it. just fill in the places where there are purple boxes and the calculator should do the rest (push enter after you have entered the last box). If you need to add more lines for your "Purchases" just right click on the row you want to add to add a new line. Use this to preserve the equations I made.

If you have any questions on how to use it just PM me and I will help out. If you don't have excel the program will also work with open office or google docs. Both are free and easy to use as well.

Again this is a very basic calculator and isn't really all that pretty. Oh and the calculations are based on your system's current date. So if your computer says something other than the current day it will be off by the number of days your system is set at. I hope I didn't confuse anyone on the date thing.

Javan

View attachment E Cig Break the Bank Calculator.xls

Here is an updated version with some ideas added by Godzilla.

View attachment ECF E cig break even calc REV 1.xls

 

[merlin440]

Personally I just use:



Before I broke even it told me on Aug 2nd I would

 

[Jaebihn]

Thanks Merlin.

 

[banjo]

Thanks! Nice job on the calculator. But, from my perspective, no matter how much money I spend or save on vaping is missing the point. My real savings began the day I stopped analogs after 55+ years of heavy smoking - the cost to me doesn't matter. I've got my health back.

 

[irahuff]

i agree realy it is not about the money or breaking even, i like new toys and i realy am not a fan of smelling like analog smoke all day.

 

[Krynamama2lnb]

That's really cool! I like to keep track of spending (I'm very frugal that way, lol). According to what I have purchased so far, which is quite a bit, but not sure how long it will last, I will "break even" in 13 days from my quit date (assuming I get my PV and juice by that date, and don't buy anything else). Thats pretty good!

Now, will it continue to keep track of savings, after you break even? I am pretty good with excel, so I think with some tweaking for personal use, I will keep adding my money spent on vaping to see how much I actually save, or don't save. Call it a personal experiment...

 

[spider362]

All I want to know is how long it's been since my last analog. That math stuff just doesn't make much sense to me.

 

[RBommer]

I agree, it's not about the money. I started vaping on 9/12/2010. I have not smoked an analog since. I've spent more than I'd like to have while trying different systems to find the one that works best for me. I'm still trying different liquids. But from the start, I didn't care about the money: In fact, no matter how much I spent, I actually relished the fact that it was money NOT going to big tobacco or their taxing partner, the U.S. government! Say goodbye to my money Big T and Uncle Sam! I'd much rather give it to a burgeoning industry selling new technology that is potentially safe for me to use!

 

[Jaebihn]

You're all right. I would never return to analogs because of cost. I mean I have already spent hundreds if not thousands on cessation drugs (gum, patches, etc) and as we all know nothing works. I just made something I thought was interesting to me and I wanted to share it with everyone on the forum who has been so helpful to me so far. I made it because I was bored at work and was curious to create a simple way to track my spending.

krynamama and anyone else please feel free to tweak the excel program any way that will best fit your needs. With the economy the way it is... I have to be mindful of my budget and this is a way I can track things. Thats why I created it.

 

[slbaker68]

Hi Jaebihn. My husband and I quit for many reasons, health and money being the biggest reasons. I dont have the resources to say that it doesnt matter what I spend on vaping though. I am not saying that I havent spent alot on ecigs, because I have spent around $600, but I have enough supplies to last hopefully a year. I find the tickers to be inspiring on many levels (cigs avoided, time not smoking, money saved or how long till you break even). I really get into knowing that not only am I healthier, i am saving some major cash. I think that if the tickers do it for you, more power to you. Success is all that really matters in this journey.

 

[proudlion]

Jaebihn - thank you so much for sharing your calculator! I do not work with Excel so I sincerely appreciate your having done the work

 

[deback]

Thanks for the calculator! It was very easy to fill in the blanks, and I should break even by 12/8/10, if I buy nothing else (and if the 120mL of RY4 I just ordered from FSUSA lasts until then). I overspent by about $300 on stuff I didn't need, if I get the $300 refund I'm expecting in the next few days. Could have spent only $300 for what I'm now using and liquids I've used (and still have). That will teach me to do the research first!

Deb

 

[RBommer]

You're all right. I would never return to analogs because of cost. I mean I have already spent hundreds if not thousands on cessation drugs (gum, patches, etc) and as we all know nothing works. I just made something I thought was interesting to me and I wanted to share it with everyone on the forum who has been so helpful to me so far. I made it because I was bored at work and was curious to create a simple way to track my spending.

krynamama and anyone else please feel free to tweak the excel program any way that will best fit your needs. With the economy the way it is... I have to be mindful of my budget and this is a way I can track things. Thats why I created it.

Jaebihn,
Sorry if I sounded like I was accusing you of saying the money came first. You never said that. I was replying to what others had said, not the your OP. I have purposely not added up what I’ve spent because I just started on this one-way journey (less than a month). Because there is no going back for me, I didn’t want anything to discourage me, so I said cost be damned, I’m not even going to look! When I’m well down the road and free and clear of the analogs, I will be doing the math to see how I made out. I’ll be doing the math on your calculator, which I’ve downloaded and saved on my computer. Thanks for the freebie!

 

[Jaebihn]

Thanks for the support. Like I said before I made the file because I was bored at work and wanted to track my e cig finances but I am also going to use it to show my mother-in-law how much she can really save if she went the E cig route. I have used all of the medical arguements and how its not FDA proven but "safer" than analogs but that isn't working. Now she is getting to the point where she cannot afford smoking as much and I told my wife I won't buy her any cigarettes so hopefully she will give the e cig the old college try. She is always skeptical of new things and pretty set in her ways. She just says that because she doesn't want to try. This is a new angle that I am going to use to try and see if she will quit. Wish me luck.

 

[Godzilla]

What would be cool is to add a few lines of juice stock, a box for how much juice per day you estimate you vape, and have it calculate how many days worth of vape you have. You could even convert those days to Analogs dollars if you were still smoking, so you can see how much more you are saving, based on your stock pile of juices.

Nice spreadsheet.

If I want to add more rows for juice purchases do I just insert a row (right click on the left margin in those rows?)

 

[Jaebihn]

Godzilla. Yes you can add rows that way and you can add as many lines as you want. Excel is smart enought to alter the formulas to ensure you preserve the original intent of the equations after you have added new data. I never thought of the juice thing. I might work on that the next time I am at work. I will PM you my new version you suggested or I will post it in this thread.

 

[Godzilla]

Very cool. Your spreadsheet is good looking too!

 

[Jaebihn]

Ok Thanks to some suggestions by Godzilla. I have added a few things to my original file. I added an "order by" date based on how much juice you have at home and how much of it you use on a daily basis. This order by date is one week before your juice will actually run out.

The second part I added was a calculator showing you how much per day you are saving vs analogs.

Again thanks to Godzilla for the ideas. I have posted the new excel file both at the beginning of the thread and below.

View attachment ECF E cig break even calc REV 1.xls

 

[Jaebihn]

I have tested it out with several different situations and the new calculator is working great. I have also changed the way a few equations worked out to make it simpler. I should have used this method earlier. I went a round-about way to calculate dates. This is much better.

 

[Liv2Ski]

Nice job. I like a few others say cost be damned so I have spent big $$ on vaping supplies and justify it since smokes are $10.20 per pack here in NY. The sheet is realy nice to calculate how much I have spent and now how much more I can spend and prove to my wife that I am ahead of the game health wise and dollar wise! Whoo Hooo more packages and I will use the sheet to negate "how much more stuff do you need" questions!!! Thanks for posting it