This does get "cheaper" right?

[bottomofthemap]

You want cheaper? Here's one solution. Rebuild your own tanks and mix your own juice. I was hesitant at first but now I can't stop...lol Saving money is always great. From time to time I still buy vendor's juices. Rarely though. I rebuild my own vivi nova, evod, protank, and kanger t3. I have 2 T3s, two vivi novas and one evod and protank. BUT, I bought those over a 10 month time frame. Why so many devices? I don't like cleaning them out just to change the flavor. I have 6 devices with 6 different flavors that I switch throughout the day. Easy right?

I have never paid for an extra head for those devices. NONE of them. Do you know who much money I've saved? Me neither, but I can imagine.

It's so easy to do. Mixing and rebuilding. Heck, you can even start making some of your money back by rebuilding /mixing for your friends!

 

[AppalachianFury]

Yeah man, the road to savings is paved in rebuilds and diy juice. I pay like 2 bucks a 30ml bottle of organic juice.

 

[DaveP]

I have a ziplock bag full of heads that I rebuild for various tanks. It's something you can do while watching TV once you figure it out and establish a good method for winding the coil and inserting the wick. Kangers are super easy since you just insert the newly coiled wick into a slot and pop on a head.

When you wash and dry burn a home wound Kanthal coil on a silica wick and then look at it, the wire goes from black to shiny and the wick gets almost like new. The taste comes back and you are off to the races once again. When the wicking starts to deteriorate you wind a new one and replace it.

 

[Dakota Jim]

So within the first 2 months of starting vaping I spent over $1000.00 for equipment, juices etc..

After 2 months I was doing DIY juice (about $3.50 per 30ml - will vary with nic strength) and rebuilding my protank heads myself (about 5 minutes (after cleaned and dried) and .30 cents (or less) of kanthal and silica wick)

I use about 50 - 60 ml per week and 1-2 heads so worst case is less than $8.00 per week ($55.00 per week for 10 packs of analogs)

equipment - discountvapors.com and fastech
diy flavor and nic - RTS vapes - I use the flavor apprentice and the 60mg nic (cut down to 2-6 mg when mixed up - very toxic - keep locked up and use proper safety procedures when mixing - read all stickies in diy forum
PG and VG - amazon
kanthal - ebay - about $9.00 (or less) for 100 feet of 32 awg A1
silica wick - thehouseofvapor.com (or you can use cotton balls from drug store - cannot dry burn cotton though)

initial cost of diy can be spendy when you are finding flavors you like - plan on flavor mix strength to be 15 - 20% - cheaper to start light on flavor and add to mix - keep track - adding flavor will not decrease you nic strength that much - use downloadable diy software (link in diy forum)

 

[Superchunk]

I've been wondering the same. I know it's on me, but I'm horrible at just settling for what I have. I must have spent at least $800 in the last 2 months. The problem is, I'm still not particularly satisfied. At this point I'm aiming my sights on cheaper RBA (just ordered Igo-L and W clones from FT) and learning to rebuild my own coils for my protanks and whatnot. Then there are all the different juice vendors...

I dunno.

 

[doubleM]

The spending depends on your wandering if you will. To many it is not only a way to get off analogs, but it has become a hobby or even a social event with the great people like you see in these forums. My son is still on disposables and spends like $10 a week. I on the other hand have like 14 tanks with different flavors and 2 Provari devices at all times. I took stock in it about 2 months ago and due to the abundance of juices I've stocked up on and the cartos I've acquired, I haven't spent a dime in those 2 months. Looking realistically from a hobby/replacement point of view I'm still saving money - Cigs were costing me about $180.00 a month and now I'm spending about $60 a month. The $60 is mostly for e-juice. I haven't gotten into DIY (don't think I ever will, but that's just the current thought), but I do wrap coils on a couple Z-Atty-Pros and AGT-2. As they've said buy the Kanthal on e-bay as well as the wick material - cheap!

 

[Fulgurant]

Yeah man, the road to savings is paved in rebuilds and diy juice. I pay like 2 bucks a 30ml bottle of organic juice.

Sure, but I think for newer people it's more instructive to observe that they can save money (relative to smoking cigarettes) even without becoming Do-It-Yourself hobbyists.

After all, there are any number of things that I could save money on if I devoted myself to learning all of their intricacies; I could do all of my own plumbing work, for instance, or bake my own bread, or or or. But realistically, I'm never gonna be interested enough in every possible thing to save the maximum amount of money in every possible way. My time and effort has some worth. (Not terribly much in my case, but some! )

For the sake of argument, let us assume that a pack-a-day smoker spends $5 per day on cigarettes. That adds up pretty quickly over time. By contrast, a cost-conscious vaper could conceivably spend as little as let's say $50 per month on commercial juices and replacement parts. (That's 4 30ml bottles of juice @ $10 each, plus $10 in incidental equipment maintenance.)

Throw in the cost of a few stick batteries and clearos (let's go huge and assume $150 on equipment up-front), and your vaping habit accounts for a whopping $750 over a year, versus 5 * 365 = $1,825 over the same span if you'd kept smoking. Even if we were to double the juice price, we'd still be in the black.

The point of all my rambling is that newbies can quite easily save some money, even a great deal of money, if they're patient. They shouldn't feel like they have to become vaping experts to save money; in fact, the impulse to become a vaping expert is far more likely to vastly inflate a newbie's costs over the crucial introductory period, because experimenting ain't cheap.

 

[ohmyidontthinkthisworks]

Like I was in this same place long ago, I eventually found where I was happy, I stop buying as much.. I got a vamo, which does everything I need it to reliably.. I got a carto tank for traveling, might see 1-2 cartos a month, and rba which i do myself with cotton, which cut down tons of cost.. shopped around a bit for inexpensive liquids from vendors that I enjoy. With less experimenting with new stuff I really don't spend much more than 65 bucks for 2 months in comparison to my 5 dollars a day to smoke, sure prices have gone up on those though. The key is finding what works and just stick with it, I only replace my mod if it was to break which I got over a year into this one.

 

[ShishkaBerry]

it depends on how much analogs are where you live. in lovely ns, canada, i can pay up to $16 for a pack (this is for top of the line tailor made at a dingy convenience store across from a college). the cigs i smoke now are around 11-12$ a pack, it adds up quick. a PAD = $84+ a week. i dont see myself spending that on juice in a week.

 

[STLBluesNut]

I am guilty of not reading anything but the first page here. So sorry if the thread has taken a turn. The xpense may or may not die down, but most likely will unless you are buying a new mod every month.

The best advice I could give now, which wasnt much of a possibility over 2 years ago when I started, find a local vape shop. Most have samples of every juice they sell available to try. So a big part of the juice trial and error can be done away with now.

2 years ago there werent many brick and mortar stores around unless you were lucky. Now when there used to be one there are more than I have even had a chance to go to with more I assume that I dont know of yet. Btw, I live in the st louis area.

Sent from my GT-P3113 using Tapatalk now Free

 

[DaveP]

Your budget at $6 per pack per day for smoking was about $180 a month, less if you shopped carton deals. Double that if you were a 2PAD smoker. Most of us want to spend less but you have to buy a primary, a backup, and maybe a backup for that. There's batteries, chargers, juice, atomizer options, and some get into rewinding coils which saves money in the long run.

Remember that your options for atomizers are basically tanks and cartos. Yes, there's bottom and top coil options and various brands and designs of each. Usually what the crowd likes is a good choice, but dig into the talk and find out why they like it and see if it matches what you expect. Some may like a bottom coil tank because it smooths out the vape, but if you are looking for killer throat hit you might like a top coil.

To get the best vape, you will probably need a variable voltage/wattage device. You can spend a little or a lot on a good mod. It may be worth your time to drive to one of the larger brick and mortar stores with a presence on ECF where you can try the mods people have endorsed to see how you actually like them in person.

 

[Ainokea]

When i was using vaping to quit smoking, it was cheaper. Now as a hobby and "must get the newest thing or i'll die", it's more expensive. MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE

 

[DaveP]

When i was using vaping to quit smoking, it was cheaper. Now as a hobby and "must get the newest thing or i'll die", it's more expensive. MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE

Once I found a walk in store that had 10 models in the mod shelf that I could hold and try, the selection process became simple. One was way too large, another was too clumsy to work in my hands, a couple were just ugly in person, some were chrome or black and I wanted SS, and one was just right.

I was buying for backup after vaping a Provari for a year and a half and I also wanted variable wattage as well as variable voltage. I chose the Sigelei Zmax V3 in stainless. It's not perfect, but it was the best of the bunch for me and has worked well.

I spent a lot of money trying different brands of cartos until I settled on Smoketech after the great Boge quality control failure. Tanks were a little harder. I found that I like bottom coil tanks because the top coil tanks were too warm and a good but harsher, so I have Vivi Novas and other top coil clearos that now sit in favor of my Evods and Protanks.

It takes a while to actually try the different stuff and settle on personal preference, but eventually the per month cost goes down to juice and replacement parts.

 

[fabricator4]

If I can avoid spending anything more this month, it seems that I have just broken even, in seven months. The future is looking brighter.

The vape expenditure includes *all* expenses, including freight/postage. I do have enough DIY and rebuildable supplies to last me quite some time.

 

[B1sh0p]

MVP2 - $50
3 Smok Aro clearos - $20
10 heads - $12
256 ML of MBV juice - $40

$122 total. Will last me at least 2 months. Cigarettes are $11 a pack here.

 

[Satanis]

If u find a mod u like it gets Cheeper. If u start collecting u might be screwed lol.

 

[taki1203]

If u find a mod u like it gets Cheeper. If u start collecting u might be screwed lol.

Yeah, I think it's the latter

 

[skunk8pe]

I find that as I evolve it gets pricier but such is life...

 

[bluecat]

Set yourself a budget with a monthly limit lower than what you were spending on smokes. 2 PAD at 6.50 per pack is 2*6.5*7*52 = 4,732 a year... You can buy 22 Provaris in a year and still be under sans liquid and batteries. 4,732/12 is 395 bucks per month.

 

[Stosh]

When i was using vaping to quit smoking, it was cheaper. Now as a hobby and "must get the newest thing or i'll die", it's more expensive. MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE

Depends on how much you were spending on cigarettes, and the length of time you're vaping.

I used to keep a spreadsheet of how much I was spending, but that only lasted a year.
Now after 3+ years, my current "cigarette spend" would have been over $13,000
and I haven't come close to that in my vaping budget.

And I have enough supplies to vape for a year or more with no further purchases.