Vaping: The Saving Money Myth (sarcasm alert!!)

[phorbin]

I first started looking into Ecigs about 2 years ago. In the US they were a pretty new concept at the time and prices were much higher, quality much lower than is currently the case. Having checked the stuff out but not liking those prices of old, i decided to wait. Well, at the beginning of this summer I had some minor (yes, they were really minor, its cool) health problems, but I'm nearing 40 and started doing some serious thinking. Its time to really stop smoking. I can put it off no longer. So I updated my knowledge base with some new research and learned that in the two years since I first checked it out, prices have gone way down, and quality way up. Time to get serious about Ecigs!

So I did a little more research, and being a heavy smoker with all the physical and psychological habits I said to myself "Self, you should try one of those things looks just like a ciggy" (which of course I now know we call supermini's). So I bought a Blu. Then I found ECF. Then I actually RECEIVED my Blu. Then i was pretty mad at myself.

Next step: eGo. Good, now I have something that actually makes vapor and provides some flavor. Excellent

Next step: juice: ok so i'm a newb and a little knowledge is a dangerous thing...probably woulda been better off with no knowledge at all. Bought some Dekang juice from the same site I got my eGo kit from.

Next step: juice the Sequal: There really is a difference. So now at this point I bought a super mini (bad) and a joye ego (really really good 4 me) and some Dekang juice, along with spare attys and carts...so i'm set right? Nope, this juice (sorry to Dekang loyalists) doesn't really seem to taste like much. Maybe I should try some of the other companies I've heard about. Sample packs...sounds like a plan. Sample pack from Velvet Vapors, random selections from Vapor Bomb, FSUSA, Ms Ts and Backwoods Brew. Sounds like i have some quality juice to vape now right? Wrong....well ok, not wrong, just not steeped enough to vape yet but oh hell I'm almost outta the Dekang stuff, but at least it tastes good at the moment, and i don't need to wait on it. Maybe I'll buy a couple more Dekangs to tie me over while I wait out the steeping process on the hand made stuff.

Next step: I learned about steeping! Wait....so what you're saying is, when the FSUSA stuff I have now is actually ready to vape, I should go ahead and get more of it? Just so its here and steeping and getting ready? Wait.....so you're saying I need BACKUPS??? Oh crap!!!

And what the hell is all this about MODS? Bottom feeders? Tilts? High Voltage? Stacking batteries? In any other part of my life a bottom feeder is a BAD thing....but you're saying I want....no i NEED one? Y'all are killing me!

Whoever said this is probably a better alternative to smoking? OK, you get a +1 from me....but that jerk who said I was gonna save money!!!! -5.

As the title implies, this is all to be taken with a grain of salt, but seriously, in the short term I can't see how most vapers save money (unless of course they are new to it and have a built in guinea pig who already did all the work...like me). Once you find your sweet spot sure, then in the long run its possible to see the savings. But my sweetspot? What is it? I think i'm finally figuring out what juices and by what maker...but (such a newb) I still use a 3 piece setup...i've never even seen a cartomizer, let alone used one.....are they for me? IDK, maybe...but i won't know till i spend more money. I work from home a lot of computer time, i should own a passthru. Even though I work from home i drive a lot...i should have a bottle fed. Holy crap. Till i'm done finding my sweet spot I'll be 4 digits in the hole.

Point is this....in addition to our nicotine addiction, we also have a new hobby. I've had a lot of hobbies in my life that i could dump a ton of money in to. This has the potential to be another one. But look at it this way folks....whats cheaper? A few bucks spent on experimenting with juices and mods? Or lung cancer?

Yup, you're damn right I spent all this money!



Phorbin

 

[DocWyatt]

All true. I guess one point is you will save a LOT of money - but not until you find the PV and the juice that will work for you. Until then....credit card.

Fortunately ECF saves a lot of people from making costly mistakes - if they find it first. Unfortunately many, if not most, find it after - like me.

 

[grimshiggy]

even though this is in all good clean vapor fun, i totally see myself in parts of this.....to date, i have only spent approx $75 (as I am still a newb) on essentials, which I think is good considering ALL the research I have done....BUT, i still find myself making a list of things, mainly BACKUPS, that I want to get. I am convinced that the e-juices will cause me to go bankrupt. So many flavors....so little time to vape.

I don't know if I want to see myself checking out the Mod section of ECF.....my head is already spinning!!

 

[Kevin Freeheart]

I've found that vaping allows me to have "modes".

For instance, this week, I'm really really broke. I'm planning on moving by the end of the month and my "fun money" is being sunk into that rather than my Wishlist of juices at my favorite supplier (and they just added new flavors! This is killing me!).

So I'm sitting down and vaping the several bottles I've got sitting around. I'm mixing flavors to kill off the juices I don't really like and I'm finding some interesting combos.

The point, I don't NEED to buy juice. I want to, it IS a hobby, but I don't need to. So I can sit back and say "Now isn't a good time to drop a hundred bucks on more flavors, so sit back and relax for now".

I COULD NOT do that with smokes. I literally recall having like $10 on me and choosing food or smokes. I went with smokes that day.

I have saved money on vaping when I needed to or made that my goal. Vaping gives me that power. I can also blow as much money as I can physically survive with doing.

It's a freedom I didn't have with smokes, so I'm not complaining that sometimes I spend more than I should.

 

[phorbin]

no rush grim...when its time for a mod...you'll know. And yes this post was all in good fun...actually another ECF member sorta egged me on to do write this post. But its funny to me because its true....at least in my case. And I started out simply enough, as did so many others here, just wanted to stop smoking. Vaping was supposed to be an alternative but for many, like me it seems, it becomes a passion.

 

[908Tracy]

Excellent post! So true in so many ways...for so many of us! =)

Vape On!!!

 

[Iron Molly]

Totally agree with this post! I am about a month or so in, very happy with my Riva set-up, and figuring out what juices I like--what a process! And now waiting for them to steep? *sigh* At the very least, perhaps some of the ones I don't like so much will improve... But when you are brand new, you pretty much have no choice but to vape what you get, right out of the box! Mods, I don't even want to go there yet. Going to TRY to wait until my spending on juice sort of levels out, if there is such a thing...

 

[Lisa B]

Lol, great post, if you aren't on a budget vaping can take over your credit cards fast. I have to control my spending so do a lot of research and make the best purchases possible. I have my trusty eGo, my 510's for back ups and a good pass through. Ordered enough juice to get me through until I had the money to stock up on DIY stuff. Now I am all set, will leave the mods alone for now and concentrate on making good juice at home. I am pleasantly surprised that I can make some very tasty juice. Now it is time to put the credit card away and start saving some money.

 

[classwife]

Most enjoyable....!!
I think I am about to break even...maybe !

 

[cruisedoc]

If your point is that you can drop a lot of money, you're right. In 17 months I've easily spent a thousand. ...mods, spares, back-ups, bulk attys, juice, ect., etc. Most have been there. The quest for what works the best. However, I was spending $11 a day on analogs. That works out to be $5,703.00 saved vs $1,000 spent. I'm pretty far ahead.

 

[silkakc]

Agree

I've spent over $300 in a month and that's not including the PV But I have 33 DIY flavorings ($137.00 dollars worth!!) and so much DIY Nic juice that I have enough to last me a year! I've got 17 attys and 3 chargers and Passthrough and 3 Mega batteries for my 510! I think I have everything I need if I could stop looking at the flavoring websites LOL!

It's okay Phorbin...we need something to obsess about and these Ecigs give us something to go crazy with. Our health gets better every day and we encourage our friends and loved ones to try this. It's all good- whatever we spend. I'm so thankful you found a PV you love and some juices you like. Keep on vaping!!

Lori

 

[phorbin]

Good 4 you Lisa. I'm thinking about the DIY route too (and i didn't really even go there in the original post) since it seems like the way to save the MOST money in the long run.

 

[WarsawNan]

Totally agree with this post! I am about a month or so in, very happy with my Riva set-up, and figuring out what juices I like--what a process! And now waiting for them to steep? *sigh* At the very least, perhaps some of the ones I don't like so much will improve... But when you are brand new, you pretty much have no choice but to vape what you get, right out of the box! Mods, I don't even want to go there yet. Going to TRY to wait until my spending on juice sort of levels out, if there is such a thing...

Yeah, you'll eventually slow down on the juice spending. After accumulating a box full of about 50 different flavors, I finally settled on my 4 favorites and have promised myself to stop trying any more new ones until at least next spring.

I too originally switched to vaping to save money. HA!! Sure hasn't happened yet, but I feel so much better than I did when I smoked that I don't really care. The way I look at it is that smoking was a nasty habit; vaping is a tasty hobby.

 

[rogerdugans]

Vaping is definitely worthwhile but the original post is so damn true...
So far I have saved about $150 cutting down on analogs and spent $700 after my last two orders.
In the last 6 weeks.

I DO see some light at the end of the tunnel: I now have the pv I need (and a couple of emergency spares!) and some spare batteries on order.

Juice and attys will be about all I need from now on so once I find a few flavors I really like enough to stick with, the saving will start.
And cost far less than my old 2 pack a day habit.

 

[Klute]

I have been vaping for less than a month and luv it. Been told by the wife, I am spending more on Vaping than analogs  Oh Well. My wife and I have a Work Shop. I work and she shops…. Now it’s my turn *lol*

 

[phorbin]

i have been vaping for less than a month and luv it. Been told by the wife, i am spending more on vaping than analogs  oh well. My wife and i have a work shop. I work and she shops…. Now it’s my turn *lol*

roflmfao!!

 

[Iron Molly]

I am trying to keep this in the perspective that I WAS spending at least $79 per week (a carton) if not more on analogs. I TRY not to spend more than that per week on vaping. If I spend less, I figure I'm doing REALLY well.

 

[Phil McRotch]

Your post is hilariously true.

Maybe "It takes money to save money...?" Lol.

I've been vaping for a little over 2 months slowly upgrading my 510 to the eGO along with all the accessories that come with it and have roughly spent about $300 within that time. It's really hard to not wanna try everything that's new since, like you, I can be a very hardcore hobbyist. When I first thought about it being excessive to just go straight for larger batteries, new attys, different e-liquid flavors, etc., I remembered how easy it was to easily spend that much in a month for analogs...and a cool G in a day for another particular smoking habit. Glad to say, I'm done with both.

Personally, I find it a helluva whole lot cheaper, and legal, to invest on vaping.

 

[Redbone]

Great post. I think we all probably spend a bunch of money on PV's, juice, etc in the beginning. I'm over a month into it and still haven't broke even. Probably be another couple months before that will happen.

Although, I have enough juice for about 2-3 months at this point. I figure after I do break even, its pretty much savings at that point. One trick is to only purchase juice when its on sale (and try not to purchase juice if you already have a bunch) but it can be hard.

One thing for sure, you can't put a dollar amount on saving your lungs and general health, so looking at it that way, we're way ahead!

 

[dhewey]

I think I got lucky in that I knew nothing about e-cigs until I saw Katherine Heigl demonstrate one on the Dave Letterman show.

Coincidentally, an e-cig vapor shop opened in my town at the same time and I immediately went in to get schooled in this new technology. The owner turned out to be someone I already knew and she told me this was her second vapor shop. The first one is being run by her son and is doing a good business.

I tried every type of e-cig that she had in the store until I found the one I liked best which, no surprise after reading ECF, turned out to be an eGo with the more powerful batteries and excellent vapor production.

Then I tried most of the sample juice flavors available and realized that the fruit and berry flavors were by far the ones I liked most.

The shop owner showed me how to vape, how to refill the cartridges and showed me the various starting kits she had available. I went for a middle-of-the-line kit with charger, two batteries and one atomizer -- to which I added another atomizer about a week later. That was just for the convenience of having two complete e-cigs ready to go.

I bought four bottles of juice -- gooseberry, blueberry, raspberry and coconut -- and after a month only the gooseberry is gone and he other three bottles are partly empty and should last about two more weeks. I think the bottles I have are 20ml although I don't know for sure since they are not marked by weight or volume but only by flavor and nicotine content (18mg is what I am using currently).

Recently, I found an online supplier of eGo products and vaping juices and I just placed my first order for three 30ml bottles of "Very Cherry" 18mg nicotine (VG base) and I will determine from that order how much juice I need per month and whether or not I like VG base juice. My information is that VG base is good for vapor production, while PG is added for "throat hit." (Please correct me if I am wrong about this.)

Since my tobacco habit cost me $50 a carton x four cartons per month, that was $200 a month, $2400 a year. Yipes!

After the initial expense for a charger, two complete three-piece e-cigs and some juice bottles I was out-of-pocket about the cost of one month of tobacco use -- about 200 bucks.

The way I figure it, the two eGo batteries will have a decent lifetime so will not need replacement for some time to come. The atomizers I assume will need to be replaced every few months, but those are not a major expense. The juice will need to be replaced regularly and the cost for 30ml bottles was 10 bucks each x 3 bottles + shipping. I will have to see if I like the quality of juice they sell and how long that amount of juice will last and at that point I can estimate the approximate cost of juices per month.

~~~

How much I will save, I do not know. But I do know that my nasty tobacco habit is gone and I have replaced it with vaping which is far, far more pleasant than smoking tobacco ever was and much less dangerous to one's health.