373 days

[chuck333]

My wife suggested I quit smoking and start vaping, on April 20th last year. I did and I quit smoking immediately.
So my one year vaping anniversary has come and gone.
I started out with a Kanger Suvod.
A few months later I bought a Joyetech eGo AIO Pro C.
That was a disaster.
I immediately went out and bought a Kanger Subvod Mega. I found it didn't have enough power for my taste.
Shortly after that I thought I would delve into an adjustable mod and bought a Tesla 80W TC mod.
This did me for a while but the threads became stripped on the mod so I went out about a month ago and bought a Smok Alien 220 kit. Well now I needed a charger. Give me a four battery one please.
That Baby Beast tank drinks juice like I'm not used to. I need a bigger tank. I went and bought a Big Baby Tank. I don't need to fill it as often but this one's drinking even more juice with the quad coil.
I ordered a 200g/.01g scale on eBay and didn't notice that shipping was extra when I placed my bid. I thought, piss on it, I just won't pay. I bid on another scale. I won both bids now I have two scales coming. I paid for both. I ordered 120ml of 100mg nic, 250ml of PG, 1L of VG and a couple of flavours.
Jeez, I'd better get some bottles.
Maybe I should protect my Alien mod. I bid on a case for $1.25 (free S&H). Looks like I'll win that one too.
My Big Baby came with an RBA. Now I'll need some wire, some cotton, some tools. This shit never ends.
I saw a Pico Dual mod online for $18 USD + $5 S&H. Well I couldn't pass that up! I've got one en route.
My wife thinks I'm crazy now. I think she's right. I'm crazy obsessed.
Maybe I should bid on a chest to store all of my crap in.
What a difference a year makes.
Today the little banner thing below says I've saved $1120. Well that's not true at all. But I did get a new hobby and a lot better health for my money.

 

[AndriaD]

Congrats. And yeah the first year, there aren't a lot of savings, there's just too much investment in the new thing going on... but once you get what you need, THEN you start seeing the savings, especially on ejuice.... That shit has about a 5000% markup in shops, and probably at least a 2000% markup online, compared to making your own.

Mine says I've saved over $6 grand; I just figure that's 6 grand I didn't waste on poisoning myself turning tobacco and paper into ashes. I've actually SAVED a few hundred dollars, but mostly, I've spent most of that 6 grand on other stuff, including vape gear. It's like my husband got a raise!

Andria

 

[chuck333]

Congrats. And yeah the first year, there aren't a lot of savings, there's just too much investment in the new thing going on... but once you get what you need, THEN you start seeing the savings, especially on ejuice.... That shit has about a 5000% markup in shops, and probably at least a 2000% markup online, compared to making your own.

Mine says I've saved over $6 grand; I just figure that's 6 grand I didn't waste on poisoning myself turning tobacco and paper into ashes. I've actually SAVED a few hundred dollars, but mostly, I've spent most of that 6 grand on other stuff, including vape gear. It's like my husband got a raise!

Andria

Ya. I get that the costs go down and the savings go up after a time. I bought enough shit to make about 1.5 Litres of vape and it cost me about $90 (including the scales). If I bought 1.5 litres in 30ml bottles at the store, $900+ dollars. Even in 120ml size it's about $535. Similarly with coil rebuilds. I could cut down expenses a lot with DIY. Once I get a feel for it I'll buy in bigger quantities and the savings will multiply. I don't really care about the cost anyway. Whatever I pay, even at the vape shop, it's still cheaper than the analogs plus I get to screw the governments out of a lot of the taxes I used to fork out every time I bought some smokes plus I now have a new hobby.

 

[Synphul]

Congrats on sticking with it. Everyone's different and what satisfies one person may not work for another. There does seem to be a bit of trial and error along with progressing through the ranks. I did similarly, started with cigalikes from v2, progressed to clearo's on a vape pen from halo then moved to regulated mods with rta's/rdta's and began wrapping my own coils and wicking with cotton.

Many people on this forum are helpful and have a lot of experience. As many suggested, I'd be better off with external batteries, a charger, rebuilding rta's vs premade coil tanks/clearo's. They were ultimately right as that's where I'm at now. However going there in one leap may have been too much. Even though they were correct it was a sort of journey I think that made the transition easier. If I immediately had to start winding coils and wicking from smoking and then got a dry hit or a huge lungful of vapor unexpectedly I might've said screw this and given up or been scared off by the initial cost.

It's difficult when you're unsure of something like vaping to justify spending well over $100 on a mod, batteries, charger, coils, wicks, tank etc to start off. Especially when a pack of smokes you're familiar with is $2-5 or even closer to $10. I don't see my starter devices as a waste, without them I may not have stuck with it. Now that I know what works for me and have settled in a bit the costs are reducing and it's not about perpetual upgrading so much.

Like you I'm coming up on a year of vaping. No sticker but if I factor how much I smoked at around 2 packs/day after 365 days I'll have avoided 14,600 cigs. Even with cheap cigs here, that's over $1700. Where I'm at cigs are about the cheapest in the country so pretty much anyone else will have saved more than that. Not to mention vaping sure as hell beats smoking the gum! lol

 

[inspects]

Congrats.......

 

[JuicyLucy]

 

[Vucci]

My wife suggested I quit smoking and start vaping, on April 20th last year. I did and I quit smoking immediately.
So my one year vaping anniversary has come and gone.
I started out with a Kanger Suvod.
A few months later I bought a Joyetech eGo AIO Pro C.
That was a disaster.
I immediately went out and bought a Kanger Subvod Mega. I found it didn't have enough power for my taste.
Shortly after that I thought I would delve into an adjustable mod and bought a Tesla 80W TC mod.
This did me for a while but the threads became stripped on the mod so I went out about a month ago and bought a Smok Alien 220 kit. Well now I needed a charger. Give me a four battery one please.
That Baby Beast tank drinks juice like I'm not used to. I need a bigger tank. I went and bought a Big Baby Tank. I don't need to fill it as often but this one's drinking even more juice with the quad coil.
I ordered a 200g/.01g scale on eBay and didn't notice that shipping was extra when I placed my bid. I thought, piss on it, I just won't pay. I bid on another scale. I won both bids now I have two scales coming. I paid for both. I ordered 120ml of 100mg nic, 250ml of PG, 1L of VG and a couple of flavours.
Jeez, I'd better get some bottles.
Maybe I should protect my Alien mod. I bid on a case for $1.25 (free S&H). Looks like I'll win that one too.
My Big Baby came with an RBA. Now I'll need some wire, some cotton, some tools. This shit never ends.
I saw a Pico Dual mod online for $18 USD + $5 S&H. Well I couldn't pass that up! I've got one en route.
My wife thinks I'm crazy now. I think she's right. I'm crazy obsessed.
Maybe I should bid on a chest to store all of my crap in.
What a difference a year makes.
Today the little banner thing below says I've saved $1120. Well that's not true at all. But I did get a new hobby and a lot better health for my money.

Well I see now you got all the major investment down. Anything else you buy is really just extras. But what u been buying seems very close to the essentials.

Like a good TC mod. Wires for TC. Now you have your own juices. Your all set!

And once again congrats on quitting analogs. And I agree I could spend another $10,000 and I won't regret one bit! That's better than coughin and wheezing my lungs every morning when I wake up. Nasty smell and bad health.

Any money spent on being healthy is not money wasted. Tell your wife ,"so if we didn't spend on this we woulda spend money in the hospital and when we sick by smoking cigarettes still" hah!

Congrats again and thanks for sharing your story.