I thought when I quit smoking and started vaping I was gonna save money too, and I did for a while. As long as I was vaping on an ego style pen and I could find Zigzag brand juice for 5 bucks a bottle. (Edit: I was vaping 6-10ml bottles a month @ $30 total as opposed to spending $50 a month for tobacco). After about a year I wanted something better, so that meant more juice. So I started DIY to "save money". Then I bought another mod and atty. That meant MORE juice, but that's ok because I make my own, right?
Well, then I decided I might like something besides menthol all the time so I started going to vape shops and trying juice. I started researching recipes online that I might like. That led to buying flavors. During this time, bought MORE gear! That means MORE juice. Now, I'm fairly new to mixing flavors other tham menthol and my favorite cheesecake so I've only got about 125 flavors. I've got 22 more in the cart right now, waiting on payday so I can check out.
So, I switched to vaping for health reasons and to save money. Before vaping I was spending about $50 a month on tobacco. Now I spend $60-$80 a month on flavors, plus the occasional bottle of nicotine, pg, and a gallon of vg here and there.
At least I got my health!
I still vape pretty much the same as when I started, though I use an RDA now, since 2015, so that was only about a year after I started; 9.5 to 10 watts, 2 ohm coils; my 30Q's last nearly a full 3 days in some of my mods. I have about 21 or 22 mods, though some are "vapocalypse stash", and even some of what I consider "current," I rarely ever use. Don;t have many atomizers; really just 2 that I consider worth the effort, and I generally only use one of those. I keep stocked on shisha strawberry, TFA DX Bavarian and Vanilla Swirl, CAP sweet cream, and of course, PG/VG and nic -- got about 3.5 liters of nic in the freezer. I spend maybe a hundred or two a YEAR. I used to spend $88 twice a month -- so my yearly expenditures now are roughly what I used to spend in a month. HUGE savings. I learned very early on that "moar moar moar vapor" wasn't how I wanted to vape -- all I need is roughly the same visible quantity as when I exhaled cigarette smoke, and solid TH. I've never understood this so-common desire for "huge clouds." Makes no sense to me at all.
Anyway, that hundred or two a year is for the various liquid supplies, and I try to buy a new mod or two, evey 6-12 months, just because electronics are neither immortal nor indestructible. I treat mine well, and it shows; even the 2 and 3 yr old ones still look pretty damn good.... but "shit happens" more frequently with vape gear than anything else I've ever seen. Now and then I may see an inexpensive atty I want to try; got a Coppervape Caiman v4 on the way right now.... but I mostly don't buy atomizers, since I require a super-tight draw, and that's like hen's teeth nowadays.
Vaping only one ejuice all the time also saves considerable money. I do mix up new things on rare occasions; something for my son, or a recipe I see around here that appeals to me.... but so far, only my very first DIY has stood the test of time -- I've been vaping that, with ever-decreasing levels of flavoring, since Dec 2014. I buy another pair of batteries every 6-12 months, so that when the oldest stop holding a good charge, it's no bother to simply retire and recycle them.
Just like anything else, vaping can be done expensively, or it can be done very cheaply. It's all choice. And choice is what makes vaping so great!
So, I switched to vaping for health reasons and to save money. Before vaping I was spending about $50 a month on tobacco. Now I spend $60-$80 a month on flavors, plus the occasional bottle of nicotine, pg, and a gallon of vg here and there.
I wanted to respond particularly to this. Someone around here, I think maybe it was
@Rossum, said that if you compared roll-your-own tobacco to bought ejuice (or other expensive ejuice habits), then vaping doesn't save you money; you're comparing apples to oranges. But if you compare commercial cigarettes -- like the pk a day VA Slims I was spending $176/mo on -- to DIY *everything* with vaping (coils, wicks, and ejuice), then vaping saves a HELLACIOUS lot of money. Even if you compared commercial cigarettes to bought ejuice, you still save money, though not nearly as much.
Andria