DIY E Liquid - Let's Do The Maths
Tue 21 Aug 2018
Smokers have always had the option of rolling their own cigarettes rather than buying a pack. Of course there is some inconvenience to rolling, and many have personal preference to a particular brand of cigarettes.
However with the average pack of 20 cigarettes at £10.40, surely more smokers would switch to rolling (if not vaping or stopping). The evidence currently suggests not, despite one smoke costing 52p. A generally accepted yield for rolling tobacco is 100 cigarettes per 50g pouch (0.5g per smoke). The average 50g pouch is around £19.50, so 19.5p per cigarette plus 1.5p for a filter and paper totals 21p.
There are of course there are many variables in rolling, such as length of papers, how much tobacco is used, how much wastage there is etc. But there is still an approximate 60% saving.
Does this translate to vaping when we look at DIY e liquids?
The average 10ml bottle in a retail environment is around £3.50 when factoring in 3 for £10 offers etc. For arguments sake lets say that 30ml is therefore £10.00, and 120ml is £40.00.
To create 120ml of my favourite juice (Punk Juice – Anarchy) at 3mg nicotine, buying the kit on this fine website would be £9.49. This represents a rough 75% saving on buying equivalent ready made bottles in shops. I can go one step further, and with a small initial investment to buy PG, VG, flavouring and nicotine, 120ml would cost me around £6.50 and very little of my valuable time.
It is in essence a no brainer for any passionate vaper to go down the DIY route, or meet in the middle buying the top up kit. The convenience of nipping to a shop and buying a couple of 10ml bottles, and being able to try new flavours for a few quid is appealing, but once your tastebuds guide you one way, I cannot recommend enough that you go DIY.
If you are a fairly heavy vaper, where 120ml lasts one week lets say, you are looking at an outlay of just short of £350 per year. Go for a little more convenience and have the shot set, expect to spend around £500 per year. Go to the shops and vape the same quantity…. A staggering £2000 per year.
Of course compared to smoking ready made cigarettes (20 per day is just shy of £4,000 per annum) this is still relatively cheap, but not compared to rolling tobacco, in fact rolling cigarettes and buying vape liquids in 10ml quantities in shops is much of a likeness in cost. Add the hardware, and believe it or not, smoking rollies may be more financially viable.
Additionally, many who have the commitment and passion for DIY liquids may also rebuild their own coils, another substantial saving. You can even factor in the costs of having to go out and buy the pesky little 10ml bottles! Pennies make pounds ladies and gents, switch to DIY as soon as you can, it is easy to do, fun to experiment, and saves you the all important brass.
Written by ELFC Content Creator Alex Blatherwick
