8 Top Tips for Budget-Friendly Vaping
Aside from the fact people switch to vaping from smoking for health reasons, people also make the change because they want to save money. Although vaping may seem a bit more expensive in the beginning when buying your set-ups, the cost will soon balance out over a couple of weeks and you will immediately notice the difference.
While that’s often enough for starters, as time goes on our expectations increase. You may want to carry on vaping, but you might also want to have more spare cash to enjoy your life or save for the future. That’s particularly relevant at the moment, with prices increasing and national insurance rises coming to pinch our pay packet.
So for all the thrifty vapers out there, we’ve found some ways to help you minimise the cost of vaping – while still staying off the fags!
Here are some of our top 8 tips for vaping on a budget:
1.Choose a simpler device.
While a high-powered mod with advanced technology and features may look and sound cool, for many vapers the bells and whistles of these devices aren’t needed.
A lower-powered, less feature-rich pod or pod mod device such as the Vaporesso GTX GO 40 can still provide you with a satisfying vape, with versatile features such as adjustable airflow and wide coil resistances, just at a much lower price.
2. Vape Mouth-to-Lung
The way you vape can also impact your vape-related spending. Choosing a Mouth-to-Lung (MTL) vaping style can save you money in the long run compared to Direct-Lung (DL) vaping. (Confused about these terms? See MTL vs DL for more information.)
DL is more costly than vaping MTL for a number of reasons;
Firstly, DL vaping requires a more powerful device which, as mentioned above, are usually more expensive.
The lower-resistance coils required for DL vaping also tend to burn out more quickly than the higher-resistances needed for MTL and will need to be replaced more often – meaning more cost. The difference can be significant – many DL coils only last a few days while MTL coils can last weeks with proper care.
Direct-Lung vaping also produces larger vapour clouds – causing e-liquid to be used up a lot more quickly. Sticking to MTL will stretch your vape juice further.
3. Shop sales and clearances
Here at Blackstone you can get some great deals and discounts on devices, vape juices and accessories by shopping around. Browsing clearance sales is a great way to find a cheaper, reduced-price vape.
With new vape products being released constantly, retailers are regularly reducing prices on less-recent products – with many still being fairly new!
4. Bulk buy
After you’ve been vaping for a while, you’ll start to get a good idea of how much vape juice you consume, which flavours you like and how many coils you go through on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
This is when bulk buying becomes a great money-saving technique.
Buying all of your required e-liquids and coils each month rather than each week will mean you can take advantage of multibuy deals and you won’t need to pay a delivery fee each time (if you buy enough in one order you may even bag yourself free delivery!).
Once you have been vaping for a while you will know how much liquid you use, how many coils you use and which flavours you like the best. You can then buy liquids that are available in multi-deals once a month, and you won’t be spending on extra shipping fees. You will also save money buying multipacks of coils.
5. Refillable tanks & replaceable coils
When you first start vaping, you want as little fuss, setup and maintenance as possible to stop you resorting to quickly sparking up a cigarette.
In this case, disposable vapes or devices such as the Popular brand The juiceman bar that use fixed coil, pre-filled pods are a great solution.
However, in the long term, this kind of vaping can affect both your bank balance and the environment.
6. Look after your coils
A prematurely burnt vape coil will not only leave you with a horrible taste but also means wasting money. The longer your coils last, the less often you have to replace them and buy more! Looking after your coils will help them last longer and stretch your pennies further.
You can help prolong coil life by:
Making sure to prime the coil first
Using e-liquids with the right VG:PG ratio for your coil
Sticking to the manufacturer’s recommended wattage or using Smart Mode to ensure you stay in the right range.
Keeping the tank or pod topped up to stop the coil from drying out.
7. Use shortfill e-liquids over 10ml Liquid
If you’re a Direct-Lung vaper using low resistance coils that need a high VG e-liquid, you’ll use a lot more e-liquid than a Mouth-to-Lung vaper.
Fortunately, opting for shortfills is a great way to save money.
Due to TPD regulations, e-liquids containing nicotine are limited to 10ml bottle sizes.
Shortfill e-liquids are nicotine free so can be sold in much larger bottles (usually 50ml) and can also be mixed with nicotine shots so you’re not missing out on your nic fix.
Priced at around £10 – £15, choosing shortfills over regular 10mls is a much cheaper option. The average 50ml bottle, mixed with a 10ml nic shot, will give you 6 times as much e-liquid for much less than you’d pay for 6 individual bottles – stretching your cash further.
Do note that shortfills usually come with a VG:PG ratio of 70:30 or higher. This results in a thicker e-liquid which don’t work well with MTL devices. For best results, use a low resistance coil with wide coil ports for better absorption
Due to TPD regulations, if a liquid contains nicotine, it cannot be sold in a bottle bigger than 10ml. Shortfills are nicotine free, so they can be put into bigger bottles (usually 50ml and 100ml). The average 50ml bottle, mixed with a 10ml nic shot, will give you 6 times as much e-liquid for a cheaper price than 6 x 10ml bottles.
8. Get your nicotine strength right
Using the wrong nicotine strength is the reason a lot of smokers fail to switch to vaping and can also be expensive.
If your nicotine strength is too low you’ll need to vape more to satisfy your cravings. This will mean you’ll be using up your e-liquid more quickly. Choosing the right strength will not only make you more likely to make the switch for vaping but also save you money on e-liquid.
Check out our guide to choosing the right strength to make sure you’re getting the right amount of nicotine.
If your strength is too low, you will need to vape more to feel the benefits, thus using more liquid.
Try Salt Nicotine.
Nic Salts get into your bloodstream much quicker than standard freebase nicotine and stays in there longer, so your cravings are satisfied for much longer therefore you don’t need to vape as much.
Wrapping up
Vaping doesn’t have to be a disaster for your bank account and you can save a substantial amount of money by making just a few small changes.
If the cost of vaping still seems inconvenient, just remember that, compared to smoking, there are big benefits for both your health and your bank balance.
Do you have any money-saving vaping tips? Let us know in the comments below.
