People are starting to understand how expensive vaping can get. Once they get passed that honeymoon phase, the allure of shiny new mods, cool drippers, and pretty looking juice, tends to fade. This is where vapers start to look at options to get the vape they want, effectively and economically. Mixing your own eliquids is usually the last stop for vaping smart. The first question someone asks that is looking to get into DIY mixing is how much money they can save. People always ask if they can really save money DIYing, like it's some sort of vaping folklore passed down vape generation to vape generation. The answer is yes, you can save THOUSANDS of dollars mixing your own liquids. I'm going to do the math right now and show you that DIY ejuice mixing is the most viable and cheap way to stay off cigarettes.
So first let's look at the cost of vaping, as someone who just buys products from vendors. I'm going to choose a very popular brand of ejuice which will simulate the product someone would buy regularly if they were to vape strictly through commerical juice.
- COSMIC FOG - MILK AND HONEY 30ml | $21.99 + $3.50 Shipping = $24.99 |
Around $25 for a 30ml of juice shipped, to my house. $0.83/ml. A hefty price tag to stay away from smoking. And I understand there are cheaper options out there, but this is the standard average price for market ejuice from online vendors.
Now we need to find out how much the average person vapes. According to the surveys and polls on /r/Ecig the average vaper vapes around 5 - 20ml a day. Most of these polls and surveys did not take into account the influx subohm tanks, which we all know, GUZZLE ejuice. Taking all these variables into account, and I'm being conservative here, the average vaper can consume around 8 - 12ml a day... on average. So let's do the math on this.
$0.83 X 8 - 12ml / DAY = $6.64 - $9.96 per day.
Now we can do the further math and get
$6.64 X 7 = $46.48 per week | X 52 = $2,416.92 per year | ÷ 12 = $201.41 per month
$9.96 X 7 = $69.72 per week | X 52 = $3,625.44 per year | ÷ 12 = $302.12 per month
So the average vaper spends $2,416.92 - $3,625.44 a year on commercial juice
This doesn't take into account for new mods, new drippers, kanthal, supplies, batteries, and other juice to just try out. We can EASILY add in another $1000 to the end of that for those items. Now I was a pack a day smoker when I quit, so I was spending around $8 a day which would STILL be less than the amount of money I spend vaping. So when the next time someone asks if you've saved money vaping, you shut the fuck up.
Now let's look at DIY Ejuice. We need to come up with an average price for how much a single 30ml costs. I'm going to use my very popular BRONUTS recipe as the model for this because it uses the most popular flavoring companies, not a single flavor recipe but also not too complex, and fucking delicious.
- VG: 480ml = $7.25 (Bull City Vapor)
- PG: 480ml = $7.25
- NIC (100mg 100% VG): 1000ml = $89.99 (Liquid Barn)
- BOTTLE: 12 bottles for $8.25 (Amazon)
- FLAVORING Capella Chocolate Glazed Doughnut 120ml: $12.99
- FLAVORING Flavourart Joy 120ml: $18.00
- FLAVORING Inawera Biscuit 15ml: $3.49
- FLAVORING Flavor West Yellow Cake 120ml: $10.50
TOTAL PRICE: $157.72 + Shipping Tax = ~ $165.00
So a pretty steep fucking price tag to make juice. But remember, we need to break this down in 30ml bottles. so we have to take the percentages and divide them by the amount we're using. The following is for a 3mg 30ml at 70VG 30PG. A very typical juice.
| Ingredient | Price per mL | Amount in Mix | Final Cost |
| CAP Choc Doughnut | $13 / 120ml = $0.11/ml | X 2.1ml total | = $0.23 in mix |
| FA Joy | $18 / 120ml = $0.15/ml | X 0.23ml total | = $0.03 |
| INW Biscuit | $3.49 / 15ml = $0.23/ml | X 0.23ml total | = $0.05 |
| FW Yellow Cake | $10.50 / 120ml = $0.09/ml | X 0.23ml total | = $0.02 |
| VG | $7.25 / 480ml = $0.02/ml | X 20.1ml total | = $0.40 |
| PG | $7.25 / 480ml = $0.02/ml | X 6.15ml total | = $0.12 |
| NIC | $85.99 / 1000ml = $0.09/ml | X 0.9ml total | = $0.08 |
SO THE TOTAL PRICE FOR AN AVERAGE 30ML DIY ELIQUID WITH 3MG NIC = $0.93
Yeah this is a huge discount. And I'm not even adding in the prices that you get when you purchase wholesale, which would put the price of a 30ml EVEN LOWER. It's astonishing I know. How haven't I done this sooner? Well because no one has ever told you how much you spend vaping. Obviously companies are going to want to keep you purchasing products so they won't tell you to make your own. Now lets see how much we will save throughout the year. So if the price of vaping now costs $0.03/ml we can see the difference.
$0.03 X 8 - 12ml / DAY = $0.24 - $0.36 per day
$0.24 X 7 = $1.68 per week | X 52 = $87.36 per year | ÷ 12 = $7.28 per month
$0.36 X 7 = $2.52 per week | X 52 = $131.04 per year | ÷ 12 = $10.92 per month
$2,416.92 - $87.36 + [$165 Initial Cost] = $2,164.56 SAVED 90%
$3,625.44 - $131.04 + [$165 Initial Cost] = $3,329.40 SAVED 92%
So as you can see from the math, you can save yourself around $3,000 a year, or over 90%, just by mixing your own ejuice. Not only can this money be well spent elsewhere, but your juices will taste better because you made them exactly how you wanted to. Now I'm not sayig commercial juice is over priced. It's not, there are SO MANY COSTS to starting up a juice business, especially a smaller company. And I'm not saying don't buy commercial juice. Absolutely go buy some. Support your favorite companies, vape friends, vape community, and just buy other juice to see what's out there. What I am saying is do not rely on them to give you your vape fix. I'm saying learn how to mix, so you can mix up your ADV and save some fucking money. I can tell you these "cool" vaping companies don't give two shits about how much money you spend and if it's too much. They aren't looking out for you in that aspect. Hell half of them aren't even looking out for you for a decent fucking vape. So stop worrying about pleasing these vendors, so maybe they can throw you a coupon or a free 15ml. Mix up your own ADV so you're not worrying about how to ration your last drop of Lenola until your next paycheck. Go mix up your own ADV so you can be a completely self sufficient vapor who has money in his pocket and never runs out of juice.
