Mixing can quickly become cost ineffective if you get a little ambitious. While it will always been 99% cheaper than purchasing commercial eliquid, it can still become and unnecessary cost. There are many ways to budget, and ensure you’re getting the best bang for you buck.
1. Find an ADV
This is the best cost effective technique. Find a few recipes that you love and can ADV. Bulk those ingredients needed. Wholesale accounts are easy to set up, or you can just buy 4oz of each of the flavorings needed for those. You can also buy “one shots” of some of your favorite recipes, like DIYorDIE’s ENYAWREKLAW Concentrates. This will ensure you get the cheapest price for these recipes, and maximize your budget. Plus, you’ll never run out of your favorite vape…ever.
2. Bulk BASE
The biggest cost in DIY other than new flavors is running out of VG/PG/NIC, and incurring shipping charges. Do your best to buy the largest amount of VG / PG you can, as well as 100mg NIC. The longer this lasts, the longer you can wait till you get hit with another shipping charge. Maximize budget.
3. Smaller New Flavors
When buying flavorings you’ve never used before, or flavorings you need for crafting new recipes, just grab the smallest amount at first. 10ml is more than enough for many flavorings, and only purchase more when you know this is a flavoring you use a lot.
4. Mix by Weight
Spending the money upfront on a scale will not only increase your mixing speed tenfold, but also completely eliminate the need of syringes, pipettes, paper towels, cleaning supplies, etc. It’s faster, cheaper, and more efficient.
5. Glass Bottles Are Reusable
Mixing into glass is a cost saver. A quick rinse in boiling water, and then distilled water, and you can reuse your bottles for a MUCH longer time than you can with any type of plastic bottles. They might not be as portable, but they are cheaper in the long run. Your ADV’s can be put into whatever bottle you want, but the bottles you need for “crafting” should be glass to minimize cost.
6. Buy Supplies In One Place (if you can)
Purchasing all you need in one place will make sure you’re not getting slammed with shipping. Do your best to make sure all the flavorings/supplies you need you can in one spot. Most likely you’ll be able to, but if not, make sure you’re not going to more than 1 place. Shipping sucks.
7. Budget
Actually come up with a mixing budget. Whatever you’re comfortable with. It takes 2 minutes to find the amount of money you’re “allowed” to spend on new flavorings. Trust me, this goes a long way and will make sure you’re not “impulse” buying. This is especially effective for those who are recipe developers and are constantly crafting new recipes. You’d be surprised at how often you snag “just one more”.
8. Blueprint Recipes
One of the biggest costs is wasting supplies. A bad recipe that goes down the drain costs money, whether it looks like it or not. You’re wasting flavorings, multiple flavorings, you’re wasting VG, PG, and precious nicotine. And this means that you’re also incurring more shipping charges when you go to purchase those ingredients again when you run out. Do your best to really plan out your recipes, take your time when crafting them, and minimize your errors. At the very least, if you come up with something “vapeable” you at least won’t be wasting any money.
9. Use a Recipe Curation Site
This is more for beginners, but using websites like this one, or alltheflavors.com, will ensure you’re getting a much better output of good recipes, compared to free-for-alls like ELR, forums, and subreddits. If you’re a mixer who enjoys mixing other people’s recipes often, a recipe curation site will absolutely save you money and time. You won’t be mixing as many “duds”. Also, make sure you’re reading reviews or comments on recipes before mixing them. If they don’t have any, and you’re not good at reading recipes yet, than understand you’re taking a gamble and you might be wasting your time and money.
10. Use a Friend
This is the best Cost Saving tip. Having a mixing partner is one of the best tools you can have in mixing. It’s also very cost effective. Have a friend test a flavoring they have that you don’t so you don’t need to waste money purchasing it if it doesn’t suit your needs. Do the same with recipes. Trade flavorings. Mooch off of them for some nicotine if you run out early. The cost savings of using a mixing partner are astronomical
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