Nov 20 (Sunday) will make 1 year of vaping and no cig's.. I didn't cheat once. I was 2 packs a day for 35 years with no intention of quitting. I loved smoking,, it relaxed me and sometimes kept the rest of the world alive in the moments I was forced to 'suffer fools'. One random day I just pulled into a vape store, got some gear and I was hooked.. that gear lasted me a day.. I had to buy something with more 'horsepower' & options.
My nic level was 24mg at first,, every few weeks I had to drop it down as my taste buds improved. For several months I have been at 0mg with visits to 1 or 2mg,,,3mg's kicks my butt now. (WOW, never expected that!
) Currently, my ejuice consumption is 30mls/day-- more if I am mixing up new flavors or driving long distances.
The first week I had to make myself 'chain vape' 24mg to make myself stick with the program.
When I knew I made the conversion I was suddenly dealing with chronic vapors tongue..I was so mad about it and seriously considering going back to cigs. I tried all of the advice of 'drink more water, smell coffee,, eat hot/spicy foods/lemons........in the end the problem was cotton,, it simply does not move ejuice very fast if you are chain vaping.... and when the cotton gets old/too used. Rayon uses an entirely dif theory to flow ejuice and it works extremely well. (and its dirt cheap for several lifetimes + pif's you can buy a box at Sally's for $18). Huge thanks to JeremyR for saving me from my own frustration with cotton and converting me to rayon!)
My next struggle was mixing,, the 1 part I figured I wouldn't have any problems because I can cook. Well,, that was the wrong way to approach mixing. My first mistake was printing out a description of every flavor FA made and picking out the ones that sounded good........this was soooooooooooo wrong. The right way is to find a simple 3 to 5 flavor recipe and make it,, then see if 2 or 3 of those flavors could be used alone or in another recipe and make just that recipe. ............and do not get brand loyal.... buy the brands the poster noted if possible.
If a poster shares a recipe that is high in flavors like 25%,, that's ok,, mix it up at the same level then dilute it down if you need too. Odds are they got the flavor combo right,, just too strong. So I would make the 25% then add more base to thin it down. Keep track of your adjustments. Find popular recipes,, you will have better success in finding good ratio's of flavors to mix. As time goes on,, you will find your happy zone.. for me I dont even have to be exact on the recipe.. I am happy enough if I am out of Vanilla and use Vanilla Gelato instead.
Recipes can end up costing you more than your mods/equipment if it gets crazy. I have about 4 'go to' recipes,, but tend to vape 1 most of the time. My mixing is quite simple and getting more simple as time goes on. My current goal is to make 6 months to a years worth of just the flavor combo so all I have to do once a month is mix up a months worth with base (vg+pg). Its working out pretty good so far,, I mixed up 3 recipes flavor combos in 6oz/180ml batches,, so that I can measure out 10% and add my base. (I pull 50mls out flavor combo and mix it with 450mls of base). Nic is added later if/when desired.
ps-prepare/accept there will be a flavor or 2 that wont taste like what the label says.. ie: FA Raspberry never showed up for me and FA Coconut = butter for me. I have since bought another brand of Coconut, but have not tried it yet.
So far for the past year I have spent on gear for 2 people as 'lifetime supply':
$330 at FT
$250 on nic
$150 b&m stores on hardware
$175 random vape stores on the net
$75 mixing gear & storage
$18 rayon (forever lol)
ejuice/flavors:
$200 flavors--this is where I wasted money on a lot of flavors I didn't like/use.
$200 premade ejuice on the net and b&m
$100 on vg+pg
This next year (Nov 21,2016-Nov 20, 2017) I plan to buy:
$100 from FT-just to beef up my gear
$100 vg+pg
$50 flavor refills of 'what is working'
The app on my phone says that I have saved $3835 not smoking this past year. So I dont feel any guilt on the above expenses.
I was lucky that I didn't go through coughing adjustments when I started vaping,,,I hear some people really struggle with that. I am more likely to run out of the house without my phone or keys,,but never forget my mod and ejuice. I am looking forward to monitoring my expenses going forward. I never spent this much time or thought on cigs lol. I find that I love vaping more than I loved cigs,, how funny. My car and my clothes are always getting positive remarks about 'that perfume' (its sugar cookie lol),
1-Aspire something -1 day-gave it away
2-Kanger Nebox=3 months,,its a hit and miss product
2-Kanger Topbox- about 5 months. it was pretty good
4-Eleaf Pico- I love this, +2 chipsets and more to buy
2-Oni -mech
1-Pico Squeeze (waiting on Narda to get here,, Coral atty sucks, if this goes well I will increase my budget for more squonkers)
my atty's are clones
2-Griffin's 22--my adv
2-Avocado 22-my stealths
1-SXK Corolla-my mixing atty
1-Freak Show mini
1-Something I cant remember
2-NarDa (for bottom feed Pico Squeeze)
1-squid
lots of glass tanks, various o-rings, screws, tools- I shouldn't need much more
Most of the summer was rushing to buy hardware and nic due to 8/8 deadline. I do see new gear listed on FT,, but I am afraid to buy some of it right now. (if I do buy any of it,, it will be a solo purchase so customs doesnt take everything if they choose to), I am a minimalist and I live in a hurricane area......so I am always sort of in a 'bug out' mode, Everything I value is in a laptop bag with room for my laptop. My ejuice batches are in 500 +600ml ss water bottles, my mix flavors are in ss flasks-its nothing to toss them in my bag and run.
Anyway,, I posted all of this for myself and if any newbies wanted some insight into a vapors world.