I'm writing this for addition to the this weeks Throwback Thursday post A question many people looking into DIY have is "How much does your juice cost."
The question seems simple at it's core, but it can change drastically based on how you buy your supplies. So I set out to give an example on how buying larger or smaller quantities affects the price of your juice.
I pulled all of these prices from Nic River, using the top 5 flavors from alltheflavors.
ml| VG |Per ml :--|:--|:--| 60| $1.99| $0.03 120| $2.99| $0.02 240| $3.49| $0.01 500| $4.49| $0.01 1000| $7.49| $0.01 3785| $14.99| >$0.01
ml| PG |Per ml :--|:--|:--| 60| $1.99 |$0.03 120| $2.99| $0.02 240| $4.19| $0.02 500| $6.99| $0.01 1000| $9.29| $0.01 3785| $19.99| $0.01
ml| 100mg Nic| Per ml :--|:--|:--| 60| $5.99| $0.10 150| $9.99| $0.07 250| $15.99| $0.06 500| $27.99| $0.06
ml| 100mg Salts| Per ml :--|:--|:--| 60| $9.99| $0.17 150| $17.99| $0.12 250| $24.99| $0.10 500| $44.99| $0.09
ml| Cap Super Sweet| Per ml :--|:--|:--| 10| $1.99| $0.20 29.5735| $4.00| $0.14 59.1471| $7.50| $0.13 118.294| $12.49| $0.11
ml| FA Meringue| Per ml :--|:--|:--| 10| $2.25| $0.23 29.5735| $5.55| $0.19 59.1471| $9.90| $0.17 118.294| $18.00| $0.15
ml| Cap Van Custard v1| Per ml :--|:--|:--| 10| $1.99| $0.20 29.5735| $4.00| $0.14 59.1471| $7.50| $0.13 118.294| $12.49| $0.11
ml| TPA Strwbry Ripe| Per ml :--|:--|:--| 10| $1.29| $0.13 59.1471| $4.50| $0.08 118.294| $7.50| $0.06
ml| TPA Bavarian Cream| Per ml :--|:--|:--| 10| $1.29| $0.13 59.1471| $4.50| $0.08 118.294| $7.50| $0.06
I took all of these and plugged in the numbers for a 100 ml batch using some random percentages just for an example. Given the following recipe:
Ingredient| Percent :--|:--| cap ss| 1% fa meringue| 3% cap van| 1.5 TPA SR| 2 % TPA BC| .5% nic 12mg| 12% Pg| 10% VG| 70%
The price for this using regular Nic and buying the smallest quantity for each ingredient is:
Ingredient| Price :--|:--| cap ss 1%| $0.20 fa meringue 3%| $0.68 cap van 1.5| $0.30 TPA SR 2 %| $0.26 TPA BC .5%| $0.06 nic 12mg, 12%| $1.20 Pg 10%| $0.33 VG 70%| $2.32 Total Price| $5.35
Now buying the largest quantity* for each comes to:
Ingredient| Price :--|:--| cap ss 1%| $0.11 fa meringue 3%| $0.46 cap van 1.5| $0.16 TPA SR 2 %| $0.13 TPA BC .5%| $0.03 nic 12mg, 12%| $0.67 Pg 10%| $0.05 VG 70%| $0.28 Total Price| $1.88
As you can see buying in bulk can make a huge difference in price, but remember that unused product is wasted money. Don't run off and buy large quantities of things you don't know for sure you will use, like a flavor you haven't tried before. As a beginner, start small experiment a little, if you like mixing, then start buying stuff you know you are going to use a lot of in bigger quantities. I hope this is at least a little helpful to some newcomers.
Edit: Changed the VG per ml to >$.01 to reflect it wasn't free.
As a data analyst and someone who is just getting into DIY, this really tickles my pickle
Great breakdown and I'm sure you sank some time into this. I'd like to highlight the fact that even at the most cost inefficient small sizes, DIY mixing it still saving 66% to 75% (or more) compared to retail juice.
Totally worth it to DIY no matter what.
Which flavor is free if you buy 3785ml?
I really do not comprehend why anyone would buy less than half-liters of VG/PG at a time.
On my "poor" months i buy 10 solubaromes (10ml) (2.40€ each) and 1L of vg/pg 80/20 14€, 1L of eliquid for 38€
Wow. Almost nobody uses SA stuff. Which ones do you regularly use? And at what concentration?
solubarome i allways do with 10% concentration.
i only tested like 13(i know what i said above, but i only did this 2 times, 1 with 8 flavours and the other with 5 because i had some eliquids left from the previous month) and my favourites right now are:
Chateau Hut (brandy with coconut and almonds )
Cookies (the name speaks for itself)
Banana Fraise Creme (strawberry banana cream, but only tastes like banana to me)
Crumble pomme (apple crumble) (it reminds me of Fuck the rules #3, but the taste is more soft)
Panama papers (popcorn, i love it, is the only one that i bought twice)
about the other ones:
-brazo de mercebes(vanilla meringue tart) its ok but nothing special
-mother milk 2 and 3 (didn't like it)
-Crumble fruit rouges(red fruits crumble) (its ok on the first 2 tanks, after that i just can't vape it anymore for days)
-Guana Bana(cooled cherimoya) (its wa ok on the first 3 tanks, after that i hated it, i have 40mls left since may and i'm getting the courage to finnish it)
-Melon (not my favourite, but its good)
-Penelope(vanilla and caramel) (mixed feelings on this one, the flavour is good but sometimes tastes like burned coil (without dry hits, and if after i finish it i change the liquid the other liquid tastes good for days so the coils are ok, so i guess its something on the liquid)
-Cocktail des Fruits (i don't know if you have the"LIDL" hypermarket on your country but it tastes like the tutti frutti juice that they used to sell on the 90's)