​Can You Save Money Switching From Smoking to Vaping?

Addiction is an expensive habit. Looking at gambling, alcoholism or even junk food as examples. When you’re able to cut those out completely or at least reduce them, you feel better about yourself mentally, sometimes physically and in most cases financially. Switching from smoking to vaping is just one of those scenarios. Granted, we can not claim that vaping is not without its addictive nature as e-liquids do contain nicotine for most vapers (although this can be removed completely if you choose a 0% nicotine vape juice). Nevertheless, many people in the tens of thousands and even millions quit smoking, especially during the month of ‘Stoptober’ to loosen their purse strings, in addition to improving their health and mindset. But the question remains - how much could you save from vaping and what do you need to get started? Before you can begin to outweigh the pros and cons of vaping financially, first you must look at the price of cigarettes.

How Much Are Cigarettes In The UK?

On average, a pack of cigarettes in 2021 can cost anywhere from £9 upwards, with the average price for a pack of 20 set at £10.80 back in 2018. If you’re classed as a heavy smoker who smokes this daily, not only does this significantly damage your health considering the amount of tobacco and other dangerous toxins you’re consuming - in addition, it hits your wallet hard.

Just total up the amounts monthly, weekly and yearly to realise where that money could be better spent. That’s £250 roughly a month, meaning you splurge a total of £3000 as a heavy smoker. Even if you fall into the average bracket of 10 cigarettes a day, that’s still £37.80 per week or £1971 per year. Therefore, vaping can not be much worse, can it?

Reasons Smokers Are Hesitant About Vaping

• It looks too technical when you have to buy and install coils, measure the wattage and voltage of an electronic device and fill it with e-liquids
• Difficult to give up smoking due to the addiction levels and previous habits as a smoker
• Afraid of putting on weight if you give up smoking
• Think vaping will cost just as much/if not more than smoking based on stories and myths you have heard
• Just as dangerous to your health as smoking

Can Vaping Save You Money?

The resounding answer is yes. Vaping on e-cigarettes saves you money in the long run and gives you much more variety to pick from, depending on the selection made to get you started with vaping. After the menthol ban in 2020, your options as a smoker narrowed down more. However, with vaping, you have a plethora of choices to pop in your vape kit, whether you like menthol vape juice, classic tobacco options such as Virginia, Red, Sahara or Gold Tobacco, all for a fraction of the price that it costs to smoke. When you buy e-liquid, you can buy in multi-buy packs to save. Vape devices are available in all shapes and sizes, with a tank or pod not exceeding the 2ml regulation capacity, with some even built into the device with prefilled e-liquid (depending on your preference). Disposables are the rage at the moment because everything is set up for you, which is particularly ideal for beginners or those who need a one-day backup.

However, they cost slightly more due to convenience and impact the environment if you continually throw away batteries and plastic. Nevertheless, it’s still cheaper than a pack of cigarettes, so disposable e-cigarettes serve a purpose with vapers of all levels. With many all-in-one systems under £5, that’s half the price a packet of cigarettes costs plus because they’re made with nic salts, giving the vaper a smooth throat hit like smoking would, which is less harsh on the throat than traditional nicotine in e-liquids, meaning you can vape amounts up to 20mg (although we suggest starting at 10mg) and finding the right balance.

What Else Do You Need to Purchase?

With all vape kits other than disposable e-cigarettes, you will get a USB cable (these days it’s better to find a kit that comes with a type-C charger) and a user manual on how to use the device. What you’ll need to buy to regularly maintain and prolong the service of your pod or mod kit are the vape coils which act like the heating element to heat your vape juice, batteries to charge devices that require external accessories (some have internal hence the USB cable) and vape tanks, which house the e-liquid and coils. Maintaining your other key components of the vape kit will save you money long-term but eventually, you’ll need to replace either them or the whole vape device depending on your budget and how much care you take. You can find plenty of resources online to help in your search, whether that’s Youtube reviews, through the guides that we have in our blog section or via the manufacturer's website and manuals.