IS VAPING CHEAPER THAN SMOKING?
Vaping is certainly cheaper than smoking when making the switch. An average smoker on one pack-a-day will be spending over £12.50 daily in the UK - making it one of the most expensive countries to smoke in. Making the switch vaping could save you 80% or £10 a day. That is a saving of over £300 per month and over £3,600 each year simply by switching from traditional cigarettes to vaping.
Beware: spoilers! The answer if e-cigs are cheaper than ciggies is a resounding YES!
It is probably the second most important benefit of electronic cigarettes that it is significantly cheaper to vape compared to smoking cigarettes. Yes, there are plenty of variables, and if you tried really hard you may be able to spend almost as much money on vaping as you would smoking. But I do mean really hard.
It’s easy to think of the ‘cost’ as being purely financial, but the health and social costs of smoking indicate that the individual, and society, pay for smoking in ways other than cash.
WHY ARE PEOPLE SWITCHING FROM SMOKING TO VAPING
The damage done to the body from smoking is well documented, and it is estimated that over 7 million deaths per year occur worldwide as a direct result of tobacco use.
Public Health England reviewed evidence on e-cigarettes and concluded that they are at least 95% less harmful than traditional cigarettes - so reason number one for people making the switch to vaping is that it is less harmful to your health.
The levels of toxins in e-cigarettes are massively reduced compared with tobacco products, and chemicals added to cigarettes that increase the bio-availability of nicotine are not present in e liquid; this is one of the reasons why vaping doesn’t fill up the nicotine receptors in the brain as much as smoking a cigarette.
In addition to the reduced harm, the monetary cost of vaping is but a fraction of the cost of smoking a twenty pack of cigarettes per day. Whichever way you spin it, vaping is a huge step in the right direction - you really can’t argue with that!
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO SMOKE CIGARETTES?
How much does an average smoker spend on cigarettes
Don’t believe that vaping is cheaper than smoking? Time for some maths!
The average one pack of 20 cigarettes in the UK costs £12.50. That means, at its cheapest, a single cigarette will cost 62.5p. Someone smoking ten cigarettes per day will be spending £6.25 per day at the very least which translates to approximately £187.50 per month, or £2,281 per year!
But a heavier smoker will be spending more. A pack-a-day smoker, you could be spending upwards of £375 per month or £4,562 every year!!
How much does a heavy smoker/chain smoker spend on cigarettes?
Now for the eye watering numbers - a heavy smoker 2 packs of cigarettes daily will be spending £25 a day, roughly £750 per month and over £9125 annually!
The reality is that the true cost of smoking doesn’t stop at the financial. The health problems that can arise from smoking are another cost that will impact your quality of life, as well as lead to other financial costs this incurs, like medical bills and lost earnings.
A huge variety of chronic conditions are made worse by smoking, and many are brought on by years of cigarette consumption. Conditions like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) impact the lungs and make breathing difficult - smoking increases the risk of COPD and many other conditions like rheumatoid arthritis.
These are the costs of smoking to your health that you will be paying for the rest of your life - a very high price indeed.
HOW MUCH DO VAPE KITS COST?
Comparing smoking to vaping, there is no contest, financially speaking. The initial cost of some vape starter kit may seem like a large outlay, but within no time you will be back in the black (cue the AC/DC music).
Simple vape kits - like the SMOKO E-cigarette or VAPE POD system - that uses pre filled refills with e liquid, are an inexpensive alternative to smoking to get started on and low cost to keep going. E-Cig Starter kits for these units are under £10, but starter kit bundles that include refills with e liquid will have you saving money straight off the mark.
HOW OFTEN DO I NEED TO BUY A NEW VAPE KIT
There are a lot of different vape starter kits lining the shelves of vape shops across the country, from the e-cig or cigalikes, disposable vapes, refillable vape pens and powerful box mods. At SMOKO, our experience tells us that smoker’s looking to make the switch to vaping want a simple alternative to smoking that provides a smoking sensation in a tobacco flavour.
Starting on a cigalike device means that you are only concerned with buying refills with e liquids and batteries to keep yourself vaping. Cigalike batteries could last for approximately three months before they need to be replaced, and it’s always worth keeping a spare - so you may be able to survive the whole year on eight batteries!
The more complex vape kits will require more maintenance, e liquid and spare parts. The pod mods, complex vape pens and box mods all use replaceable coils, which is another cost to factor in. You’ll need a spare tank, too, just in case!
The problem with the larger devices is that they will take up more of your time and use a lot of e liquid. The replaceable parts need to be inspected on a regular basis to ensure the device is safe for use.
A compromised lithium ion battery could, in the worst case, explode. A degraded coil could lead to a funny taste when you vape, and potentially leach metal into your e-liquid - something we do not want. Another potential cost to your health if you aren’t vigilant with maintaining the device.
SMOKING VS VAPING: COST COMPARISON
Starting up with the SMOKO E-cigarette, a single refill costs £2 at most, and if a heavy smoker gets through a single refill per day this would work out to cost £730 annually.
So - a heavy smoker will spend at £4500 on cigarettes annually, compared to a meager £730 per year if they were to switch to vaping. That’s a saving of £3,800!
Even a ‘ten cigs a day’ smoker switching over to vaping a refill per day will sav over £1750 every year! Chances are, a ‘light’ smoker won’t use a whole refill in a day - though the nicotine strength of the e liquid will play a role in how quickly it is consumed.
The differences in vape devices, our own vaping technique, and strength of e-liquids can all impact how quickly a vaper will use up their e liquid. Naturally, using more e liquids or refills means buying more over the course of the year, but your margin for savings here is so large that you could double the amount of e liquid you get through and still cost effective in the long term as both a ‘10 a day’ and ‘20 a day’ smoker.
Many new vapers think that a disposable vape is the cheapest option but they can cost 45% more than the SMOKO VAPE POD starter kit! So don't be fooled by the convenience provided by disposable vapes - they will be costing you a fortune.
IS VAPING CHEAPER THAN SMOKING? CONCLUSION
There is no doubt that vaping is cheaper than smoking. That’s two monumental reasons you now have to stop smoking and switch to vaping: numero uno is your health, number two is the huge amount of money you can save!
It’s understandable that many smokers out there may see that switching to vaping is just a change of nicotine products, but it is so much more than that. It is much less harmful than smoking, it is significantly cheaper, it has much less impact on those around you - it isn’t just about quitting smoking, it’s about taking your life back!
If taking your life back sounds like something you need to do as a smoker, then don’t hesitate - pick up the UK’s premium e-cigarette and start vaping our UK made e-liquids today!
