In the UK and Europe people as a general rule smoke joints made with tobacco.
I have a terrible problem with tobacco,it is very addictive and if you don't smoke cigarettes ( i don't) and only smoke joints, then in order to get your nicotine fix, you need to have a joint.
To me nicotine is very, very, addictive, where as I know people who can take it or leave it and smoke a joint here and there when they feel like it.
When smoking tobacco joints I would buy a pack of 10 cigarettes a day and smoke 10 joints a day.
A 10 pack of cigarettes is around £5, which means 7 packs of 10 is £35 a week.
Growing your own weed makes it more affordable but consider a recent situation I had to endure, due to security issues.
I could not grow my own for 8 months and so had to buy weed so on top of the £5 I was spending on tobacco, I was also spending £10 - £15 a day on weed.
Weed and tobacco coming to around £100 a week is not sustainable!
So I knocked tobacco on the head and when I don't smoke joints, I might have 1 or 2 vapes in the evening & even when having to buy weed, when I just vape is maybe it comes to £10 a week.
Buying a vape for me saves me money, on top of money.
Just the savings on tobacco alone would easily pay for a nice vape in 4 weeks or less.
End note - I had given up tobacco and been vaping for ages, I started smoking spliffs again due to my woman moving in and shes a joint smoker, there was something nice about sharing a joint, which we did from time to time with out me becoming addicted. Then she moved in and became the norm and I was hooked again.
Being addicted to nicotine again wouldn't have been such a problem if I was still able to grow my weed, although I really don't like nicotine & the cost was crippling buying both cigarettes and weed.
So is buying a vape expensive?
The initial out lay is a big lump of cash but for me the saving I made not smoking spliffs, far out weighed the price of the vape (many times over)!
Now all I got to do is finish building my new cab and get my grow on.