I’m new to D.I.Y., and before this site came along, in my blind enthusiasm, I found myself the not so proud owner of beakers, scales, funnels, pippetes, gloves, squeeze bottles, a scale that is more accurate than the one I weighed more nepharious things out on back in college years, two gallins of vg, pg, peg400, around 50 flavors, bottles of every size, labels, markers, and more assorted things from the Goodwill that I thought might prove useful.
None of it really amounted to anything until I discovered two things; I don’t know what the hell I’m doing (regardless of how many YouTube videos I watch), my flavors mostly suck, and the only way I am going to reconcile the 300 plus dollars I’ve spent thus far is by taking my time, focusing, and utilizing the expertise on this website along with the helpful resources contained within it, which includes the expertise of thousands who have made this journey before me.
So I donated.
Call me a cheap Bastard, it was only ten dollars, but I feel that if a website is willing to catalog all my flavors and recipes, remember favorites, create recipes, well, you know the drill…
I should probably kick in a few bucks.
Oh God this sounds like a humble brag.
I hate those.
Oh well, thanking the website and its members for what they’ve done thus far, and for what they will undoubtedly do in the near future.
Now, back to the boards…
If you’re going into DIY thinking you’re just going to be able to combine some flavours and make something vapeable it’s not often the case. For newer people I often just suggest to find some recipes and learn how to mix those first, if money is a factor and you don’t want to single flavour testers, dissect a mix… You should be able to pick out characteristics of certain flavours in mixes, how they steep, if they fade etc. After all when you first start off you’re only starting out with certain flavours, fruits, creams, etc and a lot of those flavours will be used across multiple recipes, so you should be able to learn from that. Every concentrate has different potencies, nuances, etc and it takes quite a bit of time to mix them… I DIYed for 3 years straight 300 flavours invest and still considered myself a newbie because everyone learns at a different pace and there is a lot to learn, so take your time and don’t rush it.
Joel… I miss the troll!!! :o
Super proud of you… gee…
read experiment, find what you love… mark what you hate… lots of notes… 
and always ask questions! Have fun!!!
Thank you Joel.
I’m trying not to allow myself to get discouraged.
There is no point in that really,
I’m just going to settle in with what I have now, well, I have an order ready to place with nic river on Friday and one with Amazon for a couple things, but flavor wise I should be good.
Now I am going to learn; figure out a couple good adv’s that can make me more patient, let a few of my crazy concoctions steep and learn from them, ask lots of questions, read lots of comments, and one fun thing, coming from Nic river is all the ingredients to make a well received recipe I found (dozen primates obo-yo clone v58), and I’m hoping it will satisfy my success ratio desires enough to keep me excited, yet stay focused on perfecting recipes I’ve tried, with a final goal in mind.
I definitely needed a good vanilla, and I have VBIC coming in 4 ounces, as well as super sweet CAP, well, I can’t list them all because I think I’ll have 72 flavors when these arrive, and its time to get down to notes, tweaking, learning, and taking my time. It looks like I’ve been using too much flavor, I’m hovering around 12.5 % total and that looks high compared to the successful recipes I’ve looked at.
And there’s a few simple recipes I’ve put in my favorites that I’ll blend and once successful, tweak with my preferences.
Thanks for your support and input.
Thank you Smokey blue, I’ve been watching you, well, you’re pretty hard to miss you are quite a prolific contributor.
I should probably follow you.
Well, that’s it, here goes!
Joel too!
I will make you fat and broke 
haha!!
My biggest quest is teaching folks… start low… and when I say low… when you first start to recognize when you base flavor starts to taste like the solo flavor you have… then work up… till you can say hey that is an apple… and then push more till you know where it is too high to take it… sure you can try out all the recipes here, but they are built for the op’s tongue… your best tool is that muscular bit in your mouth that isn’t like mine… it wont lie to you… 
It should be your best friend… keep it happy and you will rock your own world!
I sprinkle my stalkers with contests here on elr and on my fb page… normally on holidays…
I saved your vanilla base.
Again, I’m watching you.
When I get one that tastes good (I actually have a couple that have potential), we’ll do a swap.
I’ll vape yours and you can tell me how to fix mine!
I have to say that I love seeing the excitement you have about mixing … I have become a very lazy mixer and I got into a funk . I was mixing over the top mixes for awhile , to see the excitement from you and a few other new mixers has motivated me to get back into the mixing room lately … Thank you
*sits quietly in the corner blowing clouds of green red and blue… 
haha!! Yes you did… it’s funny how what appears to take so much time, effort and supplies, keeps us all coming back for more! 
Here’s a successtory that befits your ‘life changes’ topic
Indeed!
Took me months to make anything vape able. Then months later I realized alot of my first attempts were actually vape able just needed three months or more to steep because I over used a particular brand hehe. Keep on!! You will get there!
Haha!
This popped up in my feed today.
Much more dollars spent, well over a thousand, maybe two, but lots of good flavors and smart equipment.
And a hobby I truly enjoy.
250 flavors, ten mods, an out of control collection of tanks, and now fiddling with the idea of rtas.
And its been a lot of fun.
Thanks everyone for the help.