Weed is expensive. There’s no way around it. 

And if you’re going to be a frequent consumer, it’s best to find budget-friendly ways to do so, or else you’ll be looking at your bank statements each month thinking, “Wow, I really could have paid my car note twice this month with the amount of money I spent on weed,” which will just lead to a bunch of self judgements and conversations about getting your life together (while using weed as the scapegoat for your bad habits and routines). Nobody needs that. 

Instead, it’s much better for your mental health to simply find better ways to spend your time and money in relation to your cannabis consumption.

What’s the average price of weed?

The price of cannabis varies by market, as each state and country has its own costs based on supply and demand. Take an in-depth look at the price of an eighth where you live. 

For the most part, an eighth jar of some good, quality weed will hit your pockets between $35—$45. For a one time purchase, that’s not too bad; but when you continuously purchase weed throughout the week or month, that cost can skyrocket. It’s a fact that we all try to ignore, but when you add up the hundreds of dollars you’ve spent on cannabis in a month, and it totals your student loan payments for multiple months, it’s hard to not think that your priorities are completely out of order. 

Ways to save money on buying weed

There are plenty of ways to reduce your monthly spend on weed. Here are a few of the most tried-and-true.

Dispensary deals

Most dispensaries run weekly deals on each consumption method. For example, they’ll do bulk buy discounts on ounces of flower on Monday, then discounts on edibles on Tuesday. Across the industry, Shatterday is a popular Saturday discount day for concentrates. Regardless of your preferred consumption, I promise there’s a nearby store giving discounts on it. These are the best times to shop, because your dollar can go a lot farther, and the purchases will feel guilt-free.

Gina Coleman/Weedmaps

Buy in bulk

When shopping dispensary deals, buy in bulk. It’ll slash your prices more, and in the end, you’re going to smoke that weed regardless. Whether you buy one quarter today, or one gram pre-rolls and joints each day, you’re still buying that seven grams, fam. Buy in bulk, get greater discounts, and your wallet will thank you.

Grow your own weed

I’m literally moving from Washington to Oregon for this. Growing your own weed is the best way to save money. It’s like eating out every night versus cooking your own meals: you get to choose strains specifically, not just based on whatever the store has in stock; you know what materials were used to produce the plant, and in the long run, you’ll save hundreds, potentially thousands, of dollars on weed.

Ways to conserve and stretch your weed

Reducing the number of trips to the store will greatly reduce your spend on weed. Here are a few ways to make your weed stretch.

Change your consumption methods

Rolling weed uses so much weed. Even the skimpiest joint or pinner ass blunt will require half a gram at least. Add that up throughout the day’s sessions and it’s easy to smoke an eighth a day. Going by the numbers above, that’s at the very least $30 per day — adding up to over $900 a month. 

Switching to a more economical way of smoking, like using smaller pipes and bowls, will do wonders for making your weed stretch. Additionally, if you consider potency, it may be better to dab over smoking flower since a single pinpoint-sized portion of oil can get you stoned for hours at a time.

One-hitters and chillums 

One-hitters and chillums are two of the most underrated cannabis consumption methods out there. One-hitters are little steamrollers that you can fill with a small amount of cannabis and get dumb stoned. Chillums are essentially big one-hitters. They have bigger bowls that you can cherry to stay lit, and truly, just one bowl will get you way high. 

Between the two devices, you can save a lot of weed and money because they essentially only require crumbs. It’s why every stoner that sees someone pull out a dugout responds, “Ahhh, great idea.”

Use that kief

Kief is the gift that keeps on giving. It’s like recycling weed: You take some fresh buds, grind them up, smoke that flower, and in the process you collect fallen trichomes at the bottom of your grinder that can be smoked later on. In addition to smoking kief bowls, you can also add the kief to your bowls or joints to increase potency. This will create a longer-lasting experience and reduce the frequency of your sessions throughout the day. 

The higher you get, the less you need to smoke; the less weed you smoke, the less money you’ll spend on it.

Eat your edibles 

Edibles are pretty cheap. A single-dose cookie or gummy only hits for a quick Lincoln, and in bulk, you can usually buy 10 servings of any edible for around $20 to $25. If you want to skip the purchase altogether, making your own edibles by whipping up some cannabutter and applying it to virtually any food is another cost-efficient method of reducing your dispensary trips.

Gina Coleman/Weedmaps

Limit your consumption and tolerance breaks

My daily schedule includes smoking in the morning, at lunch, after lunch, after work, before dinner, after dinner, and right before bed — and I smoke blunts and joints every time. Because of this, I smoke about an ounce a week. If that sounds like you, then it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know spacing out these sessions would greatly conserve the weed in our jars. 

Smoking as a reward, and not just as a habit, is the best way of doing this. Instead of hitting that wake ‘n bake, get up and lock into whatever tasks you have for the day, then light up afterwards. It’ll make your high feel way better because your mind will be clear and the session will be guiltless. If this sounds impossible, then it may be time for a tolerance break altogether. Not only will a break improve your relationship with weed, but it will also cause you to smoke a lot less for your desired experiences.

Featured image by Gina Coleman/Weedmaps

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