Where Can I Cut Costs?

When buying equipment and supplies, where are the places I should try to save money vs. spending more to buy the highest quality?

When considering getting into meat smoking and supplies, really the only place I would advise you to go for quality instead of saving money is with the smoker itself. You don’t need a fancy thermometer, or some super high end wood. You also don’t need all the accessories that you could buy. For example, cheese. My smoker, the Cookshack SM 008 has a baffle available to help with smoking cheese. It sits on the bottom rack to help keep the chamber cool (otherwise the cheese will melt). Well, rather than drop the $50 that it costs to buy it, I just wrapped a tray in foil and accomplished the same thing. Many of the accessories available are nice, and might make things more convenient, but I tend to like finding my own solutions for less. The less money I spend on accessories, the more I can spend on stuff to actually smoke.

When you first jump in, just buy the smoker itself. Once you figure out if you enjoy the hobby, it will be a lot easier to spread out the additional accessories. If you love ribs, then eventually you might want a rib rack to let you fit more in your smoker. If you love smoking birds, there are accessories for that. Remember, there is nothing you can’t cook in your smoker when you get it. All these accessories just make it a bit easier. Find what you like smoking before you buy everything you can.