Note: i refer to delta-8 and THCa flower
From what i can tell vaping appears to be the cheapest way to enjoy your herbs. A d8 .510 cart is $12-$20 for a 1g cart and each cart has ~150 hits so each hit is $0.08-$0.14. Now edibles on the other hand sound super expensive. A 1000mg (1g) thing of d8 gummies is $60 for 40 gummies or $1.50 per gummy. Each of these gummies have 25mg of d8 in them. To vape 25mg would need ~5 hits and cost $0.40-$0.65. Or am i way the fuck off base and fucked up my maths. Always did suck in that class.
Edit: i have also heard that vaping is better because it uses much lower temps and doesnt burn off most of the terps before they get to you.
What i am looking at is THCa flower ounces for $150 with 20-32% and a COA.
COAs can be sketchy, from grow forums I gather a lot of places will issue fake numbers for the right price.
I also saw you mention you were worried about dry herb dosing, have a look at Dynavap. It is more finnicky than electric ones but the chamber is small and on some models you can even reduce the chamber to half. The new armored cap is pretty begginer friendly.