A little bag of incense can go a long way. A 1 oz bag of frankincense, for example, may cost only $5 but last months if you only use a small nugget at a time (which is all that’s really needed for a small room). I buy my incense from Orthodox Incense.If you have an icon corner at home, is it permissible to use incense (stick or otherwise) bought form a local store? Or is it expected (in either EC or EO faiths) that the incense be made from a monastery or the like? I want to add incense to my icon corner, but I can’t really pay what my local Orthodox dealer is charging (at least not right now). Is there anything inherently wrong with buying and using other cheaper incense products?
A tip I learned is to break up charcoal, when possible, and only lighting a small portion at a time. This way, whenever the charcoal is lit, it emits only a minimal amount of smoke, and is just enough to burn an incense pellet or two.One other thing that one might do is see if your parish will sell you some incense. They normally get it by the pound anyway and might be willing to part with some at cost. That way you avoid the acrid smoke of cheap stuff (when, sometimes, can be an invitation to lunch with the Fire Chief) and still keep an eye on your pocket-book.
hie…To my knowledge you should be able to use whatever incense is available to you. It shouldn’t really matter who made it.