@brightcloud Trying to taper by skipping days means that the levels of Effexor in your body will yo yo dramatically; this drug has a very short half-life already which makes it hard to get off of. You'd do better to reduce the amount of drug you take at each dosing. You reduce by a small amount, stay there for weeks, or months until you aren't experiencing withdrawal effects and then make another small step down.

A compounding pharmacy can make reduced dosages to allow you to taper--however, you mentioned not having insurance and trying to keep your costs low--the compounding service may be more than you can afford and may not even be available in your area.

From one of my posts (8/15/18)–If you cannot cut pills, or a compounding pharmacist is not available to you, or too expensive–you can dissolve your dose in juice and not drink all of it. "Venlafaxine (Effexor) can be tapered … with approximately 1% dosage reduction every 3 days. Stahl (a prescriber’s guide–Stahl’s essential psychopharmacology) recommends dissolving the tablet in 100 mL of juice, discarding 1 mL and drinking the rest. After 3 days, 2 mL can be discarded, etc."–https://www.mdedge.com/psychiatry/article/103869/depression/venlafaxine-discontinuation-syndrome-prevention-and-management

The dissolve-in-juice method mentions reducing by 1mL, but you could control the taper as you wish by discarding a different amount and reducing at a different interval. Just don't bounce around all over the place--slow and steady wins this race.