Working the Math of Smoking

If you are trying to quit it is often necessary to really look at your overall budget to get a real reason to quit smoking.  Simply trying to quit for your health sometimes is just not enough.  You need to really open your eyes at times to see how much smoking really is costing you each year that you smoke.  Additionally, this can also be impacted if you require a great amount of health care due to smoking related complications.  However, at a minimum the costs that you can count on for certain will include the costs of the cigarettes themselves.

If you have ever stopped to think about how much you are spending a week on cigarettes you have surely noticed that it is a rather significant amount.  Prices are climbing higher than ever before, and this is largely due to the fact that many states as well as the federal government are imposing extremely costly taxes on cigarettes to help offset many of the increased health problems that are created.  On average, all around the country can cost as much as $5 per pack.  If you have a habit of smoking that consists of only a single pack per day, you are smoking seven packs in a single week.

This might not seem like much, but if you consider that each week, you are spending $35 on cigarettes, it can add up quickly.  In a single week if each pack costs $5 you will have spent as much as $35 on your cigarettes!  For many people this is a tank of gas, a trip to a movie theater, or even a new outfit if you know how to shop right.  You could even put the money in a savings account and start to find how your money could actually grow, rather than be burned.

As much as the idea of $35 might seem like a lot of money, to many people it is just a minor price to pay for something that they thoroughly enjoy.  If we consider that the average month has 30 days, and each day you are smoking a $5 pack of cigarettes the monthly price will jump up to approximately $150.  This is a rather substantial amount and could easily cover most people’s gas bills, power bills, water bill, phone bill or even a great night out on the town occasionally.

If you really want to see the overall impact of smoking each year, consider that each year you are smoking 365 packs of cigarettes.  This multiplied by 20 comes up to 7,300 cigarettes each year, which comes up to an astonishing $1,825 dollars each year!  Talk about a huge amount of money spent on smoking.  Remember though this is just the price of a single pack a day habit, and it is assuming that you are paying only $5 per pack, many states have higher prices, while others are a bit cheaper.  If you actually smoke more than a single pack a day, you would be looking at $3,650 a year for a two pack a day smoking habit as well as 14,600 cigarettes each year that you smoke!

The sheer price of cigarettes when added up in a single year is horrific.  If you consider that you would probably be smoking for a period of 5 years, at least should you have no desire to quit and you are looking at a total cost of $9,125 for a single pack a day habit and a striking $18,250 for a two pack a day habit.  The amount of money that can be saved by skipping purchasing cigarettes is absolutely enormous. 

If the idea of just improving your health, you may have a sudden desire to quit after you see exactly what it is costing you each year to smoke.  The prices of cigarettes are continuing to rise, and this combined with increased living expenses makes it extremely hard for families to make ends meet.  Saving money any way possible is a huge help, and even the expense of pricy stop smoking aids is significantly cheaper than the cost of actually continuing to smoke.

                                                                                                            - Mohammed Zahran -