By Bobbi Burger Brunoehler of BobbisBargains
Evil_Erin/Flickr
Although cigarette smoking has become less cool than it used to be, there are still millions of people who are addicted to a $5-$8/pack a day habit. You have already heard smoking is bad for your health. I’m here to tell you it is bad for your budget, just as BargainBabe.com blogger Mike Barclay did last month. This post is for anyone who is a smoker or knows a smoker who really wants to stop.
First of all, let me tell you that I was a THREE pack a day smoker. How can anyone smoke that much? If you live on cigarettes and coffee and have a cig burning at all times. I know about smoking and quitting smoking.
A recent study found the cost of cigarettes nationwide is $5.28, plus local taxes. There are places online where you can buy them for less (no…. I am NOT going to put a link.) How much does your pack-a-day habit cost?
365 x $5.28/pack = $1,927
Egad! I’ve has passed out from excessive waste of money. Over twenty year’s time, that would be $38,544 or enough to put a 20% down payment on a $192,720 home.
I wouldn’t write this if I didn’t know about a solution. Allen Carr wrote a book called The Easy Way to Stop Smoking
Carr’s book has sold over 12 million copies so you can certainly find a copy for free through Freecycle or a paperback swap site. Carr’s website has celebrity testimonials on the power of this simple, yet extremely effective method to quit smoking. Check out Carr’s website and book if you truly want to quit smoking.
Have you quit smoking? What method worked for you?
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This post is brought to you by Cigarti where you can buy electronic cigarettes.
By Mike Barclay of 10CentsWorth.com.
It’s been a ridiculously long day. Your boss was breathing down your neck all day, the guy who sits next to you wouldn’t keep his mouth shut, and your computer kept freezing. Finally, you get to your car and what’s the first thing you do? You reach into your pocket and grab a cigarette. Instantly, a calming feeling rushes over you.
How do I know this? I used to smoke. Eventually I realized all the negative things about smoking and I quit. It reduces your lifespan, it causes lung cancer and a number of other diseases. It makes you smell and turns your teeth yellow. There’s a million reasons you shouldn’t smoke, yet so many people overlook how much their cigarettes�are costing them. Let’s break this nasty little habit down, shall we?
The average cost of a pack of cigarettes is around 5-6 dollars. So we’ll go with an average of about $5.50 with tax. The average smoker will smoke about a pack of cigarettes a day. That means that you’d be spending:
Weekly: $38.50
Monthly: $154.00
Yearly: $1,848.00
That’s A LOT of cash to be spending on something that is physically unhealthy! And I’m just talking about the direct cost of the pack of cigarettes itself. When you factor in all of the other medical expenses that will inevitably come from all of the junk going into your system, who knows what the total cost at the end of your life would be.
What could I do with an extra $38.50 a week? It could go towards my weekly groceries (especially if you’re trying to keep your grocery spending to around $25 a week), my monthly auto insurance, or credit card bills. You could even use it to splurge on your family once in a while and go out for a nice family dinner.
A lot of people have problems quitting, which wasn’t that difficult for me. You may be able to kick the habit in seven days if you really are motivated. Buy some Vitamin C from your local grocery store, and a couple bottles of pure grapefruit juice (not the cocktail, just straight grapefruit juice.) Use the Vitamin C as much as you want (you can’t overdose on it) so it flushes everything out of your system. Should take about 3 days to totally cleanse yourself of the actual nicotine. Then, it’s no longer about the chemical addiction, but just the habitual.
Carry around some grapefruit juice with you wherever you go. When you have the urge to smoke, take a swig. Knocks the urge right out of you with the shock of the tartness. All of this will cost you maybe an extra $5-15 a week until you’re finally rid of the addiction, which may only take you three weeks. And in the long run, it saves you thousands.
And of course, your life.
UPDATE: Linda has some painful, I mean helpful advice for quitters:
I, too, am an ex-smoker and believe me it was very hard for me. Took 3 trys. One more thing that helps with the habit part � put a thick rubberband on your wrist and snap it every time you want a cigarette. This helps because you will start to associate smoking with pain.
Emmy says knowing where your bottom line is, is powerful:
Ha! If I had been a smoker I think this great insight might have been pretty darn helpful. Seeing how much things cost makes you really take a second look at where you are spending your money and allows you to really ask yourself … Why!
