It’s amazing how much money people spend on these things. I met a lady who smoked two and a half packs a day… TWO AND A HALF PACKS A DAY. Around where I live, smokes cost around $10 a pack. That works out to $750/month. That’s almost my rent. To be fair, most smokers I know smoke between a half to one pack per day.
Meet Ms. Chimney
Ms. Chimney really likes her smoke breaks, her coffee breaks, her lunch breaks and getting off work so she can sit on her patio and have a good smoke with a glass of wine. She averages about a pack a day. Let’s see what she could save if she slimmed her consumption by 25%. Let’s assume that the money she saves goes into an investment which yields an average 8% return.
The Results
A pack of cigarettes usually runs around $10. At a pack a day, that’s $300 a month. If Ms. Chimney saves 25% of that she’d be putting away $75 every month. Let’s see the numbers…
- 10 years – $9000 contributed, $11,748 market value, $2748 earned
- 20 years – $18,000 contributed, $31,253 market value, $13,253 earned
- 30 years – $27,000 contributed, $63,634 market value, $36,634 earned
- 40 years – $36,000 contributed, $117,394 market value, $81,394 earned
I don’t smoke personally, so I need to apologize beforehand since I have very little idea of how difficult this sort of change is. I suspect, however, that this is a great segue for someone who is already exploring the idea of quitting and/or wanting to save money.
And let’s not downplay the health benefits of reducing (or ideally quitting) smoking too.
The health benefits of quitting the habit of smoking would be immeasurable, not only to the smokers themselves, but also to their loved ones who will be subjected to less of second-hand smoke which carry higher concentrations of cancer-causing agents!
I’m a pretty heavy smoker (almost three packs a day) in my early thirties, and it absolutely horrifies me when I think about how much money I have blown on cigarettes.
But I can’t help it, I’m just too addicted to quit. I know its ruining my health, Ive already got a terrible wheezing smokers cough, am sick all the time, and get winded just walking up a flight of stairs. But no matter how hard I try, I just can’t quit smoking. I was able to cut back to two packs a day for a little while, but then I lost it and was back up smoking like a chimney again.
When I do the math on how much money I’ve lost smoking, its absolutely disturbing. I started smoking in middle school, about a pack a day, and was upto two packs a day in high school. Packs were cheaper here back then, like $4 a pack. I started smoking about three packs a day in college about fifteen years ago, at about $5 a pack. Last 10 years I guess its closer to $6 a pack.
Middle school smoking 1 pack a day ($4/pack) x three years = $4,380.
High school smoking 2 packs a day ($4/pack) x four years = $11,680.
College smoking 3 packs a day ($5/pack) x four years = $21,900
Smoking 3 packs a day since college ($6/pack x eleven years = $72,270.
OMFG, I just realized I’ve spent $110,230.00 on cigarettes!!!
Im such a hopeless nicotine addict, how pathetic is it that when I learn that I’ve already spent more than $100,000 on cigarettes, the first thing that came to mind is that it stresses me out so much that I think I need to go take another cigarette break. How awful.
Do you actually want to quit?