Cost... Package of Cigarettes

[imoldernu]

If you don't smoke, you may not know how much you are saving. DW and I gave it up 25+ years ago, when the price of a carton went up to almost $7.
We were stunned when we heard about the current cost. This site gives the average cost/pack in the US compared to other countries. (check out Canada and Australia).
Cigarette Prices - from the Tobacco Atlas
We remember when the cigarette machines required a quarter, and you got 2 or 3 cents back inside the cellophane pack... and before that, the wooden machines that worked like a toothpick dispenser. Put a penny in and roll the handle for one cigarette.

OMG... remember when... "Hey buddy, got a cigarette?"

My "habit" was about 1- 1/2 packs a day. Let's see, at the current price that would be....

 

[Original Wally]

Older... In my younger days I worked at a "stop-n-rob" store (LOL), and I had a lady customer... still recall... she drove a green Mach1 Mustang. Every morning on her way to work she got 2 packs of smokes. Back then they were 2 for a buck. When I saw her drive in, I put her packs on the side counter, she came flying in dropped off her buck and didn't have to wait in line. IIRC they were Cool Longs (100mm).

THEN they went to 55 cents a pack... ruined the whole equation. Shrug.

 

[Meadbh]

If you are looking for economic reasons not to smoke, here is one more. A recent survey of realtors in Ontario suggests that indoor smoking reduces property values by ~$100K. When buying my house, I rejected any such house outright.

Indoor smoking leads to sharp reduction in house values: survey | CTV Kitchener News

 

[UserRequested]

In 2012 Australia introduced one of the toughest anti-tobacco measures in the world by introducing plain paper packaging - ie. all tobacco irrespective of brand can only come in plain olive paper but with disgusting images of the effects of smoking

Australia's new plain packaging 'makes cigarettes taste worse' - Telegraph

 

[jon-nyc]

I don't normally notice the prices, but just last week I saw they were selling for over $12 a pack here. Crazy.

 

[jambo101]

As a life long pack a day smoker i finally gave it up when the price here in Montreal surpassed $10 a pack.It wasnt easy to give up but at $4000 per year could no longer afford the product.
its been 4 years now and i dont miss cigarettes, i do enjoy the money i'm saving

 

[UserRequested]

As a life long pack a day smoker i finally gave it up when the price here in Montreal surpassed $10 a pack.It wasnt easy to give up but at $4000 per year could no longer afford the product.
its been 4 years now and i dont miss cigarettes, i do enjoy the money i'm saving

Well done. I know from experience that it's not easy. So now you are 4k richer and feel a whole lot better I bet

 

[braumeister]

It boggles my mind too.
I was, unfortunately, a heavy smoker in my youth (slightly more than two packs a day). Cost was not an issue, since I could buy them at a military commissary free of taxes. When I quit, about 30 years ago, I paid $2.10 for a carton. I had been trying to quit for years, without much success, so it was a huge personal triumph for me when I finally did it.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

I was a two-packer per day smoker in 1986 when I finally quit. I had tried everything to quit but the deciding factor was when my doctor told me I would never live to see retirement if I did not stop smoking. He scared the hell out of me and I never took another "drag" on a cigarette. As I remember the price back then was about $10/carton. That was about a week's supply. Today I can tell a smoker from ten feet away because of the odor. Can't believe I ever smelled like that. Myt wife also smoked and our house had to smell like a sewer. Ugh!

 

[HighRoller]

I was a pack a day smoker and quit smoking about 28 years ago. I don't recall what the cost per pack was back then but it didn't seem like much. I probably tried to quit 10 times or more before finally making it. I do recall that the first 2 or 3 weeks after quiting was not easy and I still wanted to smoke "at times" for the next year or two. Today, the smell of fresh cigarette smoke doesn't really bother me but I can't stand the smell of a house or car where someone has been smoking.

 

[Sarah in SC]

I smoked from teen years up until about 8-9 years ago. Still know a lot of smokers, don't mind it as long as I'm not at a meal, or trapped in a car with them. Glad to save the cash now. I smoked Camel Lights, because they gave away cool prizes with the cards you saved from the back of the packs. DH smoked Marlboro Lights.
It was hard to quit for good, but now I don't even really think about smoking a cigarette, even when I see someone light up.

 

[Midpack]

I was also a pack a day smoker for about 8 years, gave it up in my late 20's. I smoked at work mostly, hardly smoked at all at home, notably on weekends (not at work). So I chalk it up to trying to fit in at the time, almost everyone smoked at work, long meetings were so smokey you could hardly see across the room. Glad those days are gone.

I knew better and was looking for one more reason to quit. When cigarettes reached $1 a pack that's all I needed, I said to myself that's it, I'm not paying a dollar a pack. I quit within 8 days...and never went back.

 

[Texas Proud]

It is not just smokes that eat up a lot of money...

My DW loves coffee... I love Dr Pepper.... (and candy)....

At least not as expensive as smokes, but it all adds up...



I wonder what ever happened to a friend that I had back in high school... I would be surprised if he were still alive... I swear this is true.... there were times that we would meet for something... he would be smoking... when he was finished with one he lit the next one with his old one... he would do this for hours on end... the longest I saw was 6 hours... he did not do this all the time, but it was not uncommon...

I did hate being around after awhile.... and I did not allow him to smoke in my car, which he hated....

 

[H2ODude]

Well, even if they were free I wouldn't recommend it. Mom died at 70 from lung cancer and Dad at 77 from emphysema, both in our home with hospice helping. Neither was a pleasant way to go. This is why I ignore longevity predictions for me that include ancestry; I know were it not for their smoking my parents ages at death would have been much later. It amazed me how my father's heart kept on plugging at 77 with only ~80% O2 saturation; that's why I don't worry about heart disease from a genetic perspective.

 

[Tyro]

In 2012 Australia introduced one of the toughest anti-tobacco measures in the world by introducing plain paper packaging - ie. all tobacco irrespective of brand can only come in plain olive paper but with disgusting images of the effects of smoking

I (sincerely) hope that doesn't backfire.... KIDS! Collect 'em ALL!

 

[heeyy_joe]

It's not hard to notice that smoke breaks are expensive for employers too. If I detect in a job interview that the candidate smokes it factors into my decision to hire them or someone else.

 

[Tyro]

Cigarette Prices - from the Tobacco Atlas

Out of curiousity, the cheapest I saw was in Benin @ $1.01 a pack; the highest I saw was $15.11 in Norway.

 

[Notmuchlonger]

I smoked from teen years up until about 8-9 years ago. Still know a lot of smokers, don't mind it as long as I'm not at a meal, or trapped in a car with them. Glad to save the cash now. I smoked Camel Lights, because they gave away cool prizes with the cards you saved from the back of the packs. DH smoked Marlboro Lights.
It was hard to quit for good, but now I don't even really think about smoking a cigarette, even when I see someone light up.

Good old Camel Cash.

 

[Gumby]

I smoked Camel unfiltereds until August 1984. One pack would last me three or four days. As I recall, at that time they cost about 40 cents a pack at the Navy Exchange.

 

[samclem]

The NIH says the cost of a pack of cigarettes is 220 minutes for men.

To those who have quit--congratulations! Great work. My parents tried and couldn't do it. Mom died of heart disease (age 59), dad died of lung cancer (age 62).

 

[Badger]

At 21 cents/pack in NC during the 60s it curbed my appetite and was cheeper than eating when I was on a tight budget. Quit after 10 years of a pack and a half a day habit. Just got angry with myself for letting them control me so I put them down. I never picked them up again. I can't imagine an annual expense of over $5k in today's prices for smoke. I don't think my grocery bill is that much.

Cheers!

 

[NYEXPAT]

Did the math, a pack here sells for $2.42. I smoke a 1/2 pack a day, which means I spend a lot more on coffee.

 

[stephaniee36]

A carton goes for $48-53 here. I am trying to quit as we speak, hard habit to break. Quit last year for 7 months and started back due to stress from w*rk...shouldnt make excuses....

 

[UserRequested]

A carton goes for $48-53 here. I am trying to quit as we speak, hard habit to break. Quit last year for 7 months and started back due to stress from w*rk...shouldnt make excuses....

I quit about a dozen times before finally succeeding.

Like any addiction, its about taking it one day at a time.

I cut from a pack down to a dozen for many years, then down to three or four a day.
Eventually it was only on weekends when I was having a drink.

Then one day, gave it up altogether.

Keep at it - you'll get there

 

[Idnar7]

The MegaCorp I used to work at recently became a smoke free campus. So now smokers leave the campus in their cars to smoke. Probably gone 30 minutes each time. Huge hit on productivity. They used to provide outside smoking shacks that kind of looked like ice fishing shacks (MN).