How much do you spend on cigarettes?

It may not be the biggest reason for quitting for you, but money is certainly a big issue when it comes to stopping smoking.

Most smokers are completely unaware of how much they are spending on cigarettes. To work out how much you spend try the following exercise:

How much do you spend on a pack of cigarettes? ______
How many packs do you smoke a day? ______

Multiply that figure by seven
(to figure out how much you spend on cigarettes in a week) ______

Multiply that figure by four
(to figure out how much you spend on cigarettes in a month) ______

Multiply that figure by twelve
(to figure out how much you spend on cigarettes in a year) ______
(if you smoke a 20 pack a day this figure will be about £1680)

How many years have you been smoking? ______

Multiply that figure by the amount you spend in a year to find out how much money you have spent on cigarettes in your life. ______

Multiply the amount you spend in a year by three
to figure out how much you will spen in another three years ______

Multiply the amount you spend in a year by five
to figure out how much you will spen in another five years ______

Multiply the amount you spend in a year by ten
to figure out how much you will spen in another ten years ______

That's a lot of money isn't it! That's how much you are throwing away a year on cigarettes, and not only that but you are paying to poison yourself.

BUT have you thought of the opportunity cost? Opportunity cost is an economic term used to figure out how much money you have actually spent on something.

The opportunity cost of smoking is the things that you could have bought if you hadn't spent that money on cigarettes. So if you smoke a 20 pack a day you are spending about £1680 a year, what could you have bought with that?

30 pairs of jeans
6-8 months of repayments on your car
4-6 months of repayments on your mortgage
112 CDs
A holiday for two weeks for two to Mauritius
A 50 inch TV with Surround Sound System - and still have a few hundred to spare

These are the things that you are missing out on by smoking. So if you want to buy these things in addition so smoking you will have to spend another £1680.

So when you look at it you are actually spending twice the figure you came to above (e.g £1680) on cigarettes a year. Which means it is actually costing you £3360 a year to smoke! Thats's the opportunity cost - you have lost the opportunity to buy the other things by spending the money on smoking!

Now you know what's it's really costing you to smoke.