The cost of smoking

With the average price for a pack of 20 cigarettes in the UK at £10.80 (as per November 2019), smoking has become a very expensive pastime. Have you ever stopped and considered how much money you could save per month or (even per year) if you quit?

If you smoked 20 cigarettes per day, your monthly savings would be £324. In a year you would save an incredible £3,942! What could you do with all that extra money? Take your family on a lovely holiday, save up for a bigger purchase (a car or a mortgage down payment), or maybe pay off a credit card or two. The possibilities are endless.

During expensive times of year (such as the Christmas period), you could put the money you save toward gifts for all the family.

Today, I’m not talking about health benefits. You’ve heard those over and over again. We’re simply talking about money. If you’d like to find out how much you could save, have a look at the smoking cost calculator. Simply enter the price you pay for a pack of your cigarette brand, and how many cigarettes you smoke per day, and let the calculator do the rest. Then think what you could do with all the money instead!

But that is not all the money you are paying out when you're a smoker. There are a wide variety of additional costs that only smokers have to pay. Here are some examples.

In addition to the actual cost of cigarettes, there are also indirect costs. If you're a smoker, you'll need to spend more money on cleaning products and detergent as everything will get dirtier quicker due to the smoke clinging to your clothing, as well as curtains, walls, soft furnishings, etc. You will also need to redecorate more often, as the smoke discolours your walls and ceilings.

Smokers spend more money on insurance policies such as household insurance (higher risk of fire) and private health insurance.

As a smoker, you might also end up earning less than your non-smoking colleagues due to a greater number of absences and reduced productivity.

Taking all of this into account, think of how much better your financial situation could be. Of course, it would have countless positive effects on your health as well.

If you’ve tried to quit smoking in the past and failed, how about trying something new? Hypnotherapy has helped thousands of people quit. According to research, it is one of the most effective ways to stop smoking. The New Scientist (issue 1845) published a study stating "Hypnosis is the most effective way of giving up smoking, according to the largest ever scientific comparison of ways of breaking the habit". It usually only takes a couple of sessions to turn a smoker into a non-smoker. There is one important condition, however. You need to be willing to give up smoking yourself - it's not enough if your parents, children, or partner want you do quit.