Yep, it’s that time again…October 21st marks TEN years since my last cigarette. That’s TEN YEARS! HOLY CRAP. I used to be a very heavy smoker, and quitting cold turkey was a very big deal for me. So every year on October 21st, I take this opportunity to figure out how much money I would have spent on cigarettes had I not quit.

But first…

This year I’m going to cheat and calculate a full second year in California, even though I moved to Maryland in July. It’s just easier that way. Anyway, I used to smoke on average 1.75 packs a day (most days were 1.5, but many were 2+, often reaching 2.5 easily). So over the last ten years that’s 3,652 days (2000 and 2008 were leap years), I would have smoked 6,391 packs of cigarettes, or 127,820 individual smokes. Calculating the first eight years at the New York City rough average of $7 a pack across 5,112 packs I get $35,784, plus two years at the California average of $4.50 a pack, we wind up with a total amount I would have spent had I been smoking of…

Drumroll please…

$41,544

Smoking in California is definitely cheaper at roughly $3,000 a year (compared to $4,500 in NYC), but that’s still a lot of money (and don’t even get me started on how insane it is that a state as broke as California hasn’t proposed heftier sin taxes on smoking).

If you’re thinking of quitting, visit QuitNet for more information. Also try the Smoking Calculator if you’d like to see just how much that habit is stealing from your precious income. And if that’s not enough motivation, read Wikipedia’s article on the health effects of tobacco or the thoroughly unpleasant How does your body digest a cigarette? article at HowStuffWorks.

And remember, you can quit. I’m living, breathing proof of that. If I can do it, anyone can do it.

Yep, it’s that time again…October 21st marks NINE years since my last cigarette. NINE years! If you haven’t been reading this site for the last five years, I used to be a very heavy smoker, and quitting cold turkey was a very big deal for me. So every year on October 21st (roughly…I’ve missed the day a few times), I take this opportunity to figure out how much money I would have spent on cigarettes had I not quit.

This year the math is a little more complicated, since it’s a lot cheaper to smoke in California than in New York. I used to smoke on average 1.75 packs a day (most days were 1.5, but many were 2+, often reaching 2.5 easily). So over the last nine years that’s 3,287 days (2000 and 2008 were leap years), I would have smoked 5,752 packs of cigarettes, or 115,040 individual smokes. Calculating the first eight years at the New York City rough average of $7 a pack across 5,112 packs I get $35,784, plus another year’s worth at the California average of $4.50 a pack, we wind up with a total amount I would have spent had I been smoking of…

Drumroll please…

$38,664

Smoking in California is definitely cheaper at roughly $3,000 a year (compared to $4,500 in NYC), but that’s still a lot of money.

If you’re thinking of quitting, visit QuitNet for more information. Also try the Smoking Calculator if you’d like to see just how much that habit is stealing from your precious income. And if that’s not enough motivation, read Wikipedia’s article on the health effects of tobacco or the thoroughly unpleasant How does your body digest a cigarette? article at HowStuffWorks.

And remember, you can quit. I’m living, breathing proof of that. If I can do it, anyone can do it.

I’m a little behind on stuff…the eighth anniversary of my last cigarette was back on October 21st. If you haven’t seen one of these annual posts before, this is a big deal for me…for many years I was an extremely heavy smoker, and I quit cold turkey, and haven’t had a single puff since.

The best part of this annual post is that I get to calculate how much I would have spent on cigarettes had I been smoking all this time. Because I’ve only been in California for a couple of months, I’m going to cheat a little and calculate based on the New York average. Starting next year I’ll do eight years of New York and one from California.

Anyway, using my average of 1.75 packs a day (most days were 1.5, but many were 2+, often reaching 2.5) over the last seven years (2,921 days…2000 was a leap year) I would have smoked 5,112 packs of cigarettes, or 102,240 individual smokes. Using the New York City rough average of $7 a pack, that means had I been smoking, I would have spent..

Drumroll please…

$35,784

Or roughly $4,500 per year. That’s enough per year to buy every game system, every game released this year that scored over 90% and still have enough left over to build an amazingly kickass PC gaming rig. That $35K is also comparable to the total cost of both cars I’ve taken out loans on this year.

If you’re thinking of quitting, check out QuitNet (funded by the NIH), WhyQuit or Quit Smoking Stop. The Smoking Calculator is an easy way to see how much you’re actually spending. And Wikipedia has a number of interesting articles, including this one on the health effects of tobacco smoking, which points out that “there is no credible evidence that ‘Low Tar,’ ‘Light’ or ‘Ultra Light’ cigarettes are safer than regular cigarettes.”

Quitting is hard, but it can be done. Take my word for it.

Today marks seven years for me without a single cigarette. If you haven’t seen my annual posts here before, this is a big deal for me, as for many years I was an extremely heavy smoker. Seven years ago I quit cold turkey and haven’t had a single one (not even a puff off somebody else’s) since.

And now for the fun part…the amount of money I would have spent on cigarettes had I kept smoking for these seven years.

Using my average of 1.75 packs a day (most days were 1.5, but many were 2+, often reaching 2.5) over the last seven years (2,556 days…2000 was a leap year) I would have smoked 4,473 packs of cigarettes, or 89,460 individual smokes. Using the New York City rough average of $7 a pack, that means had I been smoking, I would have spent..

Drumroll please…

$31,311

Or roughly $4,500 per year. To put that in perspective, I could have used the money from one year (had I been smart enough to save it) to buy a PlayStation 3 ($600), an Xbox 360 ($400), a Wii ($250) and a fully-loaded 17″ MacBook Pro ($3099) and still had enough money left over to spend on games and comics and other fun stuff.

If you’re thinking of quitting, here’s Wikipedia’s entry on smoking, WhyQuit, QuitNet and the Surgeon General’s five day plan to quit smoking. This year’s Great American Smokeout is on November 16th, so there’s plenty of time to get ready to quit. The ACS site also has a Cigarette Cost Calculator so you can see how much you’d save if you quit today.

Today is the Great American Smokeout, so this seems as good a time as any to do my annual math showing how much money I’ve saved (or would have, had I actually put it in a bank somewhere) since I quit smoking. The actual anniversary was on October 21st, but I was so busy I completely missed it. But anyway, let’s get to the math.

Using my average of 1.75 packs a day (most days were 1.5, but many were 2+, often reaching 2.5) over the last six years, I would have smoked 3832.5 packs of cigarettes, or 76650 individual cigarettes. Using the New York City rough average over five years of $7 a pack, that means by not smoking I’ve saved…

Drumroll please…

$26,827.50

That equals about $4,500 a year. A metric assload, if I’m not mistaken.

This year’s resources: if you’re looking for info on why you should quit, check out Wikipedia’s tobacco smoking page. QuitNet and WhyQuit are still out there to help, and there’s a great list of 5 steps to help you quit from the Surgeon General’s office.

Today marks the five year anniversary of my very last cigarette. Which is pretty crazy, considering how much I used to smoke. What’s great, is that in one more year, I’ll have been off smoking for longer than I actually smoked. Anyway, as I do every year, I’ve calculated how much money I’ve saved by not smoking.

Using my average smoke habit of 1.75 packs a day (most days were 1.5, although on those nights I went out drinking it went up as high as 2.5…this is a rough average), over the last five years, I would have smoked 3194 packs of cigarettes, or 63880 individual cigarettes. Using the New York City rough average over five years of $7 a pack, that means by not smoking I’ve saved…

Ready…?

$22,358.00

Which is not only almost $4,500 more than last year’s total, but it officially qualifies as a metric assload of money.

And now, this year’s resources to help you quit: the CDC has a great site up, as does the Surgeon General, and Quitnet and WhyQuit are both still going strong. And if you’d like to read more, visit the American Lung Association, or if you prefer to be bullied into quitting, the obnoxious (but nonetheless effective) Truth campaign rolls on, although the tobacco companies have pulled their funding (you can sign a petition here to help save the campaign).

It sort of passed without my even realizing it, but a few weeks back marked the fourth anniversary of my quitting smoking. That’s a pretty big deal for me, as I used to smoke quite a bit.

Just for the heck of it, I decided to figure out how much money this has saved me. I did indeed smoke a heck of a lot. I’d smoke anywhere from one to two-and-a-half packs a day, which adds up pretty quickly. So in four years, at an average of 1.75 packs a day, I figure I would have smoked 2,555 packs of cigarettes (that’s 51,100 individual smokes, for anyone who’s curious).

New York is the most expensive place to buy cigarettes in this country (I believe, anyway…as I no longer smoke, I have nothing to compare it to) so at an average of $7.00 a pack over four years, the total amount of money that I would have spent on cigarettes comes to…

Drumroll please…

$17,885.00

And that, kids, is a crapload of money.

I wish I could say I’ve saved all of this money, but of course, the chasm of money I used to spend on cigarettes has been funneled into my other expensive habits (namely comics, games and movies). Oh, and I got married. Does that count? That wife of mine, she ain’t cheap.

I did it cold turkey, but if you’re looking to quit smoking, there are lots of great resources online, including QuitNet, QuitSmoking.com and WhyQuit. Also see the American Lung Association’s smoking page for reasons why it’s a good idea (in case the money alone isn’t enough to do it for you) and there’s also The Truth (which is funded by tabacco companies, incidentally) if you like being berated for being a smoker. I find their attitude to be insulting, but since their primary purpose is to keep kids from smoking, that’s understandable (that doesn’t mean I have to like it).