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This kind of calculation is what convinced me to quit smoking before going to university in 1990. Cigarettes were $5 / pack. I smoked a pack a day. $5 x 365 da
by visiblink 4y ago
This kind of calculation is what convinced me to quit smoking before going to university in 1990. Cigarettes were $5 / pack. I smoked a pack a day.
$5 x 365 days x 4 years = $7300.
Given that I was saving up the money beforehand, quitting was the difference between starting school in 1990 or 1991.
I felt like a 'cold turkey' for about three months. But it was so worth it.
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago> Cigarettes were $5 / pack. I quit in 1980 ($0.65/pack). They are now close to $15/pack, in NY. I know, because I have a family member that still smokes. This does not even touch the cost to health.
- conductr 4y agoThat $5 number is suspicious to me, or perhaps just geographically skewed. In early 90s, I went to the store and bought cigarettes for my mom almost daily and I remember it being about $2.
- biztos 4y agoI paid $5/pack for Nat Shermans in SF in 1994/95. IIRC there were super cheap brands for around $2 but they were skanky, Shermans and Dunhills and American Spirits were all around $4-5.
- visiblink 4y agoThe $5 figure was from northern British Columbia. Cigarettes were much cheaper in the U.S. at the time (Canadians used to bring back a couple of duty-free cartons on a regular basis) and in Ontario, where the government reduced the taxes to counter smuggling. Edit: in the link below you can see that over the course of 1990, cigarette prices rose from $35 to $48/carton (so $4.80/pack if you bought them by the carton) in 1990. They were, of course, more expensive if you bought individual packs, or if you lived in the north. https://otru.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/update_may2002.pdf https://otru.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/update_may2002.p...
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y agoI remember visiting Canada, in the 1970s, and cigarettes were about $4 a pack. Everyone used to buy big cans of Export tobacco, and roll their own. Apparently. pre-rolled cigarettes were taxed heavily, but loose tobacco was not. I think this is still the case, in many nations. I have a friend from UK, who is always smoking hand-rolled "fags."
- conductr 4y agoOh wow. Yeah definitely a US thing then. Completely makes sense, sadly.
- srcreigh 4y agoMay be a NY thing. I bought Marlboros in Sunnyvale in 2016 and paid $5-6 USD per pack.
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y agoNY is insane. It's about taxes. The City is much worse than the 'burbs (about $12/pack, out here). If I go down to MD or VA, they are about $5 less.
- ryloric 4y agoCovid made me quit, I just couldn't get any cigs at all due to lockdown. I was pissed for two weeks, then I just got used to it.
- jcpst 4y agoMy wife asked me if I would try and quit when she was pregnant. 12 years later, I’m so glad I did. For myself, for being an example for my kids… My friends who still smoke cigarettes are now seeing the start of some of the typical health complications.
- JKCalhoun 4y agoYep, quit when my first daughter was born. Rough as hell for the first year, but that was now 23 years ago.
- sergiotapia 4y agoIs a pack a day normal? During college I would feel bad that I had smoked three cigarettes a day. I've since switched to cigars, and have about one a month at most.
- visiblink 4y agoI don't know if it's still normal. In the 1970s and 1980s smoking a pack a day was fairly typical. Two packs a day was considered excessive, but most people knew someone who smoked that much.
- massysett 4y agoThe old quip here: Doctor: "if you multiply the cost of your cigarettes by your consumption, you'd have enough money to buy a Ferrari." Smoker: "do you smoke?" Doctor: "No." Smoker: "Then where's your Ferrari?"
- cadamsau 4y agoDoctor: "I used the money to buy things with greater utility than a Ferrari." ¯\_(ツ)_/¯