The cost of smoking
Thursday, March 13, 2008 Reacting (with obvious disappointment) to the fact that the Chancellor has "only" raised the tax on tobacco in line with inflation, anti-smoking campaigners have tried to look for a "positive" spin. The No Smoking Day "charity" says that smokers with a 20-a-day habit will now be paying more than £2,077 a year for their habit.
Presumably they want to shock smokers with this figure in the hope that more will quit. My reaction, as a non-smoker, is "So what?". A quick calculation (on the back of the fag packet that I bought yesterday to mark No Smoking Day) reveals that in the last 12 months I spent several thousand pounds on a family holiday; approximately £2,000 on wine, beer and spirits; over £1,000 on coffee (cappuccinos, lattes and Americanos); God knows how much on fuel (not because I have to use my car all the time, but because I like driving); and close to £1,000 buying and maintaining a small menagerie of pets (and their luxury, five-star hutches) including hamsters, guinea pigs and rabbits.
There are lots of other things I spend money on, none of them essential (and some of them criminally expensive) but they brighten up my day - CDs, gadgets, Belgian buns - and it has nothing to do with anyone else apart from my immediate family.
If people didn't spend money on cigarettes they would almost certainly spend it on something equally ephemeral. (Does anyone seriously believe that the money saved will be invested in property or a pension fund?) That's their choice. The only thing that needs to be said (and even this is rather patronising) is: don't spend more than you can afford. If you can afford to spend £2,000 a year on tobacco, and it brings you pleasure (and you know the risks, blah, blah, blah), why not?
As a non-smoking taxpayer, I'm delighted. Without your money the government would have to find the lost billions somewhere else. For my sake if not for yours, keep smoking!
Reader Comments (9)
£2,077. Your having a laugh. Coach day trip to Belgium £27. Tobacco £2.55 for 50gms. Cigars £4.50 for 50. Cost of smoking about £5 per week. Less than the cost of two pints. Good day out and spirits a lot cheaper too.
Don't worry ill keep on smoking even if it costs me £5k a year plus. It is my life My descion and nobody else's to tell me how to run it.
It is about time these rather sad people of the antismoking lobby get a life or alternatively seek phychiactric treatment.
I was going to give up smoking before the ban.But now i am not going to. Ok antismoking lobby ?
Chas: Spirits a lot cheaper and higher perhaps. Entrepot trading has never been more lucrative.
Did anyone see the One Show on Wednesday? One of the presenters said there are now only 2 million smokers. Does that mean 10 million have given up overnight?
Sylvia said: Did anyone see the One Show on Wednesday? One of the presenters said there are now only 2 million smokers. Does that mean 10 million have given up overnight?
Was that, that stupid woman doctor, or whatever she calls herself? She is so anti smoking, she almost implodes if ever it is mentioned.
I did notice that riddiculous figure myself, but I thought that maybe I had misheard it, seems I didn't.
If they are going to be serious about anything other than animal issues on there, they should at least get their figures right first. (and stop inviting hapless so called doctors on there)
Sylvia
Was that the show where Andrew Neil sat next to that woman? I admit that I didn't play full attention, but noticed that Andrew was allowed much of a say.
Sorry. Should have said, was NOT allowed much of a say.
On another note,is it just me or does it irritate anyone else when the media keep on using the cliche "stub it out"? It really drives me mad when I see headlines like the old chestnut "Smokers told to stub it out" it's so peurile. Can't they think of anything else more original. It just shows their mentalities - childish.
Well Said Simon, some people love spendings lots on shoes,handbags,jewellery,the lastest fashion or gadgets. I am not interested in spending my money on those sort of items,each to his own. I will never give up while they try to force me, I have never been so militant in all my life, lol.
Good luck with the EU conferance.