How the fuck do people afford to smoke?

[StrongerThanIThought76]

Let me start by saying I've never smoked. Never even tried it. My mum did, from her teens, all through my childhood, through some serious health issues and finally stopped after a smoking related cancer. Of course there are a hundred reasons not to smoke these days - health, social exclusion etc etc.

I worked out that over 50 years she's spent almost £150k on fags, conservatively basing that on 20 a day.

She's never had any savings, only been on a few holidays and still harbours resentment that my dad has a much wealthier lifestyle (bigger house, better car etc since they divorced 30 years ago).

So with the cost of a packet of 'premium' fags costing in excess of £10 a pack AIBU to think that smokers have got their priorities massively wrong money-wise?

It's a dreadful addiction and like many impacts the poorest the hardest. I smoked in my 20's and prioritised it over most things. That was many years ago and I no longer smoke. I prioritise my daughter now but it's hard to make rational decisions whilst in the grip of an addiction.

I don't understand it either. I literally could not afford to smoke and can't understand how people can go without other things in order to prioritise it. I used to smoke but thank god I gave up 22 years ago, before had kids and a mortgage!

20p fifty years ago was worth £4.33 in today's money.

it's hard to make rational decisions whilst in the grip of an addiction

I'm not sure it is an addiction to everyone. I certainly didn't find it hard to give up. I stopped wanting to smoke.

Oh yes, feeling fine battleax

20p fifty years ago was worth £4.33 in today's money.

Really? The inflation calculator I used got it completely wrong then.

scanbersley oh that's interesting!! Well done!

It’s legal. She can buy what she wants with her money.

What I find really odd is why anyone starts smoking these days. It's so expensive; the health risks are well known; it fucking honks - I know numbers are dropping, but people still take it up. Why?!

It might be a bit of an addiction,, but as many smokers do manage to stop with only a little help or none at all, it's not as addictive as some pretend it is! If you want to stop, you can. If you have to prevent from lighting a cigarette for hours, you can and you will fairly easily.

Not saying it's that easy for everyone, but I know a few friends including dh gave up literally overnight with no relapses. I must have an addictive personality or I wouldn't have started in the first place I suppose.

each to their own
What about the huge cost of smoking to the NHS?
What about the effects of second hand smoke over the years?
I love how people think that what they do has no impact on others at all.

It's mental that it's even legal, knowing what we know about the health risks.

These threads always end up with people insisting smoking is an 'addiction'. Like it gives it kudos

I don't think it's to give it kudos, it's to paint poorer smokers as victims, rather than selfish idiots who prioritise their own indulgence over necessities for themselves and their children.

it's to paint poorer smokers as victims

Absolutely - those poor, addicted smokers, they can't help it, they have to have their fix even if it means their children going hungry. We should feel sorry for them and chuck more cash at them. We should never question their choices.

it's to paint poorer smokers as victims, rather than selfish idiots who prioritise their own indulgence over necessities for themselves and their children

Yes. Not sure I'd call them idiots but selfish, yes.

Mrskeats - as an aside, a lot of those arguments also apply to obesity and the "healthy at every size" movement. Being a lardgutwho is constantly trying to lose weight and stave off diabetes, I try to remember these points - it has stopped me reaching for the chocolate quite so much and I managed to lose 3lbs over Christmas!

Not saying it's that easy for everyone, but I know a few friends including dh gave up literally overnight with no relapses.

Yep, me too.

Just as well, because I have no idea how (almost) anybody can afford to smoke in Australia. I read the other day that we have the most expensive cigarettes in the world.

It has reduced the smoking rate though.

you can and you will fairly easily.

As I said, I quit smoking from 20 a day in 2012. I used an ecig for 2 weeks to help with quitting. It was in no way easy. I had mouth ulcers, upset stomach and sweats on top of feeling depressed, crying at nothing and not wanting to go anywhere. I felt like I'd lost a friend, I had too much time on my hands and no idea what to do with myself.
Quitting a serious smoking addiction takes battling the physical withdrawals plus a complete change in mindset.
If you're not in the right frame of mind, it's impossible.
And guess what, I still fancy a cigarette sometimes even though I now find the smell appalling.

Same here. My mum and Dad smoked and it was “we can’t afford it” this was used for things like clothes (I had cheap market stall clothes, “dead old lady clothes” (they came from one of my grans friends who died, I refused to wear them) and hand me downs from various relatives)
Food was rationed and cheap.
Then when I started earning it was made very difficult to move out (impossible) and I had to pay the rent. Not a third, all. I found that out when I went through some old documents with my dad.
Priorities change. The priority is buying two little boxes of dried leaves wrapped in paper and then the two quid change goes on the food for the rest of the day.

Lots of people smoke tobacco rather than cigarettes my dh spends about £12/'week on tobacco .

I remember watching a news story many years ago about poverty in a certain part of Scotland. They featured a woman who had three children but couldn't afford to buy a duvet for the oldest to sleep under.

She was a smoker. One pack equals one duvet but in her mind fags are like a tax, money gone before you can spend it. So she probably wouldn't have considered doing without fags any more than most people would do without food.

Well, I don't smoke (sober ...) but used to in my uni days. And, Yes, it was expensive - somewhat less so than it is now, but I was also being paid a lot less back then.

It was just something that was part of cour cost of living, really. Obviously, students aren't exactly representative of the general public, but I think I mostly financially compensated my habit by not really going to clubs back then. I hated (and still hate) clubs with a passion - and a drink on one of those was usually the same or more than a pack of smokes.

Rebeccaslicker, I think its young kids that take it up not adults. As 13 year olds all my friends and myself were smoking 10 Regal a day bought with dinner money. I smoked from 13-33 and its really hard to give up.
Zatsuma, many people say its harder than hard drugs to give up, thats why theres now quite a lot of help available like smoking cessation clinics etc. I'd advise anyone who wants to stop smoking and cant do it by willpower alone to go to the Drs for help.

I don't know about the 'huge cost' to the NHS. Smokers pay a huge amount of extra tax for their habit. There is often a sort of assumption that non smokers will all die peacefully in their beds at 93 and a half, without having cost the NHS (or social care, come to that) much at all.

If only.