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?

I quit smoking 4 years ago and I still miss it >< bloody evil things.

I smoked roll ups so were cheaper than straights but even the cost of tobacco has gone up massively.

I don't know how they afford it. I used to smoke, always found the money, once I stopped I didn't feel better off.

Basically this thread is just a smokescreen to moan about smokers, nowt to do with how much it costs

Yes, of course it is. Almost every month there's a thread moaning about smokers they just change the titles slightly. The question is about money and smoking but it turns into the usual bleating. The government are never going to ban smoking, the taxes are too lucrative. If someone is using their own money to smoke that's not going to be outlawed is it, even if long noses want to delve into people's finances. So they can bleat until kingdom come, it will make not a jot of difference.

I stopped smoking cigarettes ages ago. I do vape though. I can easily afford it. & when I smoked cigarettes I could more than afford it. No problem. Nobody's business.

Most would like to get faux moral about poor people not smoking..alongside not drinking, not having too fancy a TV etc. The usual thing. I wonder what income level they'd "allow" for smoking if they ever got the chance. It's a good thing they never ever will, the working class snobbery would go through the roof.

Bleat bleat bleat my mum died a horrible death. I'm just such a snowflake to even mention it.

Unfortunately addicts are not renowned for their ability to make sensible life choices.

I totally agree with everyone who has said they have no idea why anyone would get into smoking at all these days, given that it is already prohibitively expensive and known to be deadly. Plus, as others have said, it fucking STINKS.

It is deeply depressing reading stories of people who growing up rarely got new clothes or, worse, went hungry whilst their parents prioritised their smoking addictions. Unforgivable, imo, and frankly those people didn't deserve to have children. I know giving up smoking is really hard (I cannot understand why anyone on here is disputing that!) but sorry, your kids should come first, and however hard it is, you should give up. In fairness, I am morally opposed to anyone with kids smoking anyway, given the dangers of passive smoking. I had chronic asthma as a kid. Any time I was around cigarette smoke, it exacerbated it. I'm militantly anti-smoking as a result (parents never smoked before anyone asks).

Hopefully the prohibitively expensive price and increased social stigma will eventually make it largely obsolete. I know of people who smoked while they lived abroad and eventually gave up because after years of cheap continental fags they couldn't stomach the price of UK fags. Good. :)

My understanding is it is now so heavily taxed that in fact it pays for the added expense it causes to the NHS (can't remember where I read that though), so I'm less concerned about it on that front.

Oh, and one more thing, increasing the tax on fags is NOT taking food out of the mouths of the poor. That's such a melodramatic drama queen thing to say. The bottom line is, we all make choices. If you CHOOSE to prioritise fags over food, you take the food out your own mouth. You could go to your doctors and get Nicorette patches etc, or just suck up the withdrawal symptoms and eat instead, but you are choosing not to. Don't blame the government for your hunger as a result; that's on you I'm afraid.

PS @titaniascloset the reason the smoking ban is not enforced in prisons isn't to do with human rights, according to this article. It's because the Health Act does not apply to "Crown premises". The courts rationale therefore was nothing to do with finding that smoking is a human right.

www.theguardian.com/society/2017/dec/19/jails-exempt-smoking-ban-uk-supreme-court-rules

Well it’s alright saying £150k, but what have the people your mums age who haven’t smoked got to show for it? It’s unlikely that they have a £150k luxury car / holiday or second home etc. It’s just an adjustment they make because they’re used to it

Like a previous poster said, maybe they never buy lunch out or a coffee from Starbucks, or don’t drink etc

My DTDs (19) have just gone to uni and have spent all holiday mentioning how many students smoke! DTD1 says she spends about £5-10 a week on alcohol (DTD2 doesn't drink) but others will spend £30 on a single night out. One flatmate of DTD1's (Russell Group Uni) smokes 20 premium cigarettes a day and drinks stuff like Grey Goose and Absolut.
Can't imagine the DDs smoking, they've inherited the frugal gene from their mother and the asthma gene from their father

Ok... my bills are paid, there's food in the cupboards and fridge, treats in the drawers, dd's clubs are paid, her bday presents bought....can I have a fag now!😬

Thing is, all of you complaining about threads complaining about smokers... What you are denying is that your smoking DOES affect other people. It isn't just financial, so don't get smug about how you can afford it and therefore no-one should be criticising you.

Your children, your friends who will probably see you get ill. Your families who would deeply wish better for you. Your colleagues who wonder how it is that you otherwise seem so intelligent.

Smoking is addictive. Excusing smoking, minimising its effects on self and others is just part of that addiction. I watched someone I love minimising it until the day he died. It is so sad to see people in the grip of a deadly addiction justifying that addiction on this thread.

I for one will not enable you.

Haffiana if that's your opnion then fine - but once again it's not the point of the thread. The thread is about the cost of cigarettes, not whether you agree with smoking.

On my local facebook page someone was begging for second hand toys for xmas presents for their baby as they said they didn't have a single penny and couldn't afford to buy presents. I was scrabbling around in my dc toy chest to try and find some things i could give her. The next day she posted asking if anyone was selling tobacco. So i guess that's how some people afford it, by putting it before their children.

The thread is about the cost of cigarettes, not whether you agree with smoking

^ Yep

Some people spectacularly miss the point don't they? So I'm trying to get a rehab place at the moment and busy jumping through hoops for that. Would you tell me to just get over my alcohol problem and not go through expensive rehab? Because as I said my addiction to cigarettes is worse. I hate it, but I am trying and have tried the nicotine patches and all that shit before.

I get mine abroad. Saves a fortune and gives me a good excuse to get away every couple of months.

I watched an old man today who absolutely reeked buy 40 cigarettes and 5 scratchcards which came to £32
That is a huge chunk of money even if that lasted 2 days.

Mind you I have never tried a single cigarette and I don’t have thousands to show for it

It’s ridiculous. Being told it’s healthy and will extend your life if you quit just doesn’t make sense to someone suicidal or psychotic and possibly battling other addictions, they are just trying to get through the day or the hour even safely. Shortening of life span might seem like a bonus at times like that. I agree, it's only now that my MH is anywhere near leveled out, that I've managed to quit. Who wants to live to 80 when, quite frankly, the next 5 years seem too many. Socially acceptable slow suicide.

It's taken 20 years to find a decent treatment for my depressive brain, now I've got to turn 20 years of self-abuse/neglect round. I might never manage it.

I get mine abroad. Saves a fortune and gives me a good excuse to get away every couple of months.

That's self-contradictory. Obviously if you spend anything on something you are going to burn and which is going to bugger up your lungs, you haven't saved money; likewise, if you've had to travel abroad to buy your supplies , again you've incurred expense, you haven't saved anything.

When my grandma was a teacher (many years ago now), she did a practical maths lesson every year. Calculating how much money you could save up by not smoking, and for instance how long until you could afford a cheap car. Reckoned it did more to put people off starting than any other health promotion measure.

In the 70's my parents calculated that they could have a week in Mallorca every year or smoke instead.

They picked the week in mallorca and didn't look back.

What about the huge cost of smoking to the NHS?

This is always trotted out but how much do you think the NHS has gained from tax revenues from the sale of cigarettes? The government takes in about 12 billion a year on tobacco, costs from smoking are at about 3 billion a year.
Plus if we are talking nhs costs, those early dying smokers are saving huge amounts they could have cost in those extra years or decades of elderly life.

I used to be friends with someone who was financially irresponsible but who, I felt, wasn’t at fault because she’d had an extremely tough childhood without parental support.

But I couldn’t help feel very judgey whenever she’d tell me her water/gas was being cut off for not paying the bills while she was smoking (albeit roll ups as they were cheaper) - especially as she picked up the habit in her 20s which I think is inexcusable since you don’t have the argument of being young and naive like a 15 yo for example.

It's very easy to say "why not just quit" or similar if you've never been addicted to a substance. Very easy

I smoked for years. I gave it up one week when I had a horrendous chest infection and literally couldn't smoke. I did it a day at a time and suddenly it was several weeks. The physical habit was the hardest part as the drugs had left my body in the first week so I took up cross-stitch to keep my hands occupied. I don't miss it and I couldn't even tell you how many years since I smoked - coming up for 20 I think.

My father had to give up overnight due to his heart condition and my mother quit at much the same time. At that point they'd been smoking for around 30 years.

Similarly with alcohol - I can take it or leave it and have no problem with being sober on a night out.

I realise that others have a problem with addiction but I don't actually understand it.

Let me start by saying I've never smoked

This is going to end well