Have you ever added up the amount of money you spend on cigarettes? You might be surprised to learn what you could do for yourself and your loved ones with that money in your pocket instead. You may even find this a good reason to quit.
Take this example. If you buy a pack of 20 cigarettes for around $12 every day, you're spending more than $4,000 a year. That's a substantial mortgage repayment or beach holiday up in smoke!
Let's take that scenario a bit further. If you smoke a pack a day for ten years, you'll spend about $44,000 – easily enough to buy a new car or put a deposit on a house.
Once you think about all the things you can do with the money you will save if you stop smoking, you may find the incentive you need to give up smoking for good.
After a week of being quit, you will have saved enough to reward yourself with a dinner for two, a comedy show or a couple of books or CDs. After a month you could have a weekend away, or buy some new clothes. Want a new TV? It could be just three or four smokefree months away!
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Interactive tool:
Quit calculator
Use the Quit calculator to work out how much
you are spending on smoking.
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The cost benefits of quitting don't just stop with what you would have spent on cigarettes either.
- You could save more than $1,000 in life insurance fees every year
- You're less likely to suffer from some illnesses, which means fewer trips to the doctor, less money spent on medications and fewer sick days.
- You could save on cleaning bills because your clothes, furniture and car will no longer smell of cigarette smoke.
- The risk of fire in your home is lower.
When you quit, you reduce your risk of serious illness and with it the risk of losing some or all of your income from work, as well as the income of the family member who would have to look after you if you became very ill.
The sooner you quit, the better your health and the more money you save.