Lots of money up in smoke

[vicrider 0]

For those of you still lighting them up, go ahead, it's legal and your right to smoke in many places. Since it has been years since I gave them up and wife quit several years ago and I know I've read of many on the board getting away from them I have not had a reason to check their prices. We had a bunch of company over the other day and like usual several were running their phones instead of joining in the conversation. Someone called out that in some state I can't remember the cigarette machines were at $12 a pack. I just checked and the average price per pack in US is $8 per pack. I always thought smokes ran around the same price as a gallon of gas and back when I smoked they were very close to pricing together. If they are trying to limit smoking by pricing them out of reach they're doing a good job but like so many things these prices tend to hurt the lower income folks more than anyone else.

When I quit it was for health reasons and looking at today's prices I think of how much more money I've had for rods and reels and flies because of it. So what does this have to do with fishing? Nothing, just random observation and if it prompts someone to quit the better for it.

[fishingbobnelson 0]

I quit 30 years ago yesterday

 

[chugbug27 0]

I'm right behind you Bob, 30 years this coming April 14. Still get the itch once in a while, but it passes.

Back in the '90s when "big tobacco" started taking huge hits, one claimed principle behind price increases was that there was a direct correlation between price of each cigarette and the quantity smoked. Not sure if that ever really held water or whether it still does, or whether that should even matter. Just glad I'm not smoking. 

Let's see, a pack a day not smoked for 30 years times $8... $77,200. 

[RickZieger 0]

Never started, but jelly beans are another thing.

[mikechell 0]

I quit several years back. (I don't remember when, 13? 14 years?)  I have never felt any improvement in my health due to quitting.  But then, I didn't quit for health.  I quit when a pack went over $4.00.  Just couldn't justify the cost of a carton of cigarettes when they provided little comfort or relief from stress.  Found out quickly that the few minutes alone I would've spent smoking ... well ... it was actually the time alone that was the big benefit.

[Steeldrifter 0]

I don't know how people can afford to do it these days either Nick. When I quit they were $5.35-$5.60 a pack. Now whenever I see them at places when I go through a register they are between $10.50-$11 for the brand I use to smoke (Newport).

I quit about the same time as you did Mike, this April (Good Friday) will be either 13 or 14 yrs for me, can't remember off hand without looking up which it is. But I 100% noticed a huge difference in my health when I quit. When I was smoking I couldn't walk more than a block or two without getting so winded I felt like I was gonna puke. And I use to cough a lot when I laid down at night. Now a days I can walk or ride my bike for miles on end without getting winded. And haven't woke up coughing in years. I'd say personally it is probably one of the two best changes I made in my life for my health.

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

I smoked from age 16 to age 23..before quitting cold turkey.   To this day I can't tell you how I was able to do it but I was single back then.  Best thing I ever did looking back on it.  For me - that was 52 years ago now...  Anyone struggling with that habit has my sympathy.  By the way,  when I was in the service a carton of smokes was around $1.75...  You'd think the tobacco industry was trying to get all of us hooked.

[SalarMan 0]

I stopped cold turkey the first day of spring 2000, and have never looked back. My doctor told me it was the best thing I'd ever done for myself.

One thing I do remember...while standing on the first tee at our club one of the guys there was listening to me talk about quitting the cigarettes, and I've never forgotten Tom's words...

"You are only between cigarettes and don't forget it". He was so right about that as anyone who has stopped smoking on more than one occasion can attest to.

[flytire 0]

29 years smoke free

wait til he finds out the price of bread and gas if he thinks a pack of smokes is expensive 😁😁

[SilverCreek 0]

Good for you VC

 

 

[gadabout 0]

I quit cold turkey over 40 years ago.  I can’t imagine paying what they cost now.

[vicrider 0]

This is another kind of off the wall post but I have been hooked on watching a lot of the log sawing on You Tube channel. They are so primitive and do so much insane work in running their sawmills it is unbelievable that some of the guys there are fairly old. This is Indonesia and they use a rolling table for their logs and hand push them through what amounts to a huge band saw. They somehow muscle logs up to 5' diameter or so onto their tables and push them through to other guys on the other side of the saw catching and handling the sawn slabs. The thing is they work with no OSHA rules in sight. Shorts, t-shirts, sandals or bare feet, no safety glasses or gloves, not a hard hat in site. I don't how I got hooked on this but to me it's kind of like being mesmerized by a firepit burning. 

Okay, how does relate to this thread? These guys smoke like you cannot believe. There are times 5 or 6 are straining to roll a huge log onto the rolling bed and everyone has a smoke hanging from their mouth. Their is one old guy at one site who may have the world record for smokes consumed. Then again, he may not be old but has a perpetual squint from a dangling cigarette. I got to wondering about these guys and did a Google and darned if Indonesian men don't smoke the most per capita in the world and watching these guys at their ancient sawmills make that easy to believe.

Nick

[Bryon Anderson 0]

Congratulations and more power to all who have quit. It is a huge achievement and one to be celebrated. 

I have loved cigars for years. At my peak last summer, I was smoking 4-6 cigars a week. Then I had a bit of a heart-related wake-up call (incidental discovery of an aortic aneurysm), and that got me stopped all together for about two months. Then we went on vacation in Florida, and I allowed myself a few that week as a treat. Knowing that it was to be a "one-off", I indulged and got a few top shelf super-premiums. They were fantastic and I enjoyed them thoroughly, but they had an unanticipated effect -- they have ruined me for anything less than the best! The ones I smoked before now taste like exhaust pipes by comparison. As a result, I now enforce several rules on my cigar use: 1) only on special occasions, such as when floating a river alone or in fish camp with friends, 2) only the very best ones I can get my hands on -- that means $20-30 each in my area, and a considerable drive to get to where they're sold. I have to really want one, in other words. Turns out, with those barriers in place, I find that I don't want one nearly as much or as often as I once thought I did. It's not perfect, but it's an improvement health-wise, and I find that when I do splurge for one now, I enjoy it ten times more than I did when it was just a habit. 

[Harry3 0]

I quit 40 hears after a health scare.

[SilverCreek 0]

FYI - Cancer risk after stopping smoking takes 20 years to drop to the rate of someone who has not smoked.

https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/patient-care/care-settings/cancer/index.htm#:~:text=10 years after quitting%3A risk,someone who does not smoke.