You've got $6 until payday tomorrow. Now, you have to decide whether you're spending this money on lunch or a pack of smokes. You've got an old cereal bar and two Tic-Tacs in your desk. That'll do for now -- you need your nicotine fix. You buy a pack of cigarettes and still have enough for a Diet Coke. Lunch is served.
What are you spending your money on? You are well aware of your regular expenses: rent, utilities, gas, food, car payment, gym membership... But what about your smoking, boozing and, ahem, "other interests." Your paycheck is going up in smoke. Find out what you're spending each year on your vices. Consider this a financial intervention.
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Mile High Club
With Denver and other Sinsemilla-sensitive cities decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana (1 ounce or less), you may think it's time to stock up on the sticky-icky-icky, but wait just a minute there, Snoop Dogg. It's still illegal to buy reefer, and decriminalization doesn't mean discount. So before you go outside to "mow the grass," consider what you're spending annually on "glaucoma prevention."
Giggle weed, goblet of jam, goof butt, Kate Bush, Aunt Mary, Mexican locoweed, snop, stink weed, whackytabacky and yellow submarine -- these are all street names for marijuana, according to the White House drug policy Web site(check it out and learn how creative drug dealers are.). Low-grade marijuana (swag) is less expensive than its more potent cousin, Cryppie (aka dank or kind bud), but regardless of what you call it, you're going to have to pay for it.
If you smoke swag, you're probably spending about $25 per quarter ounce, according to most sources. So if you're a casual smoker -- and your buddies don't bogart your blunts -- you may buy a quarter a week and spend $1,300 per year. Prefer Maui Wauie to Mexico dirt weed? Double your cost and cough up $2,600 per year. Unfortunately, that doesn't leave much money for marshmallows and Funyuns.
Smoker's Cost
The Mintel Group reports that as of 2004, the U.S. cigarette market represented an estimated $81 billion business annually. There's big money in those little packages. The cost of smoking to your health is immeasurable, and the risks are numerous, but smoking makes you look so cool/sophisticated/sexy. Plus, you could quit whenever you want, right?
The price of a pack of cigarettes varies from state to state, according to tobaccofreekids.org, with the average price per pack being $4.32. So if you're the pack-a-day type, you're spending almost $1,600 per year. However, the financial ramifications reach far beyond the cost of a pack of squares.
Smokers pay more for insurance, lose money on the resale value of their cars and homes, and spend extra on dry cleaning and teeth cleaning (not to mention the numerous attempts to quit and the cost of gums, patches and lasers). If a 30-year-old quits smoking and puts the extra money into savings, they would have about an extra $50,000 by age 60. Retire, dye your hair blue and move to Miami. You earned it.
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