Cigarettes and dodgy economics
Smoking cigarettes is an expensive habit.
Each person who smokes 20 cigarettes each day will spend nearly £50 every week on cigarettes. During a year, that adds up to more than £2,000 literally going up in smoke!
That could be the equivalent of a holiday, days out and treats or running a car. Activities the whole family could enjoy.
Smoking gets even more expensive for home owners because smokers pay more for house insurance than non-smokers and furnishings need replacing more often.
Cigarettes can cost up to £6.95 for a pack of 20. Of this cost, £5.40 goes to the Government to help pay for medical care and other costs of smoking but even this huge amount (£8 billion in 2009/10) is not enough.
The above figures have not taken into account the March 2012 budget tax increase of 37p per packet of cigarettes, which for a 20 a day smoker increases their spending by £135 a year, a figure already in the region of £2,000 per year.