Smokers question

[loaf]

So, I heard a news story yesterday about how New York raised its cigarette taxes by something like $1.25. The reporter talked to one guy who was being charged $10.25 for one pack!!

So, smokers, how expensive do they have to get before you'll quit?

[kwrangln]

Dunno. I can remember buying smokes for $.92 a pack on base just over a decade ago, now spend about $2.60 a pack. By comparison, I used to buy gas for $.97 a gal over a decade ago and now pay $3.89.

Better question would be how high does gas price have to rise before you quit?


New York is just the eastern branch office of Kommifornia.

[88jeepin]

I pay 4.18 for a pack of smokes here and I payed 3.85 today for gas.....Once smokes hit 5$ im quiting and on gas hits 5$ Imma quit driving too. I cant afford gas with 10 MPG

[dazed®]

So, I heard a news story yesterday about how New York raised its cigarette taxes by something like $1.25. The reporter talked to one guy who was being charged $10.25 for one pack!!

So, smokers, how expensive do they have to get before you'll quit?
I always said at $4.00 I'll quit. I got tired of waiting for that day to come and thanks to the mind altering Chantix, I've been smoke free for over a year. And before anyone talks about how bad Chantix is, I'm a big defender of it. Out of over 5 MILLION people who have taken it only 420 have reported serious psychiatric effects. as reported in Men's Health

Better question would be how high does gas price have to rise before you quit? Unfortunately, they don't make anything mind altering enough to convince me that walking in south east Ga heat is worth it.

I pay 4.18 for a pack of smokes here and I payed 3.85 today for gas.....Once smokes hit 5$ im quiting and on gas hits 5$ Imma quit driving too. I cant afford gas with 10 MPGOne question...did you also have this same statement a dollar ago?

[Matt87YJ]

Dunno. I can remember buying smokes for $.92 a pack on base just over a decade ago, now spend about $2.60 a pack. By comparison, I used to buy gas for $.97 a gal over a decade ago and now pay $3.89.

Better question would be how high does gas price have to rise before you quit?


New York is just the eastern branch office of Kommifornia.


$2.60 a pack? Damn I wish they were that cheap here. On average I usually pay about $4.00 a pack give or take a few cents.

[Piney]

I always said at $4.00 I'll quit. I got tired of waiting for that day to come and thanks to the mind altering Chantix, I've been smoke free for over a year. And before anyone talks about how bad Chantix is, I'm a big defender of it. Out of over 5 MILLION people who have taken it only 420 have reported serious psychiatric effects. as reported in Men's Health

Unfortunately, they don't make anything mind altering enough to convince me that walking in south east Ga heat is worth it.

One question...did you also have this same statement a dollar ago?

After a multitude of attempts over the years and never quitting for more than 3 or 4 days I tried Chantix over a year ago. I haven’t had so much as a puff since. I had smoked for over 50 years. Unfortunately, my mind was cooked and I’m little more than a shadow of my old self, but I don’t smoke.

[we3jeepers]

<---------- Non Smoker!!!
dont smoke and never have..... you guys are just stupid is all:beatdeadhorse:

[fatoldfool]

Hey, a Piney Post! Hello Piney! As far as the cost of smoking, you guys need calculate the cost in HEALTH instead of money. You will get older and the chest will quit moving due to hardened lung tissue. Your belly will be the part of you that moves when you breath. Each additional pound you put on will make it harder to breath. COPD will be a part of your later/last years. You will learn to love and hate that oxygen bottle at the same time. You stand a great chance of throat cancer being the last straw that makes you want to quit living. At that point you would pay any amount of money to go back and not smoke that first cigarette. Sound rough? It is. I have watched 4 family members die like that and it is not pleasant. With today's proven knowledge of what smoking does to you, why would you smoke? Yes, I smoked from about 9 years old (grampa bought the tobacco for us and approved of my brother and I smoking) till sometime in my 40's, when the removal of a friend's lung and death of my stepfather with throat cancer woke me up. No the important cost is NOT money! Sorry, I get carried away!

[MIJeep]

<---------- Non Smoker!!!
dont smoke and never have..... you guys are just stupid is all:beatdeadhorse:

They're not stupid...nicotine is addictive, just like caffeine. I'll start critisizing smokers when I can stop drinking Mt. Dew for more than a couple months at a time.

[fatoldfool]

A bit of information about why I dislike smoking so much; My wife has been a private duty Terminal Care Aide for a long time. I get called to help move patients, take them for appointments, run for medications a lot. So in addition to family, I have been around a lot of dying smokers, including one who was severely burned when she burned her O2 tubing into with a cigarette. Imagine if you will, a 70 year old woman standing next to her kitchen sink with no hair, her nose and one ear almost gone, trying to hide the fact that she was smoking when it happened. And the smell! 6 months painful treatment before she died. Also been in nursing homes and seen the lack of care experienced.

[Djeep]

stop smoking 17months 5days ago cold turkey hardest thing i ever did,was getting harder harder to drag deer out of woods. 5.05 a pack in nw wi now. used to by smokes in germany on base 6.00 a carton marbs in 90'. so good to breath now and no hacking a lung up every morning.

[loaf]

Better question would be how high does gas price have to rise before you quit?



Now that I re-read my post and your response, it seems that you took my question to be more judgmental than I intended it to sound. No offense was intended.

[SHARPSHOOTER]

I pay 4.18 for a pack of smokes here and I payed 3.85 today for gas.....Once smokes hit 5$ im quiting and on gas hits 5$ Imma quit driving too. I cant afford gas with 10 MPG

wow...I paid $4.18 for a gallon of regular gas yesterday. Us Chicagans have it worse than anywhere else right now. I live in the northern burbs, but my bro lives in the city where it is about $4.40+ gallon.

Its sad to say that the gas prices have caused me to give up on my jeep. My Jeep has sat in the same spot for almost a year now... Its been moved a couple of times to mess with the old neighbors... but thats about all. I don't live that far from work... but it would still cost me about $10 a day to drive @ 8mpg.:(
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h253/ROCKYRACCN/FrontWindow.jpg

[rockyjeep]

when i did smoke, my "cowboy killas" were about 3.19 a pack. I never smoked anything different. I wanted to quit, so i switched to dipping tobacco. Can of Grizzly was about $1.50. I hated that so much i quit all together and been free and clear for about a year now.


Unfortunately, they don't make anything mind altering enough to convince me that walking in south east Ga heat is worth it.

What part of GA you from? I boarder Columbus, GA

[dazed®]

when i did smoke, my "cowboy killas" were about 3.19 a pack. I never smoked anything different. I wanted to quit, so i switched to dipping tobacco. Can of Grizzly was about $1.50. I hated that so much i quit all together and been free and clear for about a year now.



What part of GA you from? I boarder Columbus, GA
Savannah

[Lavman]

I too have been amazed at the rising cost of cigarettes and even more amazed that people continue to buy them.

I work in the construction industry, I visit jobsites an a regular basis. In my observations whilst out and about I note that many of the smokers are low paid hourly wage earners. I look at the guy choking down a butt while he is carrying a bundle of shingles and think to myself "that just can't be pleasant, he's gasping for air but he is doing it to himself!"

It is sad that most often the folks hooked on butts are the ones who can ill afford to pay for such a habit. Those folks could give themselves a raise in pay by simply quitting! All too often these folks have spouses that smoke as well, compounding the financial impact on their family unit.

EDIT: To me the health risks associated with smoking are well documented and highly publicized, people who choose to smoke are making a choice and determining their own quality of life....not up to me to pass judgement on anybody I am far from perfect myself.

[kwrangln]

Now that I re-read my post and your response, it seems that you took my question to be more judgmental than I intended it to sound. No offense was intended.


No offence taken, I just like stirring the pot a bit here and there.

The same price arguement can be applied to any of our vices these days with the way inflation is going.

Gas for the heep
Ammo for the guns
Beer
Smokes

For that matter, what did it used to cost to go out to dinner with the wife compared to today? Seems like anytime we go out to eat at a restraunt that doesn't wrap their food in paper it costs $50-80.

Pretty soon we are all going to be carefully evaluating how we spend money on anything but the essentials of life. Its just easier to target smoking because it has been deemed socially unacceptable.

I can easily forsee a time when pot is legalized and cigarettes are illegal. We will end up with the same dope peddelers on street corners selling marlboros instead of weed.

[fatoldfool]

My favorite TV News interview was a "live" interview with a "single unemployed mother" in McDowell county (very depressed area at the time). The welfare to work program was going to take her off welfare (two years was up!) because she had no job.The interview was being held in her rundown trailer living room to show her worn furniture, etc. When the camera backed up off her tearful face as she was explaining how she "could not afford milk for her babies", it showed her dragging a Marlboro out of the pack laying on the glass topped table. Showing under the glass was a full carton of Marlboros.

[Tonka]

Thankfully, I am comfortable with bicycle riding. Once I can get a trailer, I could do my grocery-getting from the saddle. Currently, I can counter balance pretty safely with a gallon of milk and a head of lettuce in my left hand pretty well (it takes some practice). As always, I try to combine trips I make by auto. Otherwise, I beat feet if I need only what I can carry.

They're not stupid...nicotine is addictive, just like caffeine. I'll start critisizing smokers when I can stop drinking Mt. Dew for more than a couple months at a time.

For me, it is Pepsi. I tried to quite, but I eventually cut down from over 32oz/day to no more than 22oz/day. Sometimes I can get through a whole day without. There was a time that those drinks did have cocaine (or some other addicting drug) in them (hence the name "PEPsi"). Maybe they are putting nicotine in those drinks.

[Tonka]

BTW;

1. I don't smoke (thankfully).

2. Welcome back, Piney! Long time, no hear from.

[Wilbur]

I never smoked but I dipped about a can of snuff a day for over 30 years. I stopped almost 2 months ago. Tobacco is as addictive as heroin. I asked the good Lord for a little strength to help and so far no problems. My beer intake went up and I can eat 24 hours a day, but other than that life is great. One hurdle at a time.

[The Duke]

They're not stupid...nicotine is addictive, just like caffeine. I'll start critisizing smokers when I can stop drinking Mt. Dew for more than a couple months at a time.
Never understood the addiction part of caffine. I used to drink at least 2 20oz bottles a day, often 4+, when I was at work. I never had a problem not drinking it on my days off, etc. I mainly drank it when I was working 10-18 hour shifts. Never felt addicted to it, though.

[kwrangln]

Never understood the addiction part of caffine. I used to drink at least 2 20oz bottles a day, often 4+, when I was at work. I never had a problem not drinking it on my days off, etc. I mainly drank it when I was working 10-18 hour shifts. Never felt addicted to it, though.

Thats minor.

Try 3-4 pots of coffee, a few sodas, and a few redbulls. Caffine becomes so normal to your life that when you stop it hurts, literally.


I was at that level and stopped all caffine cold turkey. No energy at all, and a headache that lasted about a week and a half. No minor headache either, more like a c-clamp across the temples that made your eyeballs want to explode spraying everyone around you with a pink mist type headache. I used to have a cup of coffee before going to sleep at night, caffine was life.

After a couple years without caffine I allow myself a soda per day. Still drink the hell out of decaf coffee though.

Doc told me I had to give up caffine, alcohol, and smoking, I figure one outa three aint bad.;)

I work with a bunch of health nuts, always tired or hurting from a workout, and always complain about how bad the food is. They eat the most disgusting tasteless crap imaginable, but its healthy so they do it. Me I'd rather live a bit less and enjoy every minute of it. I eat what I want because I enjoy its taste. I drink what I want because I like it. Got me through 36 years so far, guess it'll have to keep on keepin on. If I go early due to my lifestyle, then at least I enjoyed it and had fun.

Life is too short to take so seriously, and when you are dead you wont care.

[Tonka]

Never understood the addiction part of caffine. .

For me, I have a sweet tooth so it was the sugar that was addictive. It just so happened that the taste makes the association to "what is good". However, caffeine does clear up some (not all) types of headaches that I have. Having any headache just gives me an excuse to visit the nearest soda fountain.

[MIJeep]

I'm the opposite, when I first try to stop drinking soda I get headaches after a couple of days. I was always told it's caffeine withdrawl. I also know that soda will affect my mood, if it's a bad day at work I will start craving a Mt. Dew like some people crave cigarettes during times of stress. One sip of that sweet nectar of the gods will completely change my mood. I know that it's mental to a point but there is definately an addictave quality to it as well. A bad week at work is normally when I fall off the wagon every time I try to give up the soda.

[The Duke]

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h253/ROCKYRACCN/FrontWindow.jpg
HOLY ****!!!:eek:

We didn't get that snow here! We had a lot of rain and storms, but not a blizzards like that one must have been!

Stay warm Sharpshooter! :D :p

[The Duke]

The Caffiene sure gave me a boost and and took me through many a long night, but I never really had that "craving" for it. I knew it was gonna keep me from falling asleep and alert, so I drank it.

[MIJeep]

that's the funny thing...I know it's a stimulant but it calms me down and I can go to bed 10 minutes after drinking a soda and fall right to sleep, I've never been able to use caffeine to keep me awake cause it doesn't work, If I'm tired I gotta sleep.

[SHARPSHOOTER]

Damn Chicago Weather....

I posted that pic because to me... when we get snow like that... that's the best time to use the old Jeep. BUT, No tire tracks cutting through the plow mounds though. But I would still share the love and go out and clear her completely off after big snows.

Wait... what was the topic?... Ohh yea... my Jeep is my pack of cigarettes/day that I seamed to have quit. My wife is an enabler... letting me still keep it around just to look at.

[SHARPSHOOTER]

<-- I still have the crack though.... and I always share :)

<<<EDIT!!! I'LL SHARE THE PICTURE.... keep the minds clear please>>>

[ZmarkZ]

wait a second...cigarettes are bad for you?

marlboro ultra lights can't be bad though, they're ultra lights right

it sux that a gallon of gas costs more than a pack of smokes now a days, makes it harder to quit from what i hear..i also hear that smokes are good with a bunch of beers.

[Cromwell]

For me, it is Pepsi. I tried to quite, but I eventually cut down from over 32oz/day to no more than 22oz/day. Sometimes I can get through a whole day without. There was a time that those drinks did have cocaine (or some other addicting drug) in them (hence the name "PEPsi"). Maybe they are putting nicotine in those drinks.


That is it. I usually drink between 3 to 4 gallons of Coke a day been doing that since I was 13. At one point I was down to 3 can a day when "New Coke" came out