Smoking Cost Calculator

The most visible cost of smoking is the amount you have to pay for pack after pack of cigarettes. However, frequent smoking will not only cost you hundreds of dollars per year in cigarettes, but it will also increase your living expenses in the form of higher health insurance premiums, smoking cessation treatments, and more annual visits to the doctor for health problems related to smoking.

Health insurance rates and the number of medical problems vary from smoker to smoker and also depend on other factors such as age and fitness level. If you want to see how much smoking will cost you just in terms of the cigarettes themselves, use the smoking calculator on the left. All you need to input is the average number of cigarettes you smoke per day, the number of cigarettes in a pack (usually 20), and the cost per pack.

If you smoke a variable number per day, split the difference to estimate your average. For example, a person who smokes 5 to 8 per day should enter 6.5.

Example: Marlo smokes 10 cigarettes per day. Each pack contains 20 cigarettes and costs $7.40 per pack. Her daily smoking cost is $3.70. (Divide $7.40 by 2.)

To find her weekly, monthly, and yearly costs, you must multiply her daily average by 7, 30.4375, and 365.25 respectively. (These are the number of days per week, the average number of days per month, and the average number of days per year, respectively.) Her costs are:

Weekly: $25.90
Monthly: $112.62
Annually: $1351.43

Compared to a non-smoker, Marlo also pays $30 per month more on health insurance, increasing her total monthly costs to $142.62 and her total yearly costs to $1711.43.

In contrast, suppose she deposited $142.62 per month in an interest bearing account with a 3% annual return. At the end of one year she would have $1735.17, and in two years she would have $3523.12.

© Had2Know 2010