Quitting smoking can save you £1700
Power, food and fuel bills may be going through the roof – but Fresh is urging smokers to work out how much they could save by quitting smoking to offset a £1700 a year spike in the cost of living in 2022.
Financial experts have warned working families will be more than £1,700 worse off by next April (1). But a 10 a day smoker spending £9 per pack of cigarettes is spending around £1642 a year, £135 a month, around £31 a week and an incredible £8212 in five years on cigarettes – money going up in smoke (see https://www.nhsinform.scot/stopping-smoking/calculate-my-savings).
The savings could ease money worries for around 325,000 people in the region who still smoke.
Besides saving money, quitting smoking reduces your risks of serious diseases like cancer, heart disease, COPD and stroke, and is the best Christmas presents you can give your family.
- 1 week’s savings of £31 is a trip to the cinema
- 2 weeks savings of around £62 could buy a new Christmas outfit, the best part of an annual Netflix subscription or an Xbox game.
- 3 weeks’ savings of around £93 would pay for a Christmas food shop.
- 4 weeks savings of £124 would buy you 4 months of a superfast broadband package including TV, a ticket for four to Flamingoland or tickets or a family of four to the pantomine
- 6 months savings of £821 could buy bikes to get out and about in the Spring and summer, or pay for the average power bill for a 1-2 bedroom house or flat (EDF Energy estimates) . Or it could pay for travel and a one-night stay for a family of four to London with a visit to the Harry Potter studio, plus an evening meal out.
- £1,642 saved in a year could buy a family day trip to Lapland in 2021. It could also more than pay for many families’ annual power bill (EDF Energy estimates)
Ailsa Rutter OBE, Director of Fresh and Balance, said: “Every cigarette is doing damage to your lungs and your health – but every pack smoked is also draining the amount of money families have to spend on other things, from the luxuries to the essentials.
“It is only when you start to add that money up that you realise we are talking about thousands of pounds. We also know how much stress and anxiety money worries can cause, especially at this point in time.
“Smoking is money going up in smoke and we’ve been looking at some of the things that money could be spent on instead. Whether it’s towards Christmas, a trip away, new clothes, presents for the kids or even paying towards life’s necessities like power and food, quitting smoking means you will save that money and ease some of your worries.
She added: “Christmas is a time when we remember loved ones and over 113,000 people have died from smoking in the North East since the year 2000. Quitting this New Year could give your family the best present of all this Christmas, by improving your health and improving the chances of being around for many more Christmases in the future.”
To get started and find details of your local stop smoking service, visit https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking/