How much do you spend on Smoking?

In a recent session for stop smoking, my client was telling me how he really wanted to stop smoking so he could be there for his daughter. After a recent health scare, he knew it was time to quit.

As we chattered about his reasons for wanting to stop, he told me how he always wanted to take his family to Disney World in Orlando. I asked what stopped him from going. He said “money”. I asked if he had ever calculated how much he spent on cigarettes? He smiled and said, “yeah, I added it up last night and he came to about £8000 per year.” “Wow, do you think that would pay for the trip to Disney World?” He laughed and said, “yes and then some.” “Well, let’s get started then.” After the session, he left my office as a non-smoker and hasn’t smoked since.

This got me thinking about how the little things add up. One of my guilty pleasures is a chocolate fridge cake, £1.10 from A Piece of Cake, it’s scrumptious!. Through a bad habit, I started doing this every day, over 5 days that £5.50 per week, over 52 weeks that’s £286 a year. Not quite as bad as smoking but it still adds up. I wonder how much you’re bad habits are costing you?

I thought £8,000 per year on cigarettes seemed a lot. So I asked one of my friends who smokes how much she spent on cigarettes. She said usually £8.70 for a pack of 20. “How many packs do you smoke a day?”, I enquired. She said, “it varies, usually about 1.5 to 2 packs.” I said, “do you realise that’s over £5,000 per year”. “I’ve never really thought about it”, she replied. “You could put that towards that extension you keep saying you want.” “Yes, I could.” “Well, you know what to do when you’re ready to quit.” She laughed, and said, “go on then, book me in!”.

Have you worked out how much you spend?

The cost in pounds per pack

Smoking is expensive. Most people spend on average around £300 per month on smoking – that’s £3,500 per year! Check out the chart below and you can see how quickly it adds up.

The cost of smoking adds up quickly, how much are you spending?

If you are ready to quit there are plenty of ways to stop. Some people can do it using their willpower. Others prefer to buy nicotine replacement products. You can even get free advice and support from Smoke-Free Norfolk, where you are 4 more times likely to quit.

If you want to up those odds, research on hypnosis has proven an over 90% quit rate.* In one study, hypnosis proved most effective – 3 times more effective than using Patches and 15 times more effective than using willpower.

When you’re ready. I mean really ready to quit, (and not because your partner, doctor or children are bugging you to quit). But when YOU ARE READY, call me; ask me about my Quit Success programme. Let’s set the date you finally get to stop smoking!

Read more about my Quit Success Programme.

Be Smoke-Free with my Quit Success Programme

What does the research say?

*Freedom from smoking:
Integrating hypnotic methods and rapid smoking to facilitate smoking cessation.
Of 43 consecutive patients undergoing this treatment protocol, 39 reported remaining abstinent at follow-up (6 months to 3 years post-treatment). This represents a 90.6% success rate using hypnosis.
University of Washington School of Medicine, Depts. of Anesthesiology and Rehabilitation Medicine, Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 2001 Jul;49(3):257-66. Barber j.

How One in Five Give Up Smoking
Hypnosis is the most effective way of giving up smoking, according to the largest ever scientific comparison of ways of breaking the habit. A meta-analysis, statistically combining results of more than 600 studies of 72,000 people from America and Europe to compare various methods of quitting. On average – hypnosis was over three times as effective as nicotine replacement methods and 15 times as effective as trying to quit alone. Schmidt, Chockalingam University of Iowa Journal of Applied Psychology October 1992. (Also New Scientist October 10, 1992)

90% Success Rate With Hypnosis
Authors report a success rate in smoking abstinence of over 90% with hypnosis.
MMW Fortschr Med. 2004 May 13;146(20):16.Klager, R. [Article in German] PMID: 15344725 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

87% Reported Abstinence Using Hypnosis
Performance by gender in a stop-smoking program combining hypnosis and aversion.
A field study of 93 male and 93 female CMHC outpatients examined the facilitation of smoking cessation by using hypnosis. At 3-mo. follow-up, 86% of the men and 87% of the women reported continued abstinence using hypnosis.
Johnson DL, Karkut RT. Adkar Associates, Inc., Bloomington, Indiana.Psychol Rep. 1994 Oct;75(2):851-7.PMID: 7862796 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

81% Reported They Had Stopped Smoking
Clinical hypnosis for smoking cessation: preliminary results of a three-session intervention.
Thirty smokers enrolled in an HMO were referred by their primary physician for treatment. Twenty-one patients returned after an initial consultation and received hypnosis for smoking cessation. At the end of treatment, 81% of those patients reported that they had stopped smoking, and 48% reported abstinence at 12 months post-treatment.
TexasA&M University System Health Science Center College of Medicine, USA. Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 2004 Jan;52(1):73-81. Elkins GR, Rajab MH.

Hypnosis Patients Twice As Likely To Quit
Guided health imagery for smoking cessation and long-term abstinence.
Study of 71 smokers showed that after a two-year follow-up, patients that quit with hypnosis were twice as likely to still be smoke-free than those who quit on their own.
C.A. Wynd,.Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 2005; 37:3, pages 245-250

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