WKRN, Nashville, Tennessee News, Weather, and Sports |Great American Smokeout translates into big savings

Great American Smokeout translates into big savings

NASHVILLE, Tenn.- Thousands of Tennesseans will try to puff on their last cigarette Wednesday night to prepare for the Great American Smokeout.

The American Cancer Society holds the event each year on the third Thursday of November to encourage smokers to smoke less or completely put down their tobacco products for a day.

This year, the national event falls on November 19.

Some smokers are already making plans to kick the habit, and those who quit are in for quite a savings.

Tommy Burton, a smoker since he was 12 years old, says now is a good time to quit.

Burton said, “I went to cheap packs because I can't afford to buy the packs I normally buy, so I had to go to cheap packs, which is about $3.40 a pack now."

Rising tobacco prices and taxes have led thousands of smokers to get help in quitting.

The Tennessee Department of Health reports 33,000 phone calls from smokers seeking help, and the high cost of the habit is the main reason why. 

Smoker Tyler Creed told News 2 he has run the numbers on how much he spends on cigarettes.

“Yeah. I try to keep that out of my mind,” Creed said.

A pack a day, at $4.35 a pack, costs a smoker about $30.45 each week. That adds up to $121.80 a month, and over the course of a year, they’re spending $1,583.40.

And that money, according to Edward Jones, deposited into a retirement account would be nearly $22,000 in ten years and $114,000 in 25 years.

That doesn't include money saved in insurance premiums.

Bill Macke from Macke Insurance says smokers pay a lot more for life insurance than non-smokers.

“A non-smoking female can get a $100,000 policy for $145 a year,” Macke said. “But if they are smokers, the female rate jumps to $411 a year.”

Creed says the expenses wouldn’t be enough motivation for him to quit smoking, for now.

“I'll probably not quit for awhile, unless they raise [them] up to $10 a pack,” he said.

Fore more information on The Great American Smokeout or what you can do to quit smoking, visit Cancer.org.

Smokers in Tennessee can sign up for the free Tennessee Tobacco Quit Line program by calling 1-800-QUIT-NOW.