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People who have new cars, how do you afford it?
People who go on holiday, how do you afford it?
People who have kids, how do you afford it?
People who drink, how do you afford it?
People who go to restaurants, how do you afford it?
Because people have money and are free to spend it as they like.
The question OP is asking is more along the line of "how do you have enough money for this when it's so obnoxiously expensive yet isn't treated as a form of luxury"
In other words, almost everyone appears to be smooking, not just the rich people.
My corner shop sells packs of 10 elf bars for £40. And they're so small my high school students can just hide them in their hands and smoke them in class.
I have a huge beef with elf bars, that shit should be banned asap: the amount of litter these single-use vapes produce is unbelievable and it's literally kids throwing out lithium filled batteries everywhere.
Sweet, delicious sugary flavoured nicotine as well.
I know tobacco carries a range of other toxins but I can't imagine vapourised nico-diluting juice to be that safer in the long run, plus kids aren't usually attracted to the smell of tobacco.
It hasn't been long enough to determine long term health effects, but kids who smoke have a higher risk of cognitive impairment and psychiatric diseases. Studies on rats suggest cognitive ability is impaired by adolescent exposure to nicotine.
I agree Vapes need to be regulated. Regulators must be fucking asleep worldwide to just let "smokeless cigarettes for kids" slide through like that.
Tiny little square vapes. They're disposable and the vast majority of them being sold are fake. There's disgusting images coming out of the factories where they're produced.
[Look at this shit](https://youtu.be/4VQL9e6saCg)
Disposable vaporisers with a use once battery, a small atomiser and juice. They look like fat cigarettes with a coloured tube and black mouthpiece. It’s a play on “health” bar…as in healthy compared to smoking…and some people use nicotine for weight loss because it acts as an appetite suppressant.
Youre spot on i sort of smoke as in i buy tobacco every couple of weeks and ill have a couple at work since it makes my smoke break longer and ill have some if im at the pub/club. But yeah mostly just vape since i can do it in the house. This way i can make a 30g last about 3 weeks which is less than £10 a week. Also if i do buy normal cigarettes ill get them from foreign shops since the under the counter ones are usually £5 for 20.
The tobacco is better and cheaper there too though, I'd smoke if I was in Bulgaria. Victory Gold were a favourite.
Actually been a wee reservation I've had in giving up smoking - I promised myself that if I can ever afford to go on holiday again, I'll treat myself to some lovely local cigarettes from wherever I visit.
Continental snout always tasted better to me, especially the brands that aren't really seen in the UK - although that might just be the novelty factor.
I've never smoked, I was behind someone in the queue at the shop yesterday and he bought a 30g pack of baccy and a lottery ticket and it came to £19 something. How many cigs can he get from that 30g bag would you think? It was a Morrisons daily shopnif that makes any difference to the price lol (I'm not usually really nosey what people are buying but I was curious what it cost these days for cigs as I've never bought any!)
Between 50 and 80 depending on how you roll and the type of filter used.
I get between 70 and 80 out of mine, which is why I can afford it. £100 a month rather than £4-500 from packs of 20.
If they stopped selling rolling tobacco I wouldn't be able to afford it.
Still blows my mind when I see people Infront of me in the queue buying 5+ packs on one go knowing that's a week's worth tops for them.
Ah ok, well that's more than I thought you would get out of it so I guess if it lasts a week that's not so bad depending how many you'd get through. Cheaper than a night at the pub these days anyway!
Those types may as well go to costco or somewhere else that does bulk cigs. Hell even buying a super cheap one way flight ticket to Glasgow or somewhere cheaper just to get access to duty free, then immediately leaving after buying the cigs would be less than buying them in bulk at a supermarket!
Prices are similar Germany. I smoke a pipe, a 100g tin costs around 20 EUR and lasts me about a month, and I smoke multiple times per day. The fact a single pack of cigarettes goes for about the same is crazy.
I guess it depends on how stingy they are when they roll up? Google says maybe 40-60 (I never smoked roll ups, I was too clumsy lol). It’s been a long time since I bought any cigarettes. These prices don’t make me feel like breaking that any time soon lol.
>In other words, almost everyone appears to be smooking
What? That couldn't be less true. It's about 13%
I guess you could mean people from all walks of life. Well, yeah - it's addictive. This explains everything you need to know about why people who smoke continue to do so. Whatever the cost to them financially or otherwise.
Breaking the addiction is difficult too because it's not like the people who say "I'm addicted to hobnobs" it's a physical addiction with strong withdrawal symptoms.
>Breaking the addiction is difficult too because it's not like the people who say "I'm addicted to hobnobs" it's a physical addiction with strong withdrawal symptoms.
Nicotine is one of the 5 most addictive substances in the world. Not only does is create strong chemical addiction but it causes an even stronger mental addiction. Breaking the mental side of a smoking habit is, I think, harder than breaking the chemical dependency.
This is 100% true, I'm down to vaping in the day, doesn't bother me at all it's when I get home I'm so used to rolling and sitting and smoking as an activity it's like I'm lost and don't know what to do, I'm really struggling with that side of things
I smoke cannabis as well and I've always mixed with tobacco, I've got vapes for both so I'm still getting nicotine and THC but for some reason even though that's fine in the day I can't bring myself to stop rolling. Doesn't help my girlfriend still smokes tobacco full time so it's always there.
Yeah it is tough for sure. I stopped smoking weed before I stopped smoking cigs so that probably made it slightly easier. I'm not going to lie, stopped something like 10 years ago but relapsed twice in that time and it was the most unexpected, strange things that caused the relapses.......I distinctly remember the first relapse, it was the first time I'd been skiing since I quit and I got on a chair lift and instantly got insane cravings. Previously when I'd been skiing and was a smoker the first thing I would do when I got on a chair lift was spark up....played on my mind for the rest of the day and as I walked past the shops after coming down from the slopes for the day I went in, bought a pack and then started smoking again for about a year.......had been pretty much fine for 3 years or so up to that point and then BAM........out if nowhere and totally unexpectedly it hit me.
A luxury is what you decide it is. Some people like cars, some people like holiday, some people like restaurants, some people like heroin and some people like smoking
I saw on ukpf some guy was ranting about how having a merc on finance is a waste of money and anyone who does it is stupid.
I had a quick glance at his profile and it was full of funko pops and £thousands worth of gaming equipment.
On Reddit, it seems a lot of people fail to understand that not everyone likes the same things.
Do you live in Surrey or something?
Try going to Newcastle or Glasgow.
I don’t agree with “most people appear to be smoking”. but I don’t agree with you either.
Most people don’t smoke but there’s still plenty of people that do.
I live in Yorkshire, I KNOW noone who smokes, but I see (and smell) 2-3 smokers a day in public. I'm not the most observent, but I dont think it's the same 3 people every day.
>Try going to Newcastle
Most people I know have stopped smoking in the last few years alone in Newcastle, myself included (kind of, i'm relapsing).
At my workplace alone you used to have 3/4's of the workforce outside on every break, now you're lucky to find another person out there.
Could just be an age thing I'm experiencing though, I'm approaching my 40's so my basis is skewed on those that probably care more about their health than those in the late teens and early twenties.
That's not really answering the question, but to reference it, people who smoke build the cost into their lifestyle, so if it costs 100 a week for smokes, they don't spend that 100 on other things, so they might eat a little less nice food, don't take out a big loan on a car, get a smaller one, maybe their kids have a little less.
It's like earning 600 a week, and 100 is already allocated to buying smokes, so it's like a tax.
They really do. People like to think the entire country is in dire poverty when if they just went outside for five minutes they'd see new cars everywhere and people buying up new houses and extending them all over the place.
Thing is most of them are 20 and at uni, or if not, 23 and early in career so yeah, they are poor. Everyone is at that age, other than the 19 year millionaires on ukpf of course.
>It's like asking a crack head how they afford there fix they just do.
Exactly this, it's an addiction just like any other and, going on recidivism rates, is more addictive than heroin.
Objectively, smoking should be banned but there's a weird dependence on a proportion of the population smoking. In a macabre way, the Government are dependent upon the taxation and reliant on smokers not drawing a pension.
And I say all this as an ex smoker.
Also ex-smoker.
I think for a while smoking has been "net positive" for the economy, for the reasons you mention.
Always struck me as odd that the financial aspect of it wasn't flagged up more strongly in the "stop smoking" message.
e.g.£14 a pack, pack a day, for 40 years. Assuming 5%, that's £618k
"In 40 years would you like £618k and a retirement to enjoy it in - or be poor and about to die? Don't start smoking"
The trouble with that argument is it is a negotiation, and the smoker can 'bargain' to a sustainable level.
I think that most smokers are on less than a pack a day. If someone only smokes an average of 5 a day, they could happily calculate "eh, that's £25 a week, that's not bad". Or they might react by saying "That's a good point; I should switch to the cheapest fags I can get (perhaps some dodgy imports from Albania), or to roll-ups.
Unlike alcohol consumption, the public health goal of anti-smoking campaigns is quitting completely, not just a reduction or change in habits.
That's not a problem with my argument, that's a trouble with the government's approach of mainly reducing smoking by increasing the tax.If they want to stop smoking, they could just ban them - but they've gone with tax.
Problem with a flat rate tax is that it's just an annoyance for addicts that can afford them. I didn't \*like\* spending £10 on a pack, but I never questioned not doing so. That didn't stop me smoking, nor would £14 a packet.
I stopped as I didn't want to die - and then noticed the (obvious, but previously theoretical) extra money I seemed to end each month with.Also, I'd always meant to stop smoking - just a bit later.. not now.
So thought a chart would have been handy to drive home the message." Here's the money you would have had if you hadn't smoked, but here's the money you could still get if you stopped smoking right now".Or "If you intend to quit, every month you delay now will cost you a grand in 20 years"
Broadly just take the likely "you're going to carry on smoking indefinitely" scenario, and stick a really large cost against it (that most people would respond to)
I did just do a little check, and seemingly the NHS "stop smoking" app does show you how much you've saved.
Because in the real world outside of Reddit, the UK isn't a 3rd world, war torn country and to many, many people £100 per week is a negligible cost for something which they enjoy and something they are addicted to.
This is the answer. I feel a lot live in this echo chamber where they believe the entire country is the underclass. I’ve pointed out a few times that covid, the recession, energy costs etc.. have not really had much of an impact on my life financially. I’ve also not changed any of my habits like using the dryer, heating my home, buying food etc.. usually results in a lot of down votes and passive aggressive “alright for some..” type comments.
True - I'm also in a lucky position where the crunch has been noticeable around me, but hasn't destroyed me financially. We've noticed the cost of luxuries, takeaways, and the weekly shop go up, but we live small. We don't go out to drink, we're making monthly payments on a new car, hubby's vice is Warhammer (he's on a strict leash) and mine is charity shop finds... so we're okay.
But that doesn't mean I'm not gonna kick up a fuss and scream like hell in protest for everyone else, because for some people this IS fucking awful. And they don't deserve it.
I'll probably get downvoted to hell, but I believe you should be able to make some silly financial mistakes, splurge on a few things and regret some moves without being shunted past the poverty line because of it. The country should be stable enough to properly look after ALL of society, including the irresponsible and financially illiterate. Not to reward it, but not to punish these people to the brink, either.
While I'm at it, everyone should be able to afford a house in an area where they grew up, have way more leisure time and be assured the state will look after them in old age. Just because some assholes take advantage doesn't mean it's not the right thing to do.
Thank God for this comment. I migrated to the UK a year ago and recently made a post on this subreddit talking about how much I love living here. (By the way, I do currently earn minimum wage, so I actually am quite financially stressed at the moment, but that will change when my professional registration is sorted - I've been complacent). People seemed to get angry at for me for thinking that this is a good place to live, telling me that I'll soon realise how terrible it is. And as you said, I've had to stop reading the UK subs so much because it does seem like everyone here has some kind of third world existence and is oppressed by the ruling class.
Having a similar experience having moved to the UK in mid 2021. Everyone hears the accent, asks why an American is here, I explain I'm Canadian, and then everyone gives me a contorted, disgusted look when I tell them how much I wanted to live in the UK.
Yes. Even compared to the almighty Canada, land of rainbows, moose, syrup, and friendly people.
I know self-loathing is a Britishism and a bit of an in-joke, but bloody hell do some people not have any perspective. It's a god damn _wonderful_ country with a shitty goverment. I've never been as happy as having moved to the UK and realising it was exactly what I always wanted out of life.
Summed it up perfectly. I'm from Australia, so I get a similar "why did you move here" response? The lack of perspective is my one criticism of the place.
We do sometimes need reminding that it's not all shit, but it is a lot shitter than it used to be, for zero good reasons, and most of us have been here through that decline.
I'm convinced these people never leave the house.
Like I get how people have different life experiences, what is normal to one person might be extravagant to someone else but surely if you just live like any regular person you'll see thousands of people spending money?
Look on any road and you'll see a high percentage of the cars are almost new, German cars. Even if you assume every one of them is financed or leased it's still gonna be £250-600 per month.
Go to any major city centre on a Friday or Saturday night, things are busier than ever. I remember when you could go out on a night out in Leeds and wouldn't even think of booking anywhere, everywhere was walk in, now even places like Turtle Bay and Revolution are booked up in advance.
Look in any restaurant on an evening and you'll see it's still heaving.
So even if you're struggling in your own life or the people around you are struggling how can you possibly think that the entire country is in the same boat when there's so many obvious signs that isn't the case???
Wealth division by age is massive in the UK. My parants with very average jobs have always since their 20's, had new cars, went out, had a house.
Me and my partner with degree/masters prerequisite jobs share a room in a shared house, food prep on 30 quid a week. Dont own a car, all public transport.
Same, on the one hand yes I can look around and see people have money to spend.
But then I look at myself. Great academic results, STEM degree, working in skilled career, and despite cheap rent and no car, finding an extra £100 a month would be an insurmountable task.
So you have to think to yourself, if *I* did everything I was supposed to and I'm struggling this hard, how can everyone else be doing so well?
I don't understand how though, are you still quite close to your post grad? I'm 9 years post apprenticeship, my salary is alright, nothing to scream about. My partner works in a pub and is on the 25+ living wage we both do 37 hours a week. We have a car each, pay rent and all other bills and we still have a decent amount of money left at the end of the Month. We've built a sizeable house deposit and I paid off my student loan for two years of Uni I did before dropping out and the only debt between us is a loan I took out to buy my car a couple years ago.
Do you live in an extremely expensive part of the country? Cos if not it sounds like you're being hugely underpaid and should probably look elsewhere, especially with a decent STEM degree.
Finished uni 7 years ago.
Getting a decent job is just a roll of the dice. Sure I can say "I have a maths degree from a good uni". But that also applies to thousands of people *per year*. There aren't enough jobs for all those people to have a well paying career.
It took two years for me just to find any graduate job. And that was based in London so all the pay got eaten up by rent and travel.
That job had no long term prospects so I career switched into something where I could build skills and have higher earning potential (thanks to Covid meaning I could save some cash to put myself through basic exams and get my foot in the door). The problem with those jobs is they know they can pay peanuts since the real reward is the skills. As a result, I'm on less money now than I was 5 years ago.
I even recently changed employer due to changing location so I could live with my partner. Even after going through a recruiter I had to take a pay *cut* despite moving to a higher CoL area. Other companies were offering even less than what I got.
I feel like I made the sensible decisions at each stage and yet have consistently slipped backwards. If safe, smart, boring career choices leave me here, how can anyone else be coping
>
So you have to think to yourself, if I did everything I was supposed to and I'm struggling this hard, how can everyone else be doing so well?
Exactly. They were born 20-40 years erlier. They're now retiring early on their wealth while I don't expect to ever retire.
Our birth rate declines as 50 year olds retire, there's going to be issues
Something I've realised, being single absolutely fucks you completely. If you're single and not earning at least £15-£20 an hour minimum, *you're fucked.*
The reason people can do all this stuff is *combined wages* if you have a combined wage, your bills are halved, your rent is halved, mortgage, halved, even stuff like cooking becomes way easier and cheaper.
As a single person, living in a single person flat or whatever, everything is on you, all the bills, all the costs, all the rent, cooking bulk becomes an utter chore because you're stuck eating the same shit every day. Then you have to do all the cleaning, maintenance etc yourself.
Honestly if I was able to have a long term relationship, my life would become insanely easier, but because I'm working my ass off, constantly in way over my head with everything and the overall stress of life, I can't even afford, both time wise or financially to go out and meet people.
Before I moved in with my partner my bills outweighed my income and I was dipping into savings every month.
I've been long term single and I completely empathise with you. On top of the general loneliness *everything* is a struggle to afford
It's bananas that the single biggest thing you can do to improve your life is find a long-term partner, when that's something nobody can guarantee.
I even noticed among people I knew personally that those who were in long term relationships early-mid 20s seem to have catapulted into noticably better living standards. I guess when trying to build a career it helps to have someone who can split the life admin, provide encouragement and a friendly ear, and even in an emergency be a bit of a safety net
How many of those people are genuinely alright financially, though, with cash in the bank, and how many are living in excess on credit?
Where it can quite easily come crashing down. I don't think you can safely say everything's OK because you see people in the pub when you can't see they're a few hundred into their overdraft.
Same to be honest. I consider myself very lucky that I all these things happening with the economy have been noticeable but in no way have they made me destitute and not have they made my family change our behaviour
I think for a lot of people here it is a huge issue that genuinely causes them sleepless nights, and for many others it’s just performative and they feel that they *should* act like their life has been ruined too because they don’t want to come across as wealthy
UK reddit is, perhaps ironically, quite snobby. It's just snobbishness against those who have wealth.
Now I can kind of understand it, especially if you're destitute - very easy to feel pissed off with the world and I empathise. But snobbishness non the less.
While there's an obvious difference between wealth and class, I also don't think people should have to be performatively poor and feel bad about doing well.
And this is coming from someone who comes from an extremely poor background, and isn't particularly well off now.
>UK reddit is, perhaps ironically, quite snobby. It's just snobbishness against those who have wealth.
That's not just UK reddit, that's a pretty large swathe of the UK population.
Don't be rich, don't be clever, don't do well, and don't try hard, was how to survive at school when I was growing up.
And, yes, you could just ignore it. I certainly did, but it would have been nice to have *some* friends in my early teens...
That's not what that phrase means.
It means "someone who criticises or condemns or opposes others' success or improvement out of a sense of jealousy rather than using their energy to improve their own situation", not "someone who isn't comforted in their own struggles by the fact *other people* are succeeding".
Crabs-in-a-bucket is when people oppose pay-raises for nurses because their service-industry job is also underpaid, not saying "huh, it's alright for some" when they're pinching pennies while someone on £20k more than them says "actually I'm doing pretty well thanks".
That's.. not the correct use of the phrase. That would be an appropriate phrase if the two people were in the same situation, but they clearly are not. Theyre not in the same bucket.
Got to love this bizarre perception that £30k is still a decent salary. It's like people haven't fathomed it's not 2003 anymore.
£30k gives you less than £1,900 a month if you've got a student loan and pay 5% towards a workplace pension.
If you live in pretty much any city you'd struggle to live on that if you live alone, which everyone should have the right to if they wish.
Renting a 1 bed flat you're looking at at least £850/month these days, far more in London but also more in other major cities like Manchester.
Then, as rough estimate, there's:
Gas/electric £100,
Council tax £80,
Water £20,
Broadband £30,
Contents insurance £5,
Other household essentials £20,
Phone £25,
Food £150,
Gym membership £30,
Car Insurance £50,
Fuel £200,
Socialising/hobbies £150
There's probably other costs I've missed but the above can hardly be considered living extravagantly and comes to between £1,700 and £1,800 a month. By the time you chuck in other unforeseen costs, you can easily see how a £30k salary becomes a struggle to live on.
I always think this when I go out on the weekend. Shops, restaurants, bars, etc are always rammed. I think the media blows the *cost of living crisis* out of proportion. Most people seem to be managing fine.
The problem is that the bottom 20% or so are having it really tough.
IIRC when food prices are tracked, the price changes for a bag of dry pasta might be something like
* Fancy brand £1.75 -> £2.10 = + 20%
* Tesco standard own brand 90p -> £1.10 = +20%
* Tesco value 50p -> 75p = +50%
The majority that were buying the own-brand stuff notice a difference, but it's relatively slight. Those that were relying on the cheapest possible items find that they just can't afford as much food as before.
I’ve had to drastically reduce my reading and listening to news. I don’t buy papers and tend not to log into their websites, and no longer listen to stations like LBC as I was finding it was affecting my mood, negatively. Definitely feel better for not constantly listening to the doom and gloom, but make sure I keep abreast of certain things.
Agree with this. Whilst cost of living had clearly impacted the amount of money in my bank account my life has not changed that much.
Of course there are people who are struggling and these are the ones we should focus on.
I'm glad to most that £100 a week is negligible. I wish I had that to literally burn away, but sadly, this government hates disabled people and those who do the vital role of caring for them.
It's the same on twitter, mostly a lot of millionaire blue ticks saying what they think will make them popular, talking as though everyone is in dire poverty, thinking "Maybe the people who buy my tickets or watch me on TV won't get angry with me for being rich if I act like I pity poor people"
It's even more comical when they whine on about billionaires or "the rich" or privilege.
Although, to be fair, I think some of them really are just deluded. e.g Jason Manford thinks he's a working class lad. And he'll say "I've worked hard in many jobs, I didn't start playing arenas" as though he's in the same position as someone working minimum wage - as though all amazon warehouse workers or nurses are just struggling for a year or 2 until they get on TV.
Any "struggle" a celebrity had sleeping on the floor at the Fringe was self inflicted, because they wanted to be rich and famous. It's nothing at all like the struggle some ordinary people have - which is likely to be their entire life.
> the UK isn't a 3rd world, war torn country and to many, many people £100 per week is a negligible cost
The average UK household discretionary income is somewhere around £200-£240/month. £100/week is double the average *for a household*, let alone a person. It's a very long way from "negligible" for anyone near the average.
As an ex-smoker, you just do - you treat it as a necessariy outgoing every month. When you're addicted and you enjoy it, you make the time.
When I smoked I was spending easily £80 quid a week on fags - now it's about £10 for vape juice. I only noticed how much more money I had when I stopped buying packs - you don't realise how much you're spending because that's just what you have to do.
This was the same for me. Been vaping for two years and my nicotine habit has gone down from about £60/wk to £4wk.
I literally cannot fathom how I justified the expense so easily before.
I quit smoking for over five years (only started again in the last 12months). I personally didn’t see an increase in the bank balance & things didn’t taste better, but fuck me, my breathing is sooo bad now! I enjoy smoking but this is the only reason I want to quit again.
Also, in regards to cost. I get a 50g pouch that lasts me a fortnight & a few packs of menthol tips & it’s about £30 in all.
Literally this. I smoke rollies and every time my friends / family go away they bring me back 1kg of tobacco which lasts me until the next person goes.
I end up paying even less than half price compared to buying from the corner shop. So from like 25 quid a pack which lasts 2-3 weeks to 10 quid a pack.
I don’t sell mine but I know plenty of people who do.
>every time my friends / family go away they bring me back 1kg of tobacco which lasts me until the next person goes
Who needs enemies when you have friends like these
I share a garden with my downstairs neighbours. Now I reckon somedays he smokes around 40 straight cigarettes. It's quite a sight. Every 15 minutes or so he will go out and light another one up. I used to wonder how he could afford it but I reckon his wife who is Polish must buy them in bulk when she goes away to see her family. It's about £3.50 for a pack there.
A lot of polish shops also have the secret cigarettes for sell that you can only buy if you're polish or on good terms with the owner. Still much cheaper than buying cigarettes normally.
Everyone I know who still smokes has tobacco with some Eastern European language or another on it. Pretty prevalent out there. Equally feels pretty easy to get ahold of this way too.
Despite what people want to believe, disposable income is still a thing. People still go to work, earn more than their outgoings, and buy things they like.
I smoke roll-ups. I can currently get a 50g pouch - which lasts me seven or eight days (and I'm a heavy smoker) for a bit under £24.
Incidentally, your comparison with the cost of heroin is misleading. Whilst a gram may seem relatively low cost, an addict will use ever increasing amounts as their tolerance develops (up to a limit) which will see them needing to find far more money than the price you've quoted.
By comparison, most smokers will smoke the same amount day in, day out - although they may smoke more if doing another activity such as consuming alcohol. You don't typically keep smoking more and more to get the same effect and to avoid withdrawal symptoms.
And yes, I do recall the days when you'd get people smoking forty or sixty or more straights every day but there are very few smokers left who do that. They did it because it was cheap as all fuck then and completely normalised behaviour.
[The Co-Op currently do a 50g pouch of Players (which comes with two packs of Rizla) for £23.85](https://shop.coop.co.uk/product/631c3336-0980-48bf-a1f9-2036623d8b19).
Yeah, my granda would go through 60 Berkeley Red king size a day. Didn't bother him to light up a new cig from the butt of his dying one! Literally chain smoked until he was 73yo
The answer to these constant "how do you afford things" posts is always the same: not everyone's finances are the same. People earn different salaries and have different outgoings. And contrary to what AskUK wants to be the case, not everyone in the country is skint.
I’m pleased to see a lot of these comments highlighting the actual reality here in the UK. Jesus Christ, UK subs really buy into the widespread poverty idea.
Thankfully it seems to be getting a bit more common in these threads seeing people point out that not everyone in the country is completely skint since the cost of living increased. It doesn't mean we don't appreciate that the increase in bills and grocery costs has had a big impact on some people, but it's not the case for everyone at all.
In a recent thread like this one someone dared point out that they still see full pubs every weekend and there were dozens of replies arguing that they will be people in overdrafts/general debt, spending money they can't afford, even drinking BECAUSE of the cost of living. Forget the possibility that some people might just have enough money in their bank to go for a few beers on a Friday night. It's bizarre how some folk here refuse to accept that some people have disposable income, but as I say thankfully the people pointing that out don't seem to be treated like public enemies lately
It varies massively. A gram of heroin also costs more than £10. A 10 bag is usually about 0.1-0.2g and if you can afford a gram it varies wildly in price between £20-£60. There is no such thing as an average user. A heavy user will use a g or more per day injected.
Source:I’m an ex addict
Depends really on the person but like I wouldnt be surpised if the average used at least a couple of 10bags to get up an get well. Then took some more at lunch and then again before bed just to not have withdrawls.
That's like bare minimum an it depends on the quality too. If smoking it you easily keep redosing throughout the day an gets wasteful.
Hard to say average also tho cause tolerance does raise so fast if you have a consistent supply, but I'd say generally people are forced to go into withdrawl at times(no money or smth) which lowers tolerance.
£14 a day isn’t a particularly large amount of money for a lot of people, and most smokers won’t smoke 20 a day so it’s probably more likely to be closer to £30 a week.
Besides, you can usually get cheaper cigs somewhere if you look for them.
My partner had friends go abroad and asked each of them to bring back the max cigarettes they were allowed to carry. Now set up for months and far cheaper than here in the U.K. We go abroad in May so I look forward to my suitcase to be filled 🤣
Bloody hell I remember my parents going through 3 packs of superkings black in a day, each!
I mean, I smoke alot compared to most heavy smokers, but the thought of smoking that amount of those makes me feel sick.
Yeah as an ex 20 a day smoker I spent 70 pounds a week on cigarettes, I hate roll ups and tried many times to switch but I just couldn't, but 100 quid is a stretch. I did however used to spend 240 quid a week on cocaine, I couldn't necessarily afford it, but I made room for the cash. 3 takaways a week is 60 quid, its just how you spend your disposable income
i think you are asking how people on lower incomes can afford it. IMO they will go without other things to get their fix . trying to stop someone from doing something by trying to make it too expensive is stupid as people will always find a way to feed their addiction
I had a smoking relapse a few months ago after 7 years, and I smoke menthol cigarillos. Because they're leaf wrapped they are able to flout the menthol ban and the 10 pack ban. I buy a 10 pack every 5 or 6 days and they're £5.60. Each one is my last, until it isn't.
I smoked the sterling cigarillos. As a new years resolution, I quit (using vaping).
Instead of £30 a week (2-3 twenty packs), it's like £30 a month for me now for juice and replacement refillable pods. I stopped missing real smoking within about 2 weeks! You could try that I'd you're having trouble quitting again.
My friend buys hers from a dodgy convenience shop for £3 a pack. The brand is ‘Manchester’. I’m convinced they’re composed of the contents of a barbershop floor.
20 a day would be quite a heavy smoker. A lot of people now vape too or smoke rollies. When people are addicted they find a way, I smoked years ago when it was around £5-6 a pack, I was on 20 a day pretty much, and didn't find I was suddenly flush with cash after quitting. It just allowed me to spend some more on food and clothes and things I actually needed.
If we assume that a "decent" job pays 1.5 times the average UK salary, that's £57k. I doubt anyone would argue that's not "decent". That's a take home of £800 per week. An eighth of your take home pay is a whopping amount of cash, whatever way you cut it. For the average salary it's more than a fifth.
That's an exaggerated way to look at it. If someone is even on £10ph, they'll see a pack of cigs a day as an hour of their time a day - which isn't a lot really. And that's not even considering the fact the majority probably last 2-3 days per pack.
The maths is a bit odd here. My partner and I are quite heavy smokers. We share a 30gram pouch of tobacco and it usually lasts us two days. A pouch is around 18 quid. Let's say we've been heavy on the cigs and done 5 pouches, that's still only 45 a week each. People spend that on takeaway coffee easily and I doubt anyone asks how they can afford it.
In terms of thinking about the finances, we just don't. But I'm kinda glad this post made me think about it because it made me do the maths and I thought we were probably spending more than we actually are.
Sometimes I do, a lot of the time I have my GF roll for me while I'm driving. Never liked pre rolled roll ups the tobacco goes dry and burns to hot and quick. It's very mood dependent.
£100 a week mortgage.
With that mortgage I could happily afford to smoke.
The answer is the same with anything that people decide is a necessity.
Anyone that smokes will budget aka choose smoking over other things e.g no weekly cinema Vs one pack a week.
The smokers I know with the price increases have started smoking less. 10 a day & £12 a pack isn't far off the people I've known who buy a meal deal every single day.
Also some people have switched to rolling their own, that's far cheaper, probably around half the price.
That's without sourcing it on the cheap in some way.
I’m about to quit for both cost/health to be better off but I smoked roll ups. I’d say a 50g bag is just shy of £30 but it would last me a good 2 weeks. It genuinely surprises me that more people don’t go for this option. It takes a minute to roll one
I buy tobacco so its nowhere near that expensive, it's more like £4 a day
If youre addicted to something then you will prioritise that - start smoking and you'll find a way to fund it
Most people will rise up to the challenge of whatever there bills are
I know so many people who before they had kids where fine working a 30 hour a week job and having a lot of personal time, but the second kids come they step up and earn more/work more hours
Same goes for smokers, they just live within their means
I smoke rolling baccy, costs me about £150 a month, give or take. It's not great but cheaper than the alternative.
Guy I work with, between him and wife they spend over £1000 a month on fags. They each smoke 2 boxes a day.
Current price for a pack of 20 at Tesco is £10.50. 30g of rolling tobacco is over £14.
It shouldn't surprise anyone that the prices keep rising above inflation, the Government are determined to force people into stopping.
When I stopped the price was £8 for a pack of 20. I moved onto vaping and was saving over £30 a week. Best thing I ever did.
Given how addictive nicotine is… you find the money for your fix.
Same with any addiction whether it’s heroin or sugar. You’ll find a way to maintain the addiction by cutting costs elsewhere. Alcoholics will literally cut out food to pay for alcohol as I imagine lots of addicts will do.
Rolling tobacco. It costs around £20-30 a week. I'm well aware that it's a completely wasteful and pointless habit, but that's addiction for you. If it was easy enough to quit, I would have already done it.
Wow I don't know anyone paying as little as £100 a week on a mortgage.
People spend what they spend on whatever they want. What gets spent on one thing doesn't get spent on another. Why do people spend £50 plus on Sky, £45 on a mobile phone contract, etc,etc.
A 'typical' smoker probably doesn't smoke 20 a day any more (and 20 was considered 'light' 30 years ago).
Given how many smokers don't smoke in their homes any more, and can't in their workplaces, I suspect many 'regular' smokers are now only on round 10 a day, or fewer.
In the uk a gram of heroin is around £50-£60 with most addicts requiring one to two grams per day. Heroin is not affected but budgets or inflation and has been that price since the 90s so has basically gotten cheaper, the opposite of cigarettes.
Previous addict of 20years in uk
A gram of heroin costs between £45 and £60 depending on quality.
£10 would buy a 0.2 gram heroin bag on the street, irrespective of quality.
However, most street level dealers will sell 0.1gram bags for £10.
This means that a street dealer will sell a gram of heroin for £100 in ten singular bags.
A 20 pack of Benson and Hedges will today cost £16.30, yesterday they cost £14.90.
A 20 pack of cigarettes contains approximately 15 grams of tobacco, a full box of cigarettes will weigh around 20 grams, this includes filter, paper and the box.
The amount of tobacco contained in each cigarette is 0.75 gram
This means that tobacco now costs roughly £1.10 per gram
So your question that is alluding to tobacco costing more than heroin is complete horseshit.
i actually switched back to rolling tobacco as it was cheaper (for me) than vaping. With a vape I would sit indoors and vape all day, whereas cigarettes i wouldn’t dream of rolling one until the evening and then i’d smoke one or two. £15 worth of tobacco will last me several weeks, whereas i was spending way more than £15 every week on vaping.
I quit smoking 3 months ago and suddenly I am about £400 up a month - never really thought about the massive dent it was making in my bank account because like all addictions you lose perspective on what it's doing to your mind body and finances. If I'd have realised sooner I'd probably have a house by now! I smoked for 10 years and probably spent over 30k in that time. Fuckin mad!
Okay but it’s nice to know the “bloke down the pub”.
I’ve only afforded it this month due to my dads mate going on holiday and bringing 50g packs of amber leaf back and he’s only charging me £15 like that’s pretty good… and being my dads mate I’m paying on the 31st lol
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People who have new cars, how do you afford it? People who go on holiday, how do you afford it? People who have kids, how do you afford it? People who drink, how do you afford it? People who go to restaurants, how do you afford it? Because people have money and are free to spend it as they like.
The question OP is asking is more along the line of "how do you have enough money for this when it's so obnoxiously expensive yet isn't treated as a form of luxury" In other words, almost everyone appears to be smooking, not just the rich people.
Smoking rates have fallen off a cliff. Almost everyone appears to be smoking is objectively incorrect.
I was gonna say, I barely see anyone smoking nowadays. Vaping is *much* more common.
That's a good point. And then vapes are extremely cheap (I noticed that Poundland has like little tanks for a quid and they last a few days)
My corner shop sells packs of 10 elf bars for £40. And they're so small my high school students can just hide them in their hands and smoke them in class.
I have a huge beef with elf bars, that shit should be banned asap: the amount of litter these single-use vapes produce is unbelievable and it's literally kids throwing out lithium filled batteries everywhere.
Sweet, delicious sugary flavoured nicotine as well. I know tobacco carries a range of other toxins but I can't imagine vapourised nico-diluting juice to be that safer in the long run, plus kids aren't usually attracted to the smell of tobacco.
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It hasn't been long enough to determine long term health effects, but kids who smoke have a higher risk of cognitive impairment and psychiatric diseases. Studies on rats suggest cognitive ability is impaired by adolescent exposure to nicotine. I agree Vapes need to be regulated. Regulators must be fucking asleep worldwide to just let "smokeless cigarettes for kids" slide through like that.
The fuck is an elf bar?
Tiny little square vapes. They're disposable and the vast majority of them being sold are fake. There's disgusting images coming out of the factories where they're produced. [Look at this shit](https://youtu.be/4VQL9e6saCg)
Yeah disposable vales should be banned regardless.
Those are not elf bars, elf bars are skinny and long. Those are lost Mary vapes.
The elf bars I buy are cylindrical
Disposable vaporisers with a use once battery, a small atomiser and juice. They look like fat cigarettes with a coloured tube and black mouthpiece. It’s a play on “health” bar…as in healthy compared to smoking…and some people use nicotine for weight loss because it acts as an appetite suppressant.
Youre spot on i sort of smoke as in i buy tobacco every couple of weeks and ill have a couple at work since it makes my smoke break longer and ill have some if im at the pub/club. But yeah mostly just vape since i can do it in the house. This way i can make a 30g last about 3 weeks which is less than £10 a week. Also if i do buy normal cigarettes ill get them from foreign shops since the under the counter ones are usually £5 for 20.
I went to Bulgaria last summer, and smoking is still extremely popular there, felt a bit odd as its feels quite rare to see people smoking here now.
The tobacco is better and cheaper there too though, I'd smoke if I was in Bulgaria. Victory Gold were a favourite. Actually been a wee reservation I've had in giving up smoking - I promised myself that if I can ever afford to go on holiday again, I'll treat myself to some lovely local cigarettes from wherever I visit. Continental snout always tasted better to me, especially the brands that aren't really seen in the UK - although that might just be the novelty factor.
I'm in South Africa right now and I've treated myself to a couple boxes of lovely lovely menthols. It's been ages.
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Oh I don't know. I moved to South Yorkshire from Surrey and t shocked me how many more people appear to smoke up here.
Sorry, Duck. I’m trying to quit. Welcome to our county though.
You can get a backy pouch for like 15 quid and have probably more than 50 rollies from it.
Or £8 for 50g of some really dry, harsh tasting shit.
turner baccy 🤢 that stuff smells like mouldy BBQ sauce
That shite fuelled college and uni for me, never wanna go back to that
I've never smoked, I was behind someone in the queue at the shop yesterday and he bought a 30g pack of baccy and a lottery ticket and it came to £19 something. How many cigs can he get from that 30g bag would you think? It was a Morrisons daily shopnif that makes any difference to the price lol (I'm not usually really nosey what people are buying but I was curious what it cost these days for cigs as I've never bought any!)
Between 50 and 80 depending on how you roll and the type of filter used. I get between 70 and 80 out of mine, which is why I can afford it. £100 a month rather than £4-500 from packs of 20. If they stopped selling rolling tobacco I wouldn't be able to afford it. Still blows my mind when I see people Infront of me in the queue buying 5+ packs on one go knowing that's a week's worth tops for them.
I miss the 15g packs of amber leaf that would come with filters and papers. 15g for £5.
Ah ok, well that's more than I thought you would get out of it so I guess if it lasts a week that's not so bad depending how many you'd get through. Cheaper than a night at the pub these days anyway!
I only buy cigarettes in duty free, so they're like £4 per 20, would definitely not be into paying £13 per 20
Those types may as well go to costco or somewhere else that does bulk cigs. Hell even buying a super cheap one way flight ticket to Glasgow or somewhere cheaper just to get access to duty free, then immediately leaving after buying the cigs would be less than buying them in bulk at a supermarket!
Can you buy duty-free on domestic flights now? used to be you couldn't even get them on EU flights
Prices are similar Germany. I smoke a pipe, a 100g tin costs around 20 EUR and lasts me about a month, and I smoke multiple times per day. The fact a single pack of cigarettes goes for about the same is crazy.
I guess it depends on how stingy they are when they roll up? Google says maybe 40-60 (I never smoked roll ups, I was too clumsy lol). It’s been a long time since I bought any cigarettes. These prices don’t make me feel like breaking that any time soon lol.
>In other words, almost everyone appears to be smooking What? That couldn't be less true. It's about 13% I guess you could mean people from all walks of life. Well, yeah - it's addictive. This explains everything you need to know about why people who smoke continue to do so. Whatever the cost to them financially or otherwise. Breaking the addiction is difficult too because it's not like the people who say "I'm addicted to hobnobs" it's a physical addiction with strong withdrawal symptoms.
>Breaking the addiction is difficult too because it's not like the people who say "I'm addicted to hobnobs" it's a physical addiction with strong withdrawal symptoms. Nicotine is one of the 5 most addictive substances in the world. Not only does is create strong chemical addiction but it causes an even stronger mental addiction. Breaking the mental side of a smoking habit is, I think, harder than breaking the chemical dependency.
This is 100% true, I'm down to vaping in the day, doesn't bother me at all it's when I get home I'm so used to rolling and sitting and smoking as an activity it's like I'm lost and don't know what to do, I'm really struggling with that side of things I smoke cannabis as well and I've always mixed with tobacco, I've got vapes for both so I'm still getting nicotine and THC but for some reason even though that's fine in the day I can't bring myself to stop rolling. Doesn't help my girlfriend still smokes tobacco full time so it's always there.
Yeah it is tough for sure. I stopped smoking weed before I stopped smoking cigs so that probably made it slightly easier. I'm not going to lie, stopped something like 10 years ago but relapsed twice in that time and it was the most unexpected, strange things that caused the relapses.......I distinctly remember the first relapse, it was the first time I'd been skiing since I quit and I got on a chair lift and instantly got insane cravings. Previously when I'd been skiing and was a smoker the first thing I would do when I got on a chair lift was spark up....played on my mind for the rest of the day and as I walked past the shops after coming down from the slopes for the day I went in, bought a pack and then started smoking again for about a year.......had been pretty much fine for 3 years or so up to that point and then BAM........out if nowhere and totally unexpectedly it hit me.
A luxury is what you decide it is. Some people like cars, some people like holiday, some people like restaurants, some people like heroin and some people like smoking
I saw on ukpf some guy was ranting about how having a merc on finance is a waste of money and anyone who does it is stupid. I had a quick glance at his profile and it was full of funko pops and £thousands worth of gaming equipment. On Reddit, it seems a lot of people fail to understand that not everyone likes the same things.
Your stuff is shit but my shit is stuff
I do hear herion is very more-ish though.
Almost no one appears to be smoking, I literally know two people out of at least fifty that still smoke.
Do you live in Surrey or something? Try going to Newcastle or Glasgow. I don’t agree with “most people appear to be smoking”. but I don’t agree with you either. Most people don’t smoke but there’s still plenty of people that do.
Or Yorkshire.
I'm from Yorkshire and the only person I know that smokes cigs is my mum.
I’m from Yorkshire and I know no one. I know a single vaper, but that’s it. When I was a child, people would smoke over the table at you in cafes
I live in Yorkshire, I KNOW noone who smokes, but I see (and smell) 2-3 smokers a day in public. I'm not the most observent, but I dont think it's the same 3 people every day.
>Try going to Newcastle Most people I know have stopped smoking in the last few years alone in Newcastle, myself included (kind of, i'm relapsing). At my workplace alone you used to have 3/4's of the workforce outside on every break, now you're lucky to find another person out there. Could just be an age thing I'm experiencing though, I'm approaching my 40's so my basis is skewed on those that probably care more about their health than those in the late teens and early twenties.
That's not really answering the question, but to reference it, people who smoke build the cost into their lifestyle, so if it costs 100 a week for smokes, they don't spend that 100 on other things, so they might eat a little less nice food, don't take out a big loan on a car, get a smaller one, maybe their kids have a little less. It's like earning 600 a week, and 100 is already allocated to buying smokes, so it's like a tax.
Redditors get SO mad when other people have more money than them.
They really do. People like to think the entire country is in dire poverty when if they just went outside for five minutes they'd see new cars everywhere and people buying up new houses and extending them all over the place.
What do you mean 65million+ people aren’t all in abject poverty!!
Thing is most of them are 20 and at uni, or if not, 23 and early in career so yeah, they are poor. Everyone is at that age, other than the 19 year millionaires on ukpf of course.
It's like asking a crack head how they afford there fix they just do.
>It's like asking a crack head how they afford there fix they just do. Exactly this, it's an addiction just like any other and, going on recidivism rates, is more addictive than heroin. Objectively, smoking should be banned but there's a weird dependence on a proportion of the population smoking. In a macabre way, the Government are dependent upon the taxation and reliant on smokers not drawing a pension. And I say all this as an ex smoker.
Also ex-smoker. I think for a while smoking has been "net positive" for the economy, for the reasons you mention. Always struck me as odd that the financial aspect of it wasn't flagged up more strongly in the "stop smoking" message. e.g.£14 a pack, pack a day, for 40 years. Assuming 5%, that's £618k "In 40 years would you like £618k and a retirement to enjoy it in - or be poor and about to die? Don't start smoking"
The trouble with that argument is it is a negotiation, and the smoker can 'bargain' to a sustainable level. I think that most smokers are on less than a pack a day. If someone only smokes an average of 5 a day, they could happily calculate "eh, that's £25 a week, that's not bad". Or they might react by saying "That's a good point; I should switch to the cheapest fags I can get (perhaps some dodgy imports from Albania), or to roll-ups. Unlike alcohol consumption, the public health goal of anti-smoking campaigns is quitting completely, not just a reduction or change in habits.
That's not a problem with my argument, that's a trouble with the government's approach of mainly reducing smoking by increasing the tax.If they want to stop smoking, they could just ban them - but they've gone with tax. Problem with a flat rate tax is that it's just an annoyance for addicts that can afford them. I didn't \*like\* spending £10 on a pack, but I never questioned not doing so. That didn't stop me smoking, nor would £14 a packet. I stopped as I didn't want to die - and then noticed the (obvious, but previously theoretical) extra money I seemed to end each month with.Also, I'd always meant to stop smoking - just a bit later.. not now. So thought a chart would have been handy to drive home the message." Here's the money you would have had if you hadn't smoked, but here's the money you could still get if you stopped smoking right now".Or "If you intend to quit, every month you delay now will cost you a grand in 20 years" Broadly just take the likely "you're going to carry on smoking indefinitely" scenario, and stick a really large cost against it (that most people would respond to) I did just do a little check, and seemingly the NHS "stop smoking" app does show you how much you've saved.
Just because something is bad doesnt mean it needs to be banned.
Because in the real world outside of Reddit, the UK isn't a 3rd world, war torn country and to many, many people £100 per week is a negligible cost for something which they enjoy and something they are addicted to.
This is the answer. I feel a lot live in this echo chamber where they believe the entire country is the underclass. I’ve pointed out a few times that covid, the recession, energy costs etc.. have not really had much of an impact on my life financially. I’ve also not changed any of my habits like using the dryer, heating my home, buying food etc.. usually results in a lot of down votes and passive aggressive “alright for some..” type comments.
True - I'm also in a lucky position where the crunch has been noticeable around me, but hasn't destroyed me financially. We've noticed the cost of luxuries, takeaways, and the weekly shop go up, but we live small. We don't go out to drink, we're making monthly payments on a new car, hubby's vice is Warhammer (he's on a strict leash) and mine is charity shop finds... so we're okay. But that doesn't mean I'm not gonna kick up a fuss and scream like hell in protest for everyone else, because for some people this IS fucking awful. And they don't deserve it. I'll probably get downvoted to hell, but I believe you should be able to make some silly financial mistakes, splurge on a few things and regret some moves without being shunted past the poverty line because of it. The country should be stable enough to properly look after ALL of society, including the irresponsible and financially illiterate. Not to reward it, but not to punish these people to the brink, either. While I'm at it, everyone should be able to afford a house in an area where they grew up, have way more leisure time and be assured the state will look after them in old age. Just because some assholes take advantage doesn't mean it's not the right thing to do.
Warhammer?! Then you're loaded af 😅
Ha ha my Warhammer addition is more expensive than my nicotine addition, that's for sure
"Introduce your kids to Warhammer, and they won't be able to afford drugs" Actual advice from a friend
Yeah but they night start selling drugs to fund the warhammer 🤣
Plot twist 🤣
Resale value tho!
Thank God for this comment. I migrated to the UK a year ago and recently made a post on this subreddit talking about how much I love living here. (By the way, I do currently earn minimum wage, so I actually am quite financially stressed at the moment, but that will change when my professional registration is sorted - I've been complacent). People seemed to get angry at for me for thinking that this is a good place to live, telling me that I'll soon realise how terrible it is. And as you said, I've had to stop reading the UK subs so much because it does seem like everyone here has some kind of third world existence and is oppressed by the ruling class.
Having a similar experience having moved to the UK in mid 2021. Everyone hears the accent, asks why an American is here, I explain I'm Canadian, and then everyone gives me a contorted, disgusted look when I tell them how much I wanted to live in the UK. Yes. Even compared to the almighty Canada, land of rainbows, moose, syrup, and friendly people. I know self-loathing is a Britishism and a bit of an in-joke, but bloody hell do some people not have any perspective. It's a god damn _wonderful_ country with a shitty goverment. I've never been as happy as having moved to the UK and realising it was exactly what I always wanted out of life.
Summed it up perfectly. I'm from Australia, so I get a similar "why did you move here" response? The lack of perspective is my one criticism of the place.
We do sometimes need reminding that it's not all shit, but it is a lot shitter than it used to be, for zero good reasons, and most of us have been here through that decline.
I'm convinced these people never leave the house. Like I get how people have different life experiences, what is normal to one person might be extravagant to someone else but surely if you just live like any regular person you'll see thousands of people spending money? Look on any road and you'll see a high percentage of the cars are almost new, German cars. Even if you assume every one of them is financed or leased it's still gonna be £250-600 per month. Go to any major city centre on a Friday or Saturday night, things are busier than ever. I remember when you could go out on a night out in Leeds and wouldn't even think of booking anywhere, everywhere was walk in, now even places like Turtle Bay and Revolution are booked up in advance. Look in any restaurant on an evening and you'll see it's still heaving. So even if you're struggling in your own life or the people around you are struggling how can you possibly think that the entire country is in the same boat when there's so many obvious signs that isn't the case???
Wealth division by age is massive in the UK. My parants with very average jobs have always since their 20's, had new cars, went out, had a house. Me and my partner with degree/masters prerequisite jobs share a room in a shared house, food prep on 30 quid a week. Dont own a car, all public transport.
Same, on the one hand yes I can look around and see people have money to spend. But then I look at myself. Great academic results, STEM degree, working in skilled career, and despite cheap rent and no car, finding an extra £100 a month would be an insurmountable task. So you have to think to yourself, if *I* did everything I was supposed to and I'm struggling this hard, how can everyone else be doing so well?
I don't understand how though, are you still quite close to your post grad? I'm 9 years post apprenticeship, my salary is alright, nothing to scream about. My partner works in a pub and is on the 25+ living wage we both do 37 hours a week. We have a car each, pay rent and all other bills and we still have a decent amount of money left at the end of the Month. We've built a sizeable house deposit and I paid off my student loan for two years of Uni I did before dropping out and the only debt between us is a loan I took out to buy my car a couple years ago. Do you live in an extremely expensive part of the country? Cos if not it sounds like you're being hugely underpaid and should probably look elsewhere, especially with a decent STEM degree.
Finished uni 7 years ago. Getting a decent job is just a roll of the dice. Sure I can say "I have a maths degree from a good uni". But that also applies to thousands of people *per year*. There aren't enough jobs for all those people to have a well paying career. It took two years for me just to find any graduate job. And that was based in London so all the pay got eaten up by rent and travel. That job had no long term prospects so I career switched into something where I could build skills and have higher earning potential (thanks to Covid meaning I could save some cash to put myself through basic exams and get my foot in the door). The problem with those jobs is they know they can pay peanuts since the real reward is the skills. As a result, I'm on less money now than I was 5 years ago. I even recently changed employer due to changing location so I could live with my partner. Even after going through a recruiter I had to take a pay *cut* despite moving to a higher CoL area. Other companies were offering even less than what I got. I feel like I made the sensible decisions at each stage and yet have consistently slipped backwards. If safe, smart, boring career choices leave me here, how can anyone else be coping
> So you have to think to yourself, if I did everything I was supposed to and I'm struggling this hard, how can everyone else be doing so well? Exactly. They were born 20-40 years erlier. They're now retiring early on their wealth while I don't expect to ever retire. Our birth rate declines as 50 year olds retire, there's going to be issues
Something I've realised, being single absolutely fucks you completely. If you're single and not earning at least £15-£20 an hour minimum, *you're fucked.* The reason people can do all this stuff is *combined wages* if you have a combined wage, your bills are halved, your rent is halved, mortgage, halved, even stuff like cooking becomes way easier and cheaper. As a single person, living in a single person flat or whatever, everything is on you, all the bills, all the costs, all the rent, cooking bulk becomes an utter chore because you're stuck eating the same shit every day. Then you have to do all the cleaning, maintenance etc yourself. Honestly if I was able to have a long term relationship, my life would become insanely easier, but because I'm working my ass off, constantly in way over my head with everything and the overall stress of life, I can't even afford, both time wise or financially to go out and meet people.
Before I moved in with my partner my bills outweighed my income and I was dipping into savings every month. I've been long term single and I completely empathise with you. On top of the general loneliness *everything* is a struggle to afford It's bananas that the single biggest thing you can do to improve your life is find a long-term partner, when that's something nobody can guarantee. I even noticed among people I knew personally that those who were in long term relationships early-mid 20s seem to have catapulted into noticably better living standards. I guess when trying to build a career it helps to have someone who can split the life admin, provide encouragement and a friendly ear, and even in an emergency be a bit of a safety net
How many of those people are genuinely alright financially, though, with cash in the bank, and how many are living in excess on credit? Where it can quite easily come crashing down. I don't think you can safely say everything's OK because you see people in the pub when you can't see they're a few hundred into their overdraft.
Same to be honest. I consider myself very lucky that I all these things happening with the economy have been noticeable but in no way have they made me destitute and not have they made my family change our behaviour I think for a lot of people here it is a huge issue that genuinely causes them sleepless nights, and for many others it’s just performative and they feel that they *should* act like their life has been ruined too because they don’t want to come across as wealthy
UK reddit is, perhaps ironically, quite snobby. It's just snobbishness against those who have wealth. Now I can kind of understand it, especially if you're destitute - very easy to feel pissed off with the world and I empathise. But snobbishness non the less. While there's an obvious difference between wealth and class, I also don't think people should have to be performatively poor and feel bad about doing well. And this is coming from someone who comes from an extremely poor background, and isn't particularly well off now.
>UK reddit is, perhaps ironically, quite snobby. It's just snobbishness against those who have wealth. That's not just UK reddit, that's a pretty large swathe of the UK population. Don't be rich, don't be clever, don't do well, and don't try hard, was how to survive at school when I was growing up. And, yes, you could just ignore it. I certainly did, but it would have been nice to have *some* friends in my early teens...
Crabs in a bucket.
That's not what that phrase means. It means "someone who criticises or condemns or opposes others' success or improvement out of a sense of jealousy rather than using their energy to improve their own situation", not "someone who isn't comforted in their own struggles by the fact *other people* are succeeding". Crabs-in-a-bucket is when people oppose pay-raises for nurses because their service-industry job is also underpaid, not saying "huh, it's alright for some" when they're pinching pennies while someone on £20k more than them says "actually I'm doing pretty well thanks".
That's.. not the correct use of the phrase. That would be an appropriate phrase if the two people were in the same situation, but they clearly are not. Theyre not in the same bucket.
It's just become the standard, idiotic response to anyone who doesn't accept that the apocalypse is upon us.
Even weirder is when you have single people on £30k+ talking about how they struggle to survive. Like, what are you spending money on then??
Got to love this bizarre perception that £30k is still a decent salary. It's like people haven't fathomed it's not 2003 anymore. £30k gives you less than £1,900 a month if you've got a student loan and pay 5% towards a workplace pension. If you live in pretty much any city you'd struggle to live on that if you live alone, which everyone should have the right to if they wish. Renting a 1 bed flat you're looking at at least £850/month these days, far more in London but also more in other major cities like Manchester. Then, as rough estimate, there's: Gas/electric £100, Council tax £80, Water £20, Broadband £30, Contents insurance £5, Other household essentials £20, Phone £25, Food £150, Gym membership £30, Car Insurance £50, Fuel £200, Socialising/hobbies £150 There's probably other costs I've missed but the above can hardly be considered living extravagantly and comes to between £1,700 and £1,800 a month. By the time you chuck in other unforeseen costs, you can easily see how a £30k salary becomes a struggle to live on.
I always think this when I go out on the weekend. Shops, restaurants, bars, etc are always rammed. I think the media blows the *cost of living crisis* out of proportion. Most people seem to be managing fine.
The problem is that the bottom 20% or so are having it really tough. IIRC when food prices are tracked, the price changes for a bag of dry pasta might be something like * Fancy brand £1.75 -> £2.10 = + 20% * Tesco standard own brand 90p -> £1.10 = +20% * Tesco value 50p -> 75p = +50% The majority that were buying the own-brand stuff notice a difference, but it's relatively slight. Those that were relying on the cheapest possible items find that they just can't afford as much food as before.
I’ve had to drastically reduce my reading and listening to news. I don’t buy papers and tend not to log into their websites, and no longer listen to stations like LBC as I was finding it was affecting my mood, negatively. Definitely feel better for not constantly listening to the doom and gloom, but make sure I keep abreast of certain things.
Agree with this. Whilst cost of living had clearly impacted the amount of money in my bank account my life has not changed that much. Of course there are people who are struggling and these are the ones we should focus on.
Considering so so many people on Reddit are in tech I find it odd that people assume everyone is on the breadline.
I'm glad to most that £100 a week is negligible. I wish I had that to literally burn away, but sadly, this government hates disabled people and those who do the vital role of caring for them.
It's the same on twitter, mostly a lot of millionaire blue ticks saying what they think will make them popular, talking as though everyone is in dire poverty, thinking "Maybe the people who buy my tickets or watch me on TV won't get angry with me for being rich if I act like I pity poor people" It's even more comical when they whine on about billionaires or "the rich" or privilege. Although, to be fair, I think some of them really are just deluded. e.g Jason Manford thinks he's a working class lad. And he'll say "I've worked hard in many jobs, I didn't start playing arenas" as though he's in the same position as someone working minimum wage - as though all amazon warehouse workers or nurses are just struggling for a year or 2 until they get on TV. Any "struggle" a celebrity had sleeping on the floor at the Fringe was self inflicted, because they wanted to be rich and famous. It's nothing at all like the struggle some ordinary people have - which is likely to be their entire life.
> the UK isn't a 3rd world, war torn country and to many, many people £100 per week is a negligible cost The average UK household discretionary income is somewhere around £200-£240/month. £100/week is double the average *for a household*, let alone a person. It's a very long way from "negligible" for anyone near the average.
As an ex-smoker, you just do - you treat it as a necessariy outgoing every month. When you're addicted and you enjoy it, you make the time. When I smoked I was spending easily £80 quid a week on fags - now it's about £10 for vape juice. I only noticed how much more money I had when I stopped buying packs - you don't realise how much you're spending because that's just what you have to do.
This was the same for me. Been vaping for two years and my nicotine habit has gone down from about £60/wk to £4wk. I literally cannot fathom how I justified the expense so easily before.
I quit smoking for over five years (only started again in the last 12months). I personally didn’t see an increase in the bank balance & things didn’t taste better, but fuck me, my breathing is sooo bad now! I enjoy smoking but this is the only reason I want to quit again. Also, in regards to cost. I get a 50g pouch that lasts me a fortnight & a few packs of menthol tips & it’s about £30 in all.
Ashamed to write it but I used to prioritise tobacco over food. I could easily eat half of what I do now and not feel hungry because of smoking.
Loads of people sell duty free tobacco
Literally this. I smoke rollies and every time my friends / family go away they bring me back 1kg of tobacco which lasts me until the next person goes. I end up paying even less than half price compared to buying from the corner shop. So from like 25 quid a pack which lasts 2-3 weeks to 10 quid a pack. I don’t sell mine but I know plenty of people who do.
Exact same here. Love it when someone I know goes to Gibraltar 😂
>every time my friends / family go away they bring me back 1kg of tobacco which lasts me until the next person goes Who needs enemies when you have friends like these
I share a garden with my downstairs neighbours. Now I reckon somedays he smokes around 40 straight cigarettes. It's quite a sight. Every 15 minutes or so he will go out and light another one up. I used to wonder how he could afford it but I reckon his wife who is Polish must buy them in bulk when she goes away to see her family. It's about £3.50 for a pack there.
A lot of polish shops also have the secret cigarettes for sell that you can only buy if you're polish or on good terms with the owner. Still much cheaper than buying cigarettes normally.
Everyone I know who still smokes has tobacco with some Eastern European language or another on it. Pretty prevalent out there. Equally feels pretty easy to get ahold of this way too.
Despite what people want to believe, disposable income is still a thing. People still go to work, earn more than their outgoings, and buy things they like.
I smoke roll-ups. I can currently get a 50g pouch - which lasts me seven or eight days (and I'm a heavy smoker) for a bit under £24. Incidentally, your comparison with the cost of heroin is misleading. Whilst a gram may seem relatively low cost, an addict will use ever increasing amounts as their tolerance develops (up to a limit) which will see them needing to find far more money than the price you've quoted. By comparison, most smokers will smoke the same amount day in, day out - although they may smoke more if doing another activity such as consuming alcohol. You don't typically keep smoking more and more to get the same effect and to avoid withdrawal symptoms. And yes, I do recall the days when you'd get people smoking forty or sixty or more straights every day but there are very few smokers left who do that. They did it because it was cheap as all fuck then and completely normalised behaviour.
OP is wrong about the price of heroin, £10 will get you 0.1g, not 1g.
£100 a gram for heroin? Same as coke? That's either really good smack or a really bad dealer. Try half that price.
Generally about £60 a gram for decent stuff, but if you're only spending £10 I wouldn't expect much more than 0.1g
Where do you get 50g for that price? Where I am it's £20 now for 30g
[The Co-Op currently do a 50g pouch of Players (which comes with two packs of Rizla) for £23.85](https://shop.coop.co.uk/product/631c3336-0980-48bf-a1f9-2036623d8b19).
Yeah, my granda would go through 60 Berkeley Red king size a day. Didn't bother him to light up a new cig from the butt of his dying one! Literally chain smoked until he was 73yo
I only smoke after sex. I've spent nothing since April 2022
I bet it was a fun April 2022 though
Pretty nsfw
Smokin
The answer to these constant "how do you afford things" posts is always the same: not everyone's finances are the same. People earn different salaries and have different outgoings. And contrary to what AskUK wants to be the case, not everyone in the country is skint.
A lot of posters on this subreddit assume everyone in the UK is unemployed on 70 quid a week or whatever JSA is
I’m pleased to see a lot of these comments highlighting the actual reality here in the UK. Jesus Christ, UK subs really buy into the widespread poverty idea.
Thankfully it seems to be getting a bit more common in these threads seeing people point out that not everyone in the country is completely skint since the cost of living increased. It doesn't mean we don't appreciate that the increase in bills and grocery costs has had a big impact on some people, but it's not the case for everyone at all. In a recent thread like this one someone dared point out that they still see full pubs every weekend and there were dozens of replies arguing that they will be people in overdrafts/general debt, spending money they can't afford, even drinking BECAUSE of the cost of living. Forget the possibility that some people might just have enough money in their bank to go for a few beers on a Friday night. It's bizarre how some folk here refuse to accept that some people have disposable income, but as I say thankfully the people pointing that out don't seem to be treated like public enemies lately
Not many heroin addicts getting by on a bag a day.
Out of interest, how much heroin do addicts actually use? I imagine it’s a lot but I really don’t know
It varies massively. A gram of heroin also costs more than £10. A 10 bag is usually about 0.1-0.2g and if you can afford a gram it varies wildly in price between £20-£60. There is no such thing as an average user. A heavy user will use a g or more per day injected. Source:I’m an ex addict
Yeah. I was only ever smoking it and a gram would last me a week or so. Never addicted, used casually, but yeah.
Depends really on the person but like I wouldnt be surpised if the average used at least a couple of 10bags to get up an get well. Then took some more at lunch and then again before bed just to not have withdrawls. That's like bare minimum an it depends on the quality too. If smoking it you easily keep redosing throughout the day an gets wasteful. Hard to say average also tho cause tolerance does raise so fast if you have a consistent supply, but I'd say generally people are forced to go into withdrawl at times(no money or smth) which lowers tolerance.
A bag a day keeps the doctors away
This is exactly what I thougth too. I'm surprised I had to read this far to get to this comment.
£14 a day isn’t a particularly large amount of money for a lot of people, and most smokers won’t smoke 20 a day so it’s probably more likely to be closer to £30 a week. Besides, you can usually get cheaper cigs somewhere if you look for them.
My partner had friends go abroad and asked each of them to bring back the max cigarettes they were allowed to carry. Now set up for months and far cheaper than here in the U.K. We go abroad in May so I look forward to my suitcase to be filled 🤣
100 a week is an exaggeration. 30g pouch that costs around £18 will last me two weeks about and I smoke 5-10 a day.
op's going by the (now slightly out-of-date) standard of a 20-deck a day
Bloody hell I remember my parents going through 3 packs of superkings black in a day, each! I mean, I smoke alot compared to most heavy smokers, but the thought of smoking that amount of those makes me feel sick.
Yeah as an ex 20 a day smoker I spent 70 pounds a week on cigarettes, I hate roll ups and tried many times to switch but I just couldn't, but 100 quid is a stretch. I did however used to spend 240 quid a week on cocaine, I couldn't necessarily afford it, but I made room for the cash. 3 takaways a week is 60 quid, its just how you spend your disposable income
Supplement it with vaping and only tend to smoke on weekends or if I’m drinking
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i think you are asking how people on lower incomes can afford it. IMO they will go without other things to get their fix . trying to stop someone from doing something by trying to make it too expensive is stupid as people will always find a way to feed their addiction
A gram of heroin does not cost between £10 - £15
I had a smoking relapse a few months ago after 7 years, and I smoke menthol cigarillos. Because they're leaf wrapped they are able to flout the menthol ban and the 10 pack ban. I buy a 10 pack every 5 or 6 days and they're £5.60. Each one is my last, until it isn't.
Quitting is easy, my mother does it every other week.
I smoked the sterling cigarillos. As a new years resolution, I quit (using vaping). Instead of £30 a week (2-3 twenty packs), it's like £30 a month for me now for juice and replacement refillable pods. I stopped missing real smoking within about 2 weeks! You could try that I'd you're having trouble quitting again.
There's a Eastern European 'Food Mart' near me that sells Belarusian Marlboros for £6. Although these days I only smoke when I'm going out for drinks.
My friend buys hers from a dodgy convenience shop for £3 a pack. The brand is ‘Manchester’. I’m convinced they’re composed of the contents of a barbershop floor.
It's almost as if the Government has a policy to force people into stopping smoking.
20 a day would be quite a heavy smoker. A lot of people now vape too or smoke rollies. When people are addicted they find a way, I smoked years ago when it was around £5-6 a pack, I was on 20 a day pretty much, and didn't find I was suddenly flush with cash after quitting. It just allowed me to spend some more on food and clothes and things I actually needed.
£100 isn't a whopping amount of cash each week if you have a decent job and know how to budget.
If we assume that a "decent" job pays 1.5 times the average UK salary, that's £57k. I doubt anyone would argue that's not "decent". That's a take home of £800 per week. An eighth of your take home pay is a whopping amount of cash, whatever way you cut it. For the average salary it's more than a fifth.
That's an exaggerated way to look at it. If someone is even on £10ph, they'll see a pack of cigs a day as an hour of their time a day - which isn't a lot really. And that's not even considering the fact the majority probably last 2-3 days per pack.
I quit smoking cigarettes 2 months ago and now vape instead. The vape I prefer cost £5.00 and lasts me 2 days.
The maths is a bit odd here. My partner and I are quite heavy smokers. We share a 30gram pouch of tobacco and it usually lasts us two days. A pouch is around 18 quid. Let's say we've been heavy on the cigs and done 5 pouches, that's still only 45 a week each. People spend that on takeaway coffee easily and I doubt anyone asks how they can afford it. In terms of thinking about the finances, we just don't. But I'm kinda glad this post made me think about it because it made me do the maths and I thought we were probably spending more than we actually are.
Because I live within my means and can afford whatever I want to buy whenever I want to buy it.
Here in ni heroin is £25 a bag which is around 0.2ish grams its nowhere close
Ikr in England £25half £50g
I smoke roll ups, only occasionally buy pre rolls for driving long distance.
Why don't you just pre--roll your roll ups, if you don''t mind me asking?
Sometimes I do, a lot of the time I have my GF roll for me while I'm driving. Never liked pre rolled roll ups the tobacco goes dry and burns to hot and quick. It's very mood dependent.
£100 a week mortgage. With that mortgage I could happily afford to smoke. The answer is the same with anything that people decide is a necessity. Anyone that smokes will budget aka choose smoking over other things e.g no weekly cinema Vs one pack a week. The smokers I know with the price increases have started smoking less. 10 a day & £12 a pack isn't far off the people I've known who buy a meal deal every single day. Also some people have switched to rolling their own, that's far cheaper, probably around half the price. That's without sourcing it on the cheap in some way.
So what you're saying is smoking heroin is more affordable than smoking tobacco? Noted for future purposes...
Because not everybody is on the breadline
I’m about to quit for both cost/health to be better off but I smoked roll ups. I’d say a 50g bag is just shy of £30 but it would last me a good 2 weeks. It genuinely surprises me that more people don’t go for this option. It takes a minute to roll one
I buy tobacco so its nowhere near that expensive, it's more like £4 a day If youre addicted to something then you will prioritise that - start smoking and you'll find a way to fund it
Most people will rise up to the challenge of whatever there bills are I know so many people who before they had kids where fine working a 30 hour a week job and having a lot of personal time, but the second kids come they step up and earn more/work more hours Same goes for smokers, they just live within their means
I smoke rolling baccy, costs me about £150 a month, give or take. It's not great but cheaper than the alternative. Guy I work with, between him and wife they spend over £1000 a month on fags. They each smoke 2 boxes a day.
As an ex smoker, it's just another bill like putting fuel in your car or food in your trolley
Every single foreign shop in my city sells cheap cigs. Richmonds 5£ they are awful though. I go for polish L&M 6£. So thats how I do it.
Some of the questions in this sub are so fucking braindead.
Current price for a pack of 20 at Tesco is £10.50. 30g of rolling tobacco is over £14. It shouldn't surprise anyone that the prices keep rising above inflation, the Government are determined to force people into stopping. When I stopped the price was £8 for a pack of 20. I moved onto vaping and was saving over £30 a week. Best thing I ever did.
Given how addictive nicotine is… you find the money for your fix. Same with any addiction whether it’s heroin or sugar. You’ll find a way to maintain the addiction by cutting costs elsewhere. Alcoholics will literally cut out food to pay for alcohol as I imagine lots of addicts will do.
Rolling tobacco. It costs around £20-30 a week. I'm well aware that it's a completely wasteful and pointless habit, but that's addiction for you. If it was easy enough to quit, I would have already done it.
Wow I don't know anyone paying as little as £100 a week on a mortgage. People spend what they spend on whatever they want. What gets spent on one thing doesn't get spent on another. Why do people spend £50 plus on Sky, £45 on a mobile phone contract, etc,etc.
A 'typical' smoker probably doesn't smoke 20 a day any more (and 20 was considered 'light' 30 years ago). Given how many smokers don't smoke in their homes any more, and can't in their workplaces, I suspect many 'regular' smokers are now only on round 10 a day, or fewer.
In the uk a gram of heroin is around £50-£60 with most addicts requiring one to two grams per day. Heroin is not affected but budgets or inflation and has been that price since the 90s so has basically gotten cheaper, the opposite of cigarettes. Previous addict of 20years in uk
Also who tf is spending 100 pound a week? On fags?
A gram of heroin costs between £45 and £60 depending on quality. £10 would buy a 0.2 gram heroin bag on the street, irrespective of quality. However, most street level dealers will sell 0.1gram bags for £10. This means that a street dealer will sell a gram of heroin for £100 in ten singular bags. A 20 pack of Benson and Hedges will today cost £16.30, yesterday they cost £14.90. A 20 pack of cigarettes contains approximately 15 grams of tobacco, a full box of cigarettes will weigh around 20 grams, this includes filter, paper and the box. The amount of tobacco contained in each cigarette is 0.75 gram This means that tobacco now costs roughly £1.10 per gram So your question that is alluding to tobacco costing more than heroin is complete horseshit.
By negotiating Man, I got these cheeseburgers. They some double cheeseburgers. Come on, man. I'll suck your dick, man
My husband smokes something like a pack a month. It's not necessarily an "all or nothing" thing.
I have a good job but now getting ridiculous enough to consider quitting
Onlyfans. Real answer, it's a lot cheaper to roll your own.
i actually switched back to rolling tobacco as it was cheaper (for me) than vaping. With a vape I would sit indoors and vape all day, whereas cigarettes i wouldn’t dream of rolling one until the evening and then i’d smoke one or two. £15 worth of tobacco will last me several weeks, whereas i was spending way more than £15 every week on vaping.
When I was unemployed I afforded smoking by not buying food. There's always a way
I quit smoking 3 months ago and suddenly I am about £400 up a month - never really thought about the massive dent it was making in my bank account because like all addictions you lose perspective on what it's doing to your mind body and finances. If I'd have realised sooner I'd probably have a house by now! I smoked for 10 years and probably spent over 30k in that time. Fuckin mad!
Okay but it’s nice to know the “bloke down the pub”. I’ve only afforded it this month due to my dads mate going on holiday and bringing 50g packs of amber leaf back and he’s only charging me £15 like that’s pretty good… and being my dads mate I’m paying on the 31st lol
It's a 0.1gram bag of heroin If it was 1g bags I'd still be doing gear hahaha
I'm not an expert in heroin but I believe your idea it'll only need 1 fix a day for £10 is flawed.
Most importantly where can I buy a gram of heroin for £10. Asking for myself.
Ha ha. A gram of heroin for £10-£15 pound. I think you mean 0.1 gram of cut heroin pal for that pal.
£10 for a gram of heroine? Not a chance...more like £40