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Marcy Balk figures she could have bought a new car or taken her husband and two children on a luxury vacation had she saved and invested all the money spent over two decades on cigarettes.
"I never really sat down and did the numbers (but) ... I smoked one and a half packs a day for 22 years. I also probably dry-cleaned twice the rate as I do now," said the middle-aged interior designer from New York.
Few people will dispute the adverse effects of cigarettes on the nation's health and overall economy -- an estimated 420,000 smoker deaths, 50,000 deaths linked to secondhand smoke and at least $100 billion in direct medical costs and lost productivity each year. Far more difficult to determine is the financial fallout for smoking households.
Years of carting home cartons and lighting up countless packs of cigarettes can burn a sizable hole in the family budget. With the recently proposed $368.5 billion tobacco settlement, smokers would have to cough up even more per pack to maintain their habits.
"It can get very expensive," said Joe Cherner, president of SmokeFree Educational Services, a health advocacy group based in New York. "There are so many other extra costs that people don't even realize."
Just how many extras?
Cigarettes aside, the nation's estimated 48 million regular smokers usually incur more everyday expenses than the rest of the population in cleaning bills and personal hygiene products.
They may shell out more in overall doctors' visits, insurance premiums, and in some cases, earn lower wages due to lower productivity or lost job opportunities.
While it's difficult to quantify, all that can add up to a lot of money gone up in smoke over the years, financial resources that could have been invested, used to lower debts or spent in other ways.
Balk, who quit smoking six years ago, conservatively estimates losses around $15,000, not including the money spent trying to kick her habit through acupuncture and other methods. (Success came after one $150 hypnotherapy session.)
Arnie Willcuts, vice president for Phoenix-based Smokenders, which provides behavior-modification courses and seminars, says the first thing he tells clients is: "Put the money that you would have spent on cigarettes away in a jar for two weeks, then blow it on something you always wanted to as a reward."
A New York subway ad for the nicotine chewing gum Nicorette, marketed by Philadelphia-based SmithKline Beecham, gives a whimsical example. "Stop smoking now ... Save enough by this time next year to be not smoking in Cancun," the ad reads.
A pack of cigarettes sells for around $2, depending on taxes. At that price, a pack-a-day smoker would spend around $730 a year, $3,650 in five, $7,300 in 10, $14,600 in 20 and $36,500 in 50.
Of course, these figures don't take inflation into account or lost accumulative interest had the money been invested.
At 7 percent interest, the amount spent the first year almost doubles in 10 years. "Over 30 years it's 7.6 times the amount. Over 50 years it would be 29.5 times," said Cherner.
Even if the $368.5 billion smoking settlement isn't approved by Congress, cigarette companies facing increased litigation costs are likely to pass their expenses to consumers.
"The general rule is for every 10 percent rise in price, demand falls 4 percent," said Marc I. Cohen, tobacco analyst for Goldman Sachs & Co.
Personal hygiene can be pricey for the smoker. Figure at least one extra teeth cleaning per year at $50 to $100 a pop. At least a couple packages of breath mints or breath sprays per week or a special tube of tooth paste, costing between $1 and $4 each, means at least another $52 in extra annual expenses.
Dry cleaning bills are likely to be higher. For the smoking woman, let's assume at least a couple of dresses or blouses will have to be sent to the cleaners each week at $3 to $10 per item. That's between $310 and $520 in extra cleaning bills a year, taxes excluded.
This doesn't include the cost of replacing the occasional scorched tie, shirt or pants.
"I don't know how many sweaters I've burned. I don't know someone who hasn't burned one," said Jude Brennan, a real estate agent from Somers, Conn., who has smoked for more than 40 years. "It's not a clean habit."
Then there's the cost of cleaning the home.
Carpets, draperies and furniture, all of which can reek of smoke, may have to be cleaned, or even replaced, more often. That can run several hundred dollars to several thousand dollars a year.
The lingering smell of stale cigarette smoke can ultimately impact the resale of a home or car.
"Cigarette smoke is akin to any strange odors, like pets. People react negatively to things that are out of the norm," said Dorcas Helfant, who runs Coldwell Banker-Helfant Realty, a residential brokerage firm in Virginia Beach, Va.
Helfant says smoky homes may take a little longer to sell, partly because owners need to spend more time getting them ready. She says she bought a home from heavy smokers several years ago and had to replace all the carpeting and repaint every room.
"There was so much nicotine around ... the walls had to be treated before they were painted," she said.
Easterling Motors Inc. in Victoria, Texas, buys and sells mostly smoke-free used cars and goes out of its way to advertise that fact.
"Nonsmokers' cars are generally better cared for. Even a smoker doesn't want someone else's car that has burned seats, burned sun visors and yellowed glass," said co-owner Robert Easterling.
And smoking can be dangerous. About 154,000 fires are started each year by smoking materials, causing $416 million in damages, according to the National Fire Protection Association in Quincy, Mass. Among the more recent casualties: The president of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., whose brands include Camel and Salem. A discarded cigarette was deemed the probable cause of a blaze that destroyed his North Carolina beach home last spring.
Life insurance premiums are typically higher for smokers because mortality rates are higher. And some auto insurers may charge more. The reason: drivers who light up on the road are more prone to accidents.
ReliaStar Financial Corp., a Minneapolis-based life insurance company, says a 45-year-old male smoker would pay $1,425 a year for a $250,000 standard term life insurance policy with a 10-year term, versus $632.50 for a nonsmoking male the same age. That's $792.50 more per year, $3,962.50 more over five years and $7,925 over the life of the policy.
While they may be paying more, smokers may be earning less.
A 1995 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that smokers, who comprise one-third of the U.S. work force, in general earn 4 percent to 8 percent less than nonsmokers. In terms of lost annual wages for a smoking household, that could total between $1,363.04 and $2,044.56, based on a 1996 Census Bureau report that put the median annual household income at $34,076.
"That doesn't count the jobs they couldn't get from companies that don't hire people who smoke," added Cherner.
Smoking employees cost companies more. The average smoker takes four breaks a day, according to a recent study by Smokenders. They're also absent 50 percent more than nonsmoking colleagues, separate studies by economists William Weis at Seattle University and Marvin M. Kristein of the American Health Foundation, found.
The smoking-related illnesses that sideline workers also drive up medical bills. Direct medical costs total $60 billion a year nationwide, which breaks down to several more visits to the doctor's office and pharmacy per smoking household, according to the Action on Smoking and Health in Washington.
"That doesn't even include the indirect costs," said John Banzhaf, executive director of ASH, which helped advise the states in the recent tobacco settlement.
Children exposed to secondhand smoke may have more lower respiratory infections, asthma attacks or middle-ear infections, studies show.
"You can go through the entire list of all the things that ails us and even though they may not be caused by smoking, smoking exasperates them ...(and) increases costs," said Banzhaf.
"Do we have a very serious drain on the American economy? I would say that is a gross underestimate."
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