{"id":157,"date":"2008-06-04T01:10:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-04T01:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/06\/you-pay-how-much-for-your-habit.html"},"modified":"2008-06-04T01:10:00","modified_gmt":"2008-06-04T01:10:00","slug":"you-pay-how-much-for-your-habit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/06\/you-pay-how-much-for-your-habit\/","title":{"rendered":"You Pay HOW MUCH for Your Habit?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This week, New York state raised their cigarette tax to the highest in the nation.<\/a><\/p>\n

They basically tacked an additional <\/em>$1.25 per pack onto the price.<\/p>\n

New York City added an additional tax as well<\/a>, so cigarettes in NYC will cost an extra $1.50 compared to yesterday.<\/p>\n

I’m speechless. Some New Yorkers will be paying more than $10 per pack!!!<\/p>\n

There are still smokers in New York? How do they afford it? <\/em><\/div>\n

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Let’s say they smoke a pack-per-day — that seems to be an average. We’ll use round numbers to keep it easy. So $10 per pack –> $280-310 per month –> $3360-3720 per year!<\/div>\n

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Hm…let’s see what else costs ~$3500 per year:<\/div>\n

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A year of in-state tuition at <\/strong>Fayetteville State University<\/strong><\/a>: $3245\/year<\/strong><\/div>\n

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(<\/strong>Appalachian State University<\/strong><\/a> ~$2200\/year, <\/strong>NCSU<\/strong><\/a> ~$5000 year)<\/strong><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Hey wait, we’re talking about New Yorkers:<\/div>\n

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A year of in-state tuition at <\/strong>City College of New York<\/strong><\/a>: $4000\/year!<\/strong><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

How about a used truck?<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n

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A 6-piece leather living room suite?<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n

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LASIK Eye Surgery?<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n

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This guy paid $3500 to have the exterior of his house painted.<\/strong><\/a> (We paid less than that, by the way, this guy was taken for a ride).<\/strong><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

How about New Yorkers who also drive…look what they’re paying for regular gas!<\/p>\n

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My father-in-law is a smoking New Yorker who drives a small SUV. The gas prices and cigarettes alone probably suck an extra $200 per month out of his budget than even 3 years ago.<\/p><\/div>\n

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In conclusion, if a New York smoker were to put aside that $10 per day for his\/her pack of cigarettes look at what he\/she could purchase or achieve!!!!<\/div>\n

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Many of you know that I’ve run a similar numbers game with driving our Prius vs. our Odyssey<\/a>. I just looked at that blog post and saw how gas was $3.29 per gallon on March 11th. Prices are now 20% higher so you can tack 20% onto all the numbers I’d run there.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/div>\n
Patricia-Your-Friendly-Neighborhood-Math-Geek<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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PS: Wanna see how much YOUR state taxes cigarettes? <\/a> Looks like South Carolina’s the place to go. For gas, too.<\/span>

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PPS: Hey South Carolina — if you aren’t taxing gasoline or cigarettes, how ARE you getting your money???<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, New York state raised their cigarette tax to the highest in the nation. They basically tacked an additional $1.25 per pack onto the price. New York City added an additional tax as well, so cigarettes in NYC will cost an extra $1.50 compared to yesterday. I’m speechless. Some New Yorkers will be paying … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[616],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-ranting"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t