Switching to E-Cigs – How Much Money Can You Save?

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The health benefits of giving up tobacco are clear. The risk of heart disease, multiple forms of cancer, pulmonary disorders, impotence, halitosis and high cholesterol will decrease massively, as any doctor will tell you. However, better health isn’t the only motive for moving on. Prices of cigarettes are inflating year on year, and, as feeling the pinch during these difficult financial times, everyone is looking for ways to cut their spending. You can’t deny, cigarettes aren’t necessary, but their addictive nature means it’s the toughest thing to live without them once you’re hooked.

An alternative has arrived in the form of E-Cigarettes, and it can’t be denied that the health implications shrink to practically nil once smokers make the switch to these. It’s claimed that they’re cheaper too, but is that true? Trepidation surrounding the cost of switching seems to be one of the only things holding potential quitters back. Take a look at sites such as 10 Motives and check out the info below as we lay out the differences in detail.

The down payment

While a typical E-Cigarette “starter kit”, including fluid tank and battery, can cost more than £40, an individual rechargeable E-Cig alone usually sits at a comfortable £13 – £15, the cost of around two packets of 20 real cigarettes as recommended by the Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association as of March 2013. Added to this is the fact that the E-Cig is rechargeable, the only further expenses are the refill cartridges, which can be sold individually or in packs (typically, a pack of five (each containing the equivalent of about 25 cigarettes) costs about £7. Below, you’ll find the implications of this for different smokers.

For the 10-a-day smoker:

On average, you get through a 20-pack every two days. After paying for the E-Cig itself, you’d need less than half a cartridge a day, or a quarter of a 10ml container. With traditional cigarettes, you’d be spending around £1,456.35 a year. With E-Cigs, you’d get through a pack of five refills in about eleven days, so you’d need about thirty-three of these in a year. This would cost you around £231, plus around £15 for the rechargeable E-Cig. The grand total: £246. That’s a saving of around £1,210 a year.

For the 20-a-day smoker:

Your typical E-Cig intake is just less than one refill cartridge a day. With your yearly expenditure hitting £2,912.70 for traditional cigarettes, you’d need to change cartridge around once every five days, meaning you’d spend about £511 a year on refills. Add the original £15 to that, and it hits £526. A saving of £2,386 or thereabouts.

For the 40-a-day smoker:

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There are still excellent savings for heavier smokers. £5,825.40 would usually leave your account each year for cigarettes alone. With E-Cigs, you’d get through around one and two-thirds of a cartridge per day. The total cost will hit around £848 per year, or £863 with the cost of the rechargeable cigarette added. You’d save around £4,962.