A study by ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) has found that 1 in 7 people are in, and will stay in, social housing because of the cost of cigarettes.
It's not hard to see why as the price of cigarettes continually increasing over the last decade. On average smokers in social housing are spending £50 a week on cigarettes, which is £2,600 a year going up in smoke.
As you can imagine this is big chunk of anyone's yearly budget, but for those who rely on social housing it can be the difference between solvency and debt.
That's where e cigarettes could help. By giving smokers the nicotine they crave but in a healthier and much cheaper way!
Cigarette Addiction Leading To, And Keeping People In, Debt
We have talked about this before, but the demographics of smoking have been changing over the last decade. Back in the 1950's, smoking was a habit everyone shared equally. Now smoking has been all but abandoned by the more affluent.
Nowhere can this be seen more than in social housing where over a third of people are smokers, which is over double the national average.
And with the price of cigarettes rising each year it can be terrifyingly easy to get stuck in a cycle of debt. In fact, the study found that 28% of social housing tenants are currently in rent arrears.
For smokers in social housing almost all disposable income goes towards their addiction. That's why almost 512,000 (1 in 7 of those in social housing) are trapped in their current financial situation by cigarettes. If they could stop smoking, then they would have the extra money to get out of debt according to ASH.
The solution here seems simple, quit smoking. However just because it's a simple idea does not make it easy!
Those in social housing are actually the most likely to try and quit compared to the national average. However, it has been shown that when you are surrounded by other people who continue to smoke, it tends to be much harder to stay on the wagon.
You may have noticed it yourself, if you see someone smoke on the TV on or on the street the urge to smoke grows stronger. And with 1 in 3 people in social housing currently smoking, the signs of smoking are everywhere.
That's why even though the attempt rate at quitting is higher in social housing compared to the average, the actual success rate is much lower.
With one change though, perhaps 1/2 a million people could improve their standard of living and get their lives on track. And that change could be an electronic cigarette.
How E Cigs Could Help
E Cigarettes, unlike other quit methods, give the same look and satisfaction of a cigarette. That means you can make the switch and not only satisfy the chemical addiction with the nicotine but the psychological addiction that many people forget about. There's a reason that studies have proven an e cigarette is almost twice as effective compared to nicotine patches or gum at helping people quit.
As E Cigarettes only contain 4 ingredients, they are 95% less harmful than cigarettes, with none of the 50 carcinogens or 4000 chemicals which are found in cigarettes.
Electronic cigarette vapour also doesn't smell or stain, so no more yellow stains on everything. And e-cig vapour doesn't harm anyone else so there is no chance of 2nd hand harm unlike cigarettes.
But e cigarettes most useful trait, for the purpose of this blog at least, is the price. E-cigarettes are a fraction of the cost of cigarettes and can save a smoker £1000's every year.
To give an example of how much can be saved each year with e cigarettes, we will break down the numbers with an average buyer.
A box of 5 e cig refills holds about 200 cigarettes worth of nicotine, with each refill holding about 40 cigarettes worth of nicotine. With SMOKO, the price of a box is £10.
Most people use about 1/2 a refill a day, but to make the maths easier let’s say our typical customer uses 1 refill a day. That means they would be spending £2 a day on e-cigarette refills.
In a month they will spend on average £60 and roughly £720 annually. Compared to the £2,600 ASH says is spent on cigarettes that's a saving of £1,880!
And this comparison is assuming that our buyer is using double the normal amount e cigarette refills!
Almost £2,000 a year saving in disposable income is a great bonus for anyone and might be the difference between staying in debt and finally becoming financially free.
So if you want an extra £2000 in your pocket, as well as switching to a product which is 95% less harmful than give one of our SMOKO E-Cigarette a try for FREE!
