News
Savings stack up for ex-smokers
Ex-smokers could have reaped the benefits of the smoking ban enforced a year ago by saving more than £2,000, Alliance & Leicester has found.
The smoking ban came into effect on 1 July 2007. Research from Alliance & Leicester showed a 20-a-day smoker spends £2,065 per year on cigarettes. But by giving up and putting this money away in a high interest savings account, the average smoker could have saved up to £2,198 (including interest) since last July. Even a social smoker, getting through 20 cigarettes a week could have saved around £320.
Hetal Parmar, manager for savings at Alliance & Leicester, said: “A year on from the smoking ban and those steel-willed enough among us to have kicked the smoking habit will be feeling the benefit in their health and wallets.
“We are all feeling the pinch on our purse-strings at the moment yet, as a nation, we still spend billions of pounds on cigarettes each year – money that could help us cover the rising cost of living or could be set aside to build up a nest egg.”