The hours of the two week break between spring and summer semesters are numbered...I have just turned on all three of my summer online courses. For four years now, I have taught entirely online, saving the two hour drive time and the four gallons of gas it cost me to commute daily from Paola to Lee's Summit and back.
Long time readers will know that last year I tracked our gas expenditures. In May, 2008, that figure topped $800! And we cut back on our free-wheeling ways. Then in August and September, I began to track our beer expenditures and decided that needed some trimming since we spent more on beer than on gasoline for several months running. We experimented with kegs and finally settled on Budweiser in aluminum cans purchased on the Missouri side of the state line.
In March, I was shocked to realize that our cigarette expenditure was higher than gasoline or beer. That was when a federally approved tax caused the price of a carton of cigarettes to jump over $10 a carton. Keith's premium Benson & Hedges menthols cost $51, a week's supply. My Winston 100's were $30 or so. I just about cried the first time I realized we were spending over $90 a week on cigarettes! I tried to make light of how patriotic smoking was--since we were voluntarily paying this tax.
During my years in Montana, I could purchase tax-free cigarettes on the reservation. I went online and explored the possibility of purchasing our smokes that way now. After an hour or so, I realized that there were several pending law suits challenging the legality of such purchases...
I signed up for coupons, giving more information than I really wanted the tobacco companies to have. Finally, my brand loyalty began to waver. We have been exploring several different "off" brands, available at discount smoke shops. We have tried WildHorse ($27 per carton), Echos ($20-22 per carton) and today, we purchased Nova brand cigarettes made in India for $17 per carton.
I don't expect much sympathy for my habit from any of my readers, but we are amazed that we can almost purchase a month's worth of smokes for what we once spent on a week's supply.
Check out the title link.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
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3 comments:
I watched my parents go from Pall Mall's to Basics over the last ten years. Frankly I miss the Pall Malls. If you had to live in a house of smokers, they smelled better.
The worst, however, are GPC cigarettes. I spotted an ambush set up in the Army beause one of the OPFOR smoked those compulsively (though to be fair, he wasn't smoking one at the time).
I suspect that if the taxation and penalization of the tobacco companies and their products continue that the result will be an increase in black market tobacco traffic. I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't the case already.
Respects,
Murph
On the Outer Marches
Yep, but I'm not willing to go there.
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