Well, even though I don't actually own a car, gas prices are making just about everything I buy cost more. I'm not going to stop drinking, smoking, eating, or living indoors, so on the advice of some friends I started googling about rolling your own cigarettes to cut down one major cost. Here in Philly you'll pay between $4.16 and $5.25 for cigarettes depending on where you're shopping. Convenience stores like WaWa tend to charge the state minimum, and local corner stores charge whatever they can get away with (which was $5.00 forever, but it seemed like overnight every one of them tacked on the extra quarter.) When I can get them, buy-one-get-ones drastically reduce my average price for smokes, but they're much rarer in this neighborhood than they were in my last (at least, in my preferred brand, Marloboro Menthol.) On average, I probably spend $4.50 a pack because I buy them when I need them, wherever I am, instead of planning ahead and getting them where I know they're cheapest. So, on average, I was spending $45 a carton, or at roughly a pack a day, $135 a month on smokes.
Anyway, I just started stuffing my own cigarettes. Everyone here's familiar with rolling your own cigs, where you've got a rolling paper, maybe a filter, and tobacco. Well, I don't have the steadiest hands and those rolling papers are pretty damned small, so I never made the switch. But when I was researching them, I found out there's also something called stuffing or making your own (SYO/MYO instead of RYO). Instead of papers and filters, you buy tubes, which look exactly like store-bought smokes but hollowed out. Filter's already glued in, already machine wrapped to a perfect cylinder. All you need is an injector that packs the tobacco, cuts off the excess, and spoons it into the tube. They range in price from under $10 for a handheld one to hundreds for an electric, but the best buys are the $20 EXP1000 I bought or one of the Top or SuperMatic crank machines for $40-60. My EXP1000 is two step, which means you pull one lever to pack the tobbacco/cut the excess and slide another to pack the tube. The one step machines do everything with one (long, arching) pull of a lever. (The EXP is made out of plastic, though. It's a great travel machine, and the price is right, but a lot of people prefer a more solid machine with a metal casing.)
I'm just starting and it takes me ten or fifteen minutes to stuff a pack, depending on how many times I screw up. Since it's all done manually, it takes a while to get used to the feel of the amount of tobacco you need per smoke. Most people on the forums I studied said with practice you can expect to do a pack in 6-7 minutes. And that's with a two step machine like mine--one step machines can do a pack in five or less.
As for the finished result? It looks exactly like a normal smoke. Perfect cylinder, filter, etc. There are dozens of styles of tubes that you can buy to customize the look. And tobacco? Hundreds. Daughters and Ryan (D&R) is one of the most respected American brands of tobacco, so I went with a 14oz bag of their Wingate (Menthol) tobacco, which is enough for two cartons. (I also tried a couple 1oz samples of different menthols that did not go as well.) It's got the same draw as a Newport or Marlboro Menthol, except you can actually taste the tobacco. It's also the first time in years I can actually feel the nicotine hit me.
But, I didn't start doing this for the taste, I did it for the savings, so here's a price breakdown. For my injector, bag of Wingate, samples, two plastic cigarette cases, a box of tubes, and shipping, I paid $60.25. If I had been smart enough to buy a second box of tubes, it would have been $64.25 and given me enough materials to make two cartons. Like I said earlier, two cartons would cost me $90 here, so even including start up and shipping costs I'm already ahead. And, I went with the most expensive tubes on the market because they were all black. A beginner's order could look something like this:
-EXP1000 injector - $19.90
-Choice of D&R tobacco, 14oz - $20.50
-Choice of tubes, two boxes at ~$2.00ea - $4.00
-Two Smokey cigarette cases $1.95ea - $3.90 (these are the best brand for keeping your rolled cigarettes from drying out in arid climates.)
-Shipping - $8.75
Total - $57.05 to get started. For refill orders, assuming one bag of tobacco, two boxes of tubes, and nothing else, you'd be looking at $33.25. For two cartons. $16.63/carton after your initial costs are paid, compared to $45. So, at $1.66 a pack, pack a day, I'm now looking at spending $49.80 a month instead of $135, and I end up with a better tasting cigarette. I'm saving $85.20 as a single guy who smokes a pack a day. Those of you whose spouse smokes or who smoke more than I do are going to save a lot more.
So, if any of you other smokers are looking to save some cash, take some time and look over these links:
http://www.americanthrusttobacco.com/ - The retailer I used. They're not the cheapest, but they're fairly close to me and their customer service was great when I was placing my first order.
http://www.cigarettetobacco.com/ - D&R's website. Great tobacco, horribly outdated page. It's only good for the phone number, as half the stuff they carry isn't listed. Best prices around, though.
http://ryorevolution.com/d_r-tobaccos.html - The official list of all D&R's tobaccos.
http://forum.ryorevolution.com/ - A great forum for reading reviews on tubes, tobacco, and machines.
