I quit in 1964. I was in the USN in Morocco and cigarettes cost 11 cents a pack at the Navy Exchange. We got ration chits that allowed us to buy up to a carton a week. My fear of the health consequences far outweighed the craving of that next cigarette. The Surgeon General said smoking caused heart disease and lung cancer. That was enough to convince me to quit. I gave the ration chits to my buddies until I discovered they were selling the extra cartons they bought on the local black market which was highly illegal. They never got caught as far as I knew. Luckies and menthols were the favorite.

These days, we compare the cost of everything unnecessary or bad for us that we could avoid buying (it used to be cigarettes) to the really important things in life like a case of German NA beer for me, a nice bottle of wine for the wife or a gallon of gas. How many cases, bottles and gallons could we buy with the money we saved?