Cigar Budget

[socapots]

I say that if you can afford it stock up big to begin with and put plenty of the good stuff away to age. After, replace what you smoke + a little extra and you will continue to have a good supply of aged cigars on hand. Bite the bullet up front spend the $$ and pull back as time goes on. However, if you are smoking 4 cigars a day and you want to smoke great cigars the only answer may be to get a 2nd job....

This is where I am at right now. On a bit of a freeze for now though.

[polarbear]

It was fairly simple to work out my budget

2/4 of my monthly wages covers my expenses plus a little "lunch money"

1/4 goes into my savings

What ever is left goes into the Wineador.

I recently found a site that has a Trading Room that seems to have a lot of the rare and hard to find Cubans and Non Cubans I've been chasing come up so the above figures have been left by the way side but thats how its meant to work.

With the prospect of buying a house on the horizon all thia crazy buying is going to stop. Hopefully I've got a decent enough stock of cigars to keep me smoking through the "hard times"

[markmurase]

All good things in moderation

'There is moderation even in excess' (Benjamin Disraei)

[Surucipe]

I've read something like this in a book. According to that book, as long as you keep your wife happy with the gifts, there is no limit to purchasing cigars. So, I think the main question has to be "what is your gift budget?"

Anyway, the formula for calculating "gift budget" is:

Gift Budget for Wife= ((Allowed Cigar Purchases+Secret Cigar Purchases/4)/Years Married) x 1.15

Might seem complicated but it is said to work

LOL lots of truth in that! And the good thing about that formula is that it actually increases your cigar buying budget year after year as the gift budget goes down with every added year of marriage...

[Cohiba007]

They say never get cheap shoes or a cheap mattress. I've expanded that to coffee, rum, and cigars.

[mk05]

I count cigars as my vacation. And I tell myself that I should go on vacation every weekend.

[EuroTrash]

lol Some fantastic (and funny) answers in here. I'm starting to think that as long as the bills are covered I shouldn't over think it. I always feel a little guilty when spending on "fun", but what's the point of life if you don't enjoy it.

I'm lucky that the wife doesn't worry too much about what I spend. As long as bills are covered and we get to have a night out once a month she is happy.

[canadianbeaver]

Good time to tell you about my $25 theory, which I came up with when I went into the specialty coffee biz. Since a bag of Jamaican Blue Mountain costs $25, I told potential customers this all the time. This is based on Canadian prices.

$25 =

RFuel Half pound of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee.

A decent Cuban cigar.

A decent bottle of wine.

A couple a great glasses of Scotch at a bar.

A full plate of oysters (maybe 1.5 dozen) at an oyster bar

A decent size filet steak

And if consumer of one is not only is interested in it, and buys the it on a regular basis they will know about and buy the other.

[Strick28]

When husband and wife smoke, one does not have to convince the other.

Most definetly...I also notice you said 3-4 cigars a day. I did that long ago and cheap smokes. Now its quality over quantity and I make sure I have time to sit and enjoy. If a day or 2 goes by with no cigar then so be it...

[1LegLance]

Well as someone who has been smoking for over 25yrs I have seen my budget so up, down and denied.

For me it depends on how many people new to habanos I am around as I will often buy a box of something just for them to try a stick or two out of. Now of course it will be something I also enjoy but might not have gotten otherwise.

Also when working outside or driving around I enjoy Jose Piedra's as they are cheap and I won't be paying full attention to the stick anyway.

Lucky for me I burned out on the special stuff back in 2000/01 and now don't buy anything LE/RE on pure principle....sick of them cutting the good regular stuff while coming out with limited sticks all the time.

So to give a basic idea....I buy 2-4 boxes a month, I smoke 1-2 sticks a day with 3-4 a day on weekends.

Lastly I do box splits pretty often and that can help when you get something on impulse or something you only wanted a few sticks of.

[cognacscotchcigars]

No need to smoke Cohiba every day. There are plenty of cheapies out there with plenty of taste that I have no doubt you can enjoy so long as you are not worried about what band is on the cigar. You can't smoke the band after all. There are plenty of very tasty cigars under $5 out there in the CC and NC world.

X2

[android]

I don't want for much...

I have more than enough to last the rest of my life

[ironpeddler]

I wish I had the will power to create a budget and then stick to it. I'm worthless & weak when it comes to a new release or something you guys start raving about...if it sounds like it's in my taste wheelhouse, I just buy it.

It's because of this flawed buying habit that I have so many unopened boxes of cigars stashed all over the place....but then again, when I do forget I bought the box, some extra age never hurts when finally rediscover them when playing High Level Tetris in my humidors and coolers,

[oldirtyewok]

Budget??? Whats that?

seomtimes thats how i feel when LFTW is on. But unfortunately (or fortunately depending how you look at it), my pockets aren't deep enough to have that care free attitude towards cigars. Other more important responsibilities tend to get in the way, like diapers and milk!

[Orion21]

My budget is dictated by my storage....

Meaning, when my available storage is full I stop buying. When I make room I fill it back up. Since I don't constantly increase my storage capacity that means I'm on a budget, right????

[laficion]

Budget??? Whats that?

I like this one !!!!!!!!! That' what I keep telling my wife.

[thechenman]

The amount of money I spend can admittedly sometimes get out of hand. I buy both CC and NC, and according to my wife...in excess. As much as i would like to be, I'm not a daily cigar smoker. I'm happy to get two in a week. I've been trying to limit myself to one box a month as I've got about 150 boxes of cigars at present. I've been fighting to the urge to go up to 2 boxes a month...one NC and one CC. It's a tough battle...like fighting an addiction. Lol...

[Pilgrims]

My budget (as for wine) is governed purely by access to a credit card and what I feel I can justify to myself (in other words the Wife!!)

[bugman78629]

whenever I get to the point where im eating ramen for dinner & following it with a cohiba...i know it's time to scale things back

LMFAO........

[sactochris]

My New Years resolution for 2013 was to order a box of CC's every month. I jumped the gun and ordered a box in December, and have so far stuck to my plan. This does not include the per diem I receive from the two cigar shops I work for in Northern California.

[CanuckSARTech]

How do you guys keep your cigar spending in check?...

I don't. (as long as my gawdang credit card companies don't lock my cards for "unauthorized spending"!!!!)

Just don't tell my wife.

When husband and wife smoke, one does not have to convince the other.

Ahhhhh, must learn of your ways, oh wise one.

Just don't tell my wife.

They say never get cheap shoes or a cheap mattress. I've expanded that to coffee, rum, and cigars.

Agreed. You can't put a price on pleasure sometimes. Life's too short for it. On the other hand, there's plenty of good cigars to be had for the around-about or under-$5 a stick price, Cohiba and otherwise. Lots of pleasurable experiences around in CC's at any price level.

Just don't tell my wife. She'll extend that to shoes and purses.

whenever I get to the point where im eating ramen for dinner & following it with a cohiba...i know it's time to scale things back

Did that in the 90's. Fun stuff. Was drinking no-name rum and PC cola, straight from the bottles, 'cause I couldn't afford the good stuff, and buying red cups was a "luxury spend". LOL.

Just don't tell my wife about any of the above. Or....it'll come around again!

[dvickery]

never had a budget...number of cigars I buy depends on how many trips to Havana each year and success finding/recruiting mules...never the same two years in a row.

this being said...works out to about +1000 cigars in my stash every 3 years(I have 1000 more than 3 years ago and will have 1000 more than I have today in 3 years time).

patience

derrek

[Phillys]

I say that if you can afford it stock up big to begin with and put plenty of the good stuff away to age. After, replace what you smoke + a little extra and you will continue to have a good supply of aged cigars on hand. Bite the bullet up front spend the $$ and pull back as time goes on. However, if you are smoking 4 cigars a day and you want to smoke great cigars the only answer may be to get a 2nd job....

I like this line of reasoning, that is the route I took. As for budget, I try to only spend what I can afford to burn (pun intended), I try to only buy a box a month but seems like 2013 has already passed by and am now well into 2014.

[nikesupremedunk]

Some of the responses in here are hilarious...

I like Orion's idea though. I have a big tupperware that I use and have maybe 350-400 cigars at the moment. I thought of expanding it as it's almost filled to the brim but that would only mean increase in cigar budget. I have to smoke some of my stash to make some room, combine some half empty boxes, and play some tetris to make some room before I can buy more cigars.

However, this won't really help me with buying 5'ers and samplers as they don't come in a box!

[mash]

I say that if you can afford it stock up big to begin with and put plenty of the good stuff away to age. After, replace what you smoke + a little extra and you will continue to have a good supply of aged cigars on hand. Bite the bullet up front spend the $$ and pull back as time goes on. However, if you are smoking 4 cigars a day and you want to smoke great cigars the only answer may be to get a 2nd job....

This was my approach. I'd rather age myself, and know what the conditions are. Also, it has allowed me to sample every few months, and figure out if/when I feel a box has plateaued.