Is Filling Your Own Cigarettes Worth It? A Simple Savings Calculation
What are we comparing?
With a store-bought pack, you pay the final retail price. When filling tubes at home, the cost mainly consists of:
- injector tobacco - the cost based on the amount you use,
- filtered cigarette tubes - the cost of each individual tube,
- the cigarette injector - a one-time purchase that can be used for a long time.
Calculation formula
At a typical filling density, one cigarette uses approximately 0.7-0.8 g of tobacco. For an estimate, you can use the midpoint of 0.75 g:
cost per cigarette = (price of tobacco per gram × 0.75) + cost of one tube
Multiply the result by 20 to get the approximate cost of a home-filled pack, then compare it with the price of a store-bought pack.
Example calculation
Prices change, so always use your own current numbers in the formula. Example:
- if 100 g of tobacco costs €10, one gram costs €0.10 and 0.75 g costs about €0.075,
- if 200 tubes cost €4, one tube costs €0.02,
- one home-filled cigarette therefore costs about €0.095, while 20 cigarettes cost about €1.90.
If a store-bought pack costs €5 or more, the difference in this example is more than €3 per pack. At one pack per day, that would amount to roughly €90 per month. This is only an illustrative example because tobacco, tube and cigarette prices vary by country and over time.
When does the injector pay for itself?
The payback period depends on the price of the injector and your actual saving per pack. A manual model can pay for itself relatively quickly with regular use, while an electric model will generally take a little longer. With frequent use, an electric injector can also save a significant amount of time and reduce manual effort.
What else should you consider?
- the first few filling attempts usually require some adjustment, so you may use slightly more tobacco at first,
- with a good-quality injector, the purchase cost can be spread over several years of use,
- for more about the filling technique itself, read Filling Cigarette Tubes: Practical Tips.
If you are not sure which injector is right for your level of use, contact us - we are happy to advise you with no obligation.
