I know it’s awfully early in the morning, but I’ve been up for two hours and I’m on my second cup of coffee, so I shouldn’t strain anything trying to do some math. If you’re going to play along at home, please stretch first. I don’t want you hurting yourself, and numbers can do that to you.

The tax on cigarettes goes up $1.00 today in Florida. That’s on top of the increase in the Federal tax that has been in place since April.

The first increase prompted me to go from my regular brand to the generic brand that, I believe, is manufactured from the sweepings around the “good” cigarette machines and grass clippings. As of today those cheap cigarettes will cost just over $4/pack, over half of that in various taxes (which tells you just how cheap those generics are).

I’ve told you in the past that I’m a bit of a numbers geek. I spend about half of my work day immersed in an excel spread sheet. And I like it. That’s the background. This morning I ran the numbers on my habit.

At the end of a week, July 7th, I will have saved $28, almost enough for a family run through McDonalds.

When we get to the end of July I will have saved $124, about the equivalent of an extra day of work without the drive, conference calls, and complaining.

Lets move out a little further. School starts around here on August 24th. I can have an extra $220 in my pocket. Who wouldn’t like that? Of course, with what it takes to equip three for school, my pocket will still be empty.

My birthday falls on Thanksgiving day this year. If I put all of the money that I save away (an if that isn’t going to happen) I could have $596. That’s a lot of turkey and cranberry sauce.

By Christmas eve, just in time to do my shopping, I could have $708 to take on my frantic dash through the empty-shelved stores that are going to close in just a few minutes. Either that, or I could buy a whole lot of presents at the nearest gas-n-shop.

Finally, in a year from now (making the probably inaccurate assumption that prices won’t go up any further) I could save, are you ready for this, $1460!

Dude, I’m getting a Dell.