Cutting Back

[Annaresti Red]

How often have you decided to "cut back" on your smoking or your cellar, or both?

I'm at a point where I have much more than I could smoke considering I smoke less than once a month. I have only a few of my favorites and i'm considering selling the rest but I wanted to feel out what other people have done in their past.

Anyway, if you've quit and come back, please let me know. Or if you regret/ didn't regret selling your stash

 

[Chasing Embers]

How often have you decided to "cut back" on your smoking or your cellar, or both?

Never. I go through close to two pounds of tobacco per month.

 

[HeavyLeadBelly]

My cellar is at a healthy point for me as I smoke about two bowls a day, sometimes three. I have a few more things to get but should be good.

I think if you’re absolutely sure you want to reduce your cellar, you should sell. Give others the opportunity to try or stock up on things you have that they might want.

Don’t go from cellaring to hoarding.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Less than once a month, and you're thinking about cutting back? Looks to me like you haven;t even started to take this seriously.

I smoke about 10-12 pipes a day, and I try to cut back to five or six.

 

[lukasstrifeson]

I think you'll be surprised how your taste for blends can change pretty drastically over time.

Can't tell you how many tins I've thrown to the back of the cellar, only to rediscover it in a few years and really enjoy the blend.

 

[LeafErikson]

I smoke less than once a month.

I don't intend to come off as mean spirited when I say this, but I wouldn't worry too much about cellaring with how little you smoke.

The average pipe is around 3g worth of tobacco. If you smoked once a month for over 30 years, you would only smoke through 14 tins. Assuming you're 40, you could purchase a lifetime supply of tobacco for around $140 if you purchased bulk blends.

 

[LeafErikson]

My cellar is at a healthy point for me as I smoke about two bowls a day, sometimes three.

This is exactly where I'm at. I used to smoke closer to 3-4 bowls a day but I have since taken more hours at work, and end up smoking a few cigarettes throughout the day in addition to 2ish bowls of the pipe.

 

[elvishrunes]

This almost sounds like a troll post. I currently drink 2 glasses of wine a year, but am thinking of cutting back to just one, should I sell my cellar?

 

[DedHed Piper]

Keep it. If you don’t suddenly feel you want to smoke more often (which is one probability) you will most certainly have a good stash of sellable stuff in the future. And it the future - seeing how tides are turning these days - people will scramble for good or decent tobacco.

 

[Snook]

Not with pipe smoking, but with other hobbies, I've gone through numerous cycles of "I'm done sell everything" only to get back into it later down the road and then have to re-buy said items. I'd say wait six months or a year before you decide if you truly want to sell.

 

[Grangerous]

I have taken entire summer’s off. I’m no slave to nicotine. Typically the first sign of Fall reigns me in and I’ll smoke through the winter.

But in warmer weather? Other than cigars on a summer night with friends or while golfing, I have little interest in smoking anything.

But, then.. most of my interests are cyclical. I’ve always been this way.

I’ve enjoyed my pipes and pipe tobacco for over 30 years. When I return to something it’s like greeting an old friend.

Every one of us is different.

 

[beezer]

I've gone through a few smoking rounds of starting, slowing, stopping....starting, slowing, stopping. I don't have any particular reason for it...it just happened like that. I most recently returned to the pipe after a three year stint of being hooked on Zyn. I still pop pouches, but mix in the occasional pipe to change things up.

During all of these ebbs and flows I kept stockpiling the cellar. I've gone through a few rounds of thinning out the collection and today I wish I hadn't, but the past is the past and I keep stockpiling though my purchase volume has dropped considerably since I have way more than my son and his son could smoke in their lifetimes. Lol.

My personal advice to you would be to keep what you've got and occasionally place an order to build your cellar. The trajectory we are on as a community isn't going to improve...whether talking price, availability, etc.

 

[WirelessSmoke]

The opposite here, I'm trying to ramp up both! Time, space, and sometimes the weather have been my only limitations. Even if I decided tomorrow that it wasn't for me, I think I'd still probably burn through the small stash of tobacco I have myself.

 

[Mr. Stubb]

Pipes are an occasional activity for me and I don't smoke in the cold because I'm not one to sit outside in the cold. I have about one bowl a week and at my pace 8oz can last me a year. I believe that I own 5 years or so of tobacco so I have stopped buying things for now. I would have liked to buy up some Sutliff bulk that I liked but it appears I was too late on that.

 

[The Libertine]

Cutting back is for quitters.

 

[PaulDM]

This thread speaks to me. I restarted pipe smoking in 2019 (right after Mclelland shut down) after a 10 year hiatus - i had one pipe and had been a very occasional smoker decades ago. I got slightly obsessed and within 3-4 years wound up with 90ish unopened tins and about 2 lbs of jarred tobacco and 20ish pipes. I smoked fairly regularly over covid pretty much once a day with occasional breaks.

Over the last few years the smokiny urge has faded. Partly because of health concerns - nothing specific, I worry about oral and esophogeal cancers which are beyond nightmarish. And i just found that i generally feel better - snore less, cough less, better workouts - when I don’t smoke.

Now I haven’t touched a pipe in months. Thinking about selling my higher end pipes and better tins and giving a bunch away. But I will wait and see if the flake rekindles.

I cannot fathom how people smoke multiple pipes a day.

 

[Choatecav]

I generally smoke one bowl a day..... sometimes two.... occasionally, I skip a few days.
Lately it has been very cold and I have not had any.

 

[Annaresti Red]

You all misunderstood. I already cut back smoking from two to three pipes a day - I've been smoking less than once a month over the past 4 months and was more asking about people selling their cellars when they did something similar.

 

[Annaresti Red]

When I was smoking 2-3 bowls a day, i did amass quite a celler. But I can't imagine getting to all this going from 500-1000 bowls a year to 6-12 bowls a year

 

[Annaresti Red]

This almost sounds like a troll post. I currently drink 2 glasses of wine a year, but am thinking of cutting back to just one, should I sell my cellar?

I'm shocked, in all the years I've been here you and Cosmic both usually have great reading and contextual comprehension! I have cut down already to once a month from where i was before - and am thinking about selling, wondering what happened with others who* fluctuated in thier smoking.