I think the relevant questions for you are a) how often do you smoke, and b) what do you consider a "reasonable price"?
As redglow said, this is (or can be) an amazingly affordable hobby. A 50 gram tin of tobacco will give you something on the order of 17 bowls. Yes, I know the average bowl size varies, as does the cut of various tobaccos, but 3 grams per bowl is the usual standard for a slow smoke, and in fact pretty much fills the average bowl.
Tobacco prices vary widely, but 50g tins of high quality tobaccos on sale (and sales on one brand or another are almost constant) generally run $8-12 each; that works out to maybe $0.50 to $0.65 per bowl. According to the survey floating around last week, over half the respondents smoke 1 or less bowls per day on average. I have friends who smoke over a dozen bowls a day; that would add up to a lot over the course of a year, maybe $2k (although still cheap compared to cigarettes). I know others who smoke a couple of times a week; that amounts to pocket change, more like $50-75/year. And if you go with one of the bulks on sale as mentioned above, you can cut those numbers in half or more.
So what's "reasonable" really depends on how often you smoke and your overall budget. I'm in the smoke-rarely camp. I can smoke pretty much whatever I like without regard to price because the absolute number of tins I go through in a typical year is small. YMMV
As redglow said, this is (or can be) an amazingly affordable hobby. A 50 gram tin of tobacco will give you something on the order of 17 bowls. Yes, I know the average bowl size varies, as does the cut of various tobaccos, but 3 grams per bowl is the usual standard for a slow smoke, and in fact pretty much fills the average bowl.
Tobacco prices vary widely, but 50g tins of high quality tobaccos on sale (and sales on one brand or another are almost constant) generally run $8-12 each; that works out to maybe $0.50 to $0.65 per bowl. According to the survey floating around last week, over half the respondents smoke 1 or less bowls per day on average. I have friends who smoke over a dozen bowls a day; that would add up to a lot over the course of a year, maybe $2k (although still cheap compared to cigarettes). I know others who smoke a couple of times a week; that amounts to pocket change, more like $50-75/year. And if you go with one of the bulks on sale as mentioned above, you can cut those numbers in half or more.
So what's "reasonable" really depends on how often you smoke and your overall budget. I'm in the smoke-rarely camp. I can smoke pretty much whatever I like without regard to price because the absolute number of tins I go through in a typical year is small. YMMV
