$12.65 (in Oklahoma) will buy a weeks worth (1 pack+ a day) of American Spirit tobacco in bulk tins. Approximately $3.00 will buy a 250 count box of filtered paper tubes. Your net cost for a week's worth of additive free cigarettes is about $14.00. I use a small inexpensive plastic machine to fill the tubes. I have been doing this for over four years and a day's worth of cigarettes can be rolled in about 15 minutes each evening while reading on line or watching the international news on French TV.
Cigarettes are now about $8.00 US per pack in France. I get a 2 or 3 months supply of the American Spirit sent to me every other month or so. It is light so the freight cost is not bad - and my regular "care packages" from home also contain books, jeans and other items that are criminally priced over here, especially after the VAT.
Items sent to me from the states via US Post, Priority International Mail arrive in 6 or 7 days and are not charged duty. I estimate that the postage averages out to about another $4.00 a week to my smokes, but I am still way ahead of the Euro game.
Today, I ordered a batch of Virginia and Maryland tobacco seeds from a source in the UK. I am going to try my hand at home grown this summer. I am also going to acquire some nicotiana rustica seeds (the much more potent choice of South American shamans). I have also been reading up on proper tobacco curing procedures. Not much to it if you don't get in a hurry.
One more act of self sufficiency. One less attachment to the grid.
BTW Deckard, cabriolets are much more expensive than sedans to manufacture these days. The sophisticated power top motors and folding hinged framework are not inexpensive, but the biggest cost is incurred in stiffening the chassis, to compensate for the loss of rigidity that the missing overhead superstructure afforded.