It is not only souls that can be saved by buying into lent but a whole bucketload of cash.
The most common things people are likely to abstain from over the 40 days that lie ahead are fags, booze, chocolate and sugar - either in the form of sweets or in the granulated form that gets shovelled into tea or coffee.
To the list you might also add crisps, takeaways, coffee and a whole host of other little things that bring momentary joy but at a cost.
But how much could you save if you were to take the Lenten message of abstinence and fasting very seriously? Loads is the simple answer.
Someone who smokes a packet of cigarettes a day will save themselves a not-too-shabby €400 between now and Easter Sunday if they knock the habit on the head. Not only that but their clothes will smell better, their health will improve and if you manage to stay off the smokes for 40 days and 40 nights there is a good chance that you will be able to quit the habit.
And bear in mind that when you give up smoking the whole world is rooting for you. Except, of course, for smokers who will, whether they admit it or not, be hoping you fail.
Fact.
Next up we have booze. According to the OECD, the average Irish person over the age of 15 drinks 11 litres of pure alcohol each year. Such a stat is grand for the boffins in the OECD but it is not too helpful for a normal person so we’d best break it down. 11 litres of alcohol works out at 41 litres of vodka, 116 bottles of wine or 445 pints of lager every year.
That works out at 1.2 pints a day so over the course of Lent the average Irish person who continues to drink at an average pace will drink 49 pints and at a fiver a pop, the cost comes in at €244.
A person who is partial to the odd – or, truth be told, regular bar of chocolate will save another €40 by giving up until Easter Sunday (although they might eat into their savings if they splurge on an Easter Egg for the big day).
Coffee lovers can make big savings. There are 31 working days between now and Easter so a person who has two takeaway coffees on each such day between now and then (not including weekends, St Patricks’s Day or Good Friday) will spend €155. Or not if they give it up.
Give up your auld cola drinks and you will save another €45 while taking out the takeaway ahead of a night in watching Dancing with the Stars will easily save you another €80.
If you go veggie for the Lenten season you will see your weekly shopping bills fall by at least €20 which will add another €80 into your pot while cutting out all other treats and random in-app purchases made on your phone will save you – by our casual estimates – another €40.
So where does that leave that impressively acetic soon-to-be-ex smoker who gives up almost every thing else that might bring a modicum of joy into their lives?
It leaves them €1,084 better off, that’s where. And – because they’ve given up the fags – they’ll live a whole lot longer too.
Or maybe it will just seem that way.
