I suppose not everyone who is addicted to nicotine smokes a pack per day, I assume once addicted to X concentration of nicotine in their blood one could maintain that concentration to ward off withdrawal symptoms. So perhaps one might smoke 5 cigarettes per day.
It’s still expensive, my aunt smokes a pack or so per day… also minimum wage here is higher than it is in the US (because everything here is prohibitively expensive lol)