When I joined the service I would get 4 cartons of Pall Malls on payday. Back then that cost me $8. I was a pack a day smoker. The 4th carton was for friends at the end of the month who didn’t think ahead.
I got a meal plan for my daughter at college that would have fed an athlete. I did that so that if she or her friends made money mistakes they could eat without being beggars. I was a starving student myself.
I forgot what they cost when I served, but at the PX in our embassy, it was $10 a carton for Marlboros, and a single pack could usually get you just about anywhere in Moscow by taxi.