I agree with the others, it would be hard to give up smoking meat...it's not only a hobby, but a passion or as my wife calls it, my obsession. Local BBQ joints are selling sliced brisket for $15 a pound and chopped for $12. So a typical 12# brisket will yield 6 pounds of meat...$2.98 per pound at the grocery, which doubles the end cost to $5.96, plus supplies (fuel, rub, sauce, etc), but even if that adds another $1 per pound and it doesn't, then you are still only at $7.00 a pound, less than half the cost of store bought. My time is only factored in to smoking meat when I am reselling the product which I do during the holidays, if I'm just cooking for the family, I'm usually also doing other chores around the house, so I'm actually multitasking while smoking. As jarjar stated, I like to run a full smoker, you'll rarely find me cooking just one brisket or butt, it's usually full, so that lowers the cost of the fuel per pound also, plus all the leftovers get vac sealed and froze for future use. Nothing like being able to reheat some great meats in 15 minutes after a long day at work.