One Year Smoke Free
Posted on: March 17, 2009 by Matt
Today marks one year of being smoke free for me! I quit smoking last year as I found myself smoking for the sake of having something to do. My lungs hurt and I was spending a fair amount of money on a pack every other day habit. I took a minute and ran some numbers through the online calculators out there and discovered that I saved anywhere from $900 – $2,000 by not smoking last year.
The savings range is based on a $5 per pack price for the cigarettes and me smoking anywhere from 10 cigarettes a day on the low side to 25 on the high. In addition – my health has improved quite a bit over the past year as well. I breathe easier, sleep better and even have been less winded at the gym.
All said and done – quitting smoking is probably one of the best moves I have made in a long time. My quality of life has increased and I have saved a fair amount of money that I spent on a habit that was killing me.
For anyone else out there trying to quit, good luck to you and keep in mind that it is not easy but the long term rewards are much greater than the immediate nicotine fix.
Congrats! I know how hard quitting something like that can be. Recently, I cut WAY back on my soda intake. Where once I spent $5 a day, I now spend that amount once ever 5 or 6 days. Hopefully, I will be able to quit altogether by the end of the year.
Yes, way to go…. I was a smoker once too…. thank god I quit while I was still pretty young. And like Covered Calls above, I stopped drinking soda two years ago as well. Unfortunately, it’s still possible to gain weight, so I guess you have to keep cutting things out.
BTW, are you on Twitter? Look me up: @MoneyEnergy
Thanks for all the support! I guess I am in the same boat as a lot of people. I have given up so far:
- Drinking
- Smoking
- Rarely drink soda
- Working on eating better as well.
Not so much for money savings but largely to improve my health and quality of living. I was drinking enough that I felt like I was about 20 years older than I am. Stopping coupled with going to the gym and picking up other healthy habits has helped me turn around in all areas of life.
Not on Twitter for the moment but considering it. I have an account but do not use it just because I know it will cut into my workday more than my blogging!
Congrats!!! On March 20th it will be 15 years since I quit!!!
Jan – Free and Healing for Eight Months, Thirteen Days, 10 Hours and 18 Minutes, while extending my life expectancy 35 Days and 14 Hours, by avoiding the use of 10257 nicotine delivery devices that would have cost me $3,939.09.
Pretty neat, huh?
Flo – congrats to you too! That is awesome!
Jan – I think I have used that calculator before as well but could not find it. Of course they do not tell you how many days you shaved off of your life from smoking all those nasty things though… Guess some things are better left unsaid.
It’s called QuitCounter and I got it from whyquit.com which is a fabulous site! Go for it.
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