Since I began writing this series I have broken a lot of bad habits, but there is one that has lingered where others have been defeated. It’s my biggest money-stupid habit that I haven’t shared: I am a smoker.
Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be a rant about the dangers of smoking. We all know about the huge long-term risks of being a smoker and that it kills people. For me to be judgmental would be extremely hypocritical. I think everyone has the right to smoke a cigarette or cigar every now and then, including myself, no matter how badly the government tries to demonize “social smoking”. This post is about the personal decision I’ve made to quit one of my daily bad habits, and save myself money while doing so.
I have been planning on quitting for weeks now, and have been putting it off for one reason or another. I was too busy significantly improving other parts of my life to deal with the added challenge of dropping a chemically-addictive long-term habit. I kicked my plan into action last week, when I started tracking my spending and realized that smoking was eating up all of my entertainment money. This made me think realistically about how much money I spend on cigarettes per week, and what that adds up to over the year.
I spend about $1600 a year on this one bad habit.
My cigarette consumption varies from day to day but, on average, I spend about $30 per week on cigarettes. I’ve always had a taste for the more expensive brands and I never bought cartons, hence the higher cost. (Re: the cartons — yes, it’s cheaper to buy in bulk. I always assumed, however, that if I had more than a pack lying around the house at a given time I would just be encouraged to smoke even more, which would be counterproductive to saving money.)
I’m not quitting just because I’m watching my money and spilling my secrets. That type of motivation would lead to inevitable failure. That’s also the reason why quitting smoking wasn’t on my list of New Year’s resolutions. I’m quitting (and writing about it) because I am finally just ready to move on and make this significant change.
I don’t plan on quitting my bad habit cold turkey. I know for a fact I don’t have the self-control to drop a 10-year habit without weening myself off of it a bit because I’ve tried cold turkey before. My plan is to cut down. I have also gone the gradual reduction route before and failed, so I’m going to treat my smoking habit with the same tactic I’ve used to defeat my bad spending habits: ruthless control, planning, and accountability.
Rather than a vague “I’ll smoke less each week” promise, I am going to set myself a cigarette budget. My next payday is on Friday, and on that day I will buy 2 packs of cigarettes. These cigarettes are going to stay in my house (in which I do not smoke) and I will take 3 per day out of the pack before I leave my house. When the 3 are gone, that’s it for the day. When the two packs are gone, I will buy one last pack from which I will take no more than 1 cigarette per day. This final pack will be my last pack ever. By the time February is over I will officially be a non-smoker.
I’m looking forward to having a bit of extra cash each week to put towards my other bad habits, like drinking. Plus, that $30 per week may come in handy if I gain 20 pounds and no longer fit into my clothing as a result of quitting. Just the thought is making me chew my fingernails (oh look, another bad habit). Thankfully, my workplace benefits do cover massage therapy, so perhaps I’ll replace cigarettes with soothing muscular relaxation until the desire to smoke is totally out of my system. Either way I will keep everyone posted on how I’m doing. Once I’ve slayed this beast, stay tuned for some of my other bad habits, which I’m sure will rear their ugly heads during this challenge.
Good luck! I hear that it is really hard to quit smoking. Why not take the money you save from quitting smoking and throw it at your debt to bring in the debt free date a bit?
Thanks Leigh! I think maybe I will take half of the cigarette money and put it straight towards my debt. One of the big problems is that now that my budget is tighter (I recently moved and pay more bills) I found that all of my spending money was going to cigarettes. So, that would be about an extra $60 per month on my debt, and and “extra” $60 per month for me. I will have to see how it goes.
Good luck, Sara. I have done this one – giving up smoking – a number of times. Last time was over six years ago and different – I have no identity as a smoker any longer so it is not emotionally tempting (saying this because I sometimes joke that when I am 75 I’ll take it up again). To get there I went to an Easyway Clinic workshop (here in the UK but I think they operate worldwide); the founder Allen Carr also had books on how to do it – worth a try.
Thanks Maria, I really hope it sticks this time! Our community does have some quit smoking resources (though I haven’t checked them out yet). I’m hoping the cutting down will work, but if I find that I”m craving more than my budgeted cigarettes everyday I am definitely going to see what is out there.
I wish you all the best in your quest to quit smoking. It’s a brutal dependency to break. Don’t hesitate to resort to chemicals to break the habit if you have to – there’s lots of help nowadays.
And while you’re doing the accounting, don’t forget that 365 days after you’ve quit entirely you can requalify with your life insurance and roughly cut yourpremiums in half!
Thanks for the support, hopefully I won’t have to go the chemical route, but I am determined to quit this time so if I am having too much trouble when I get to that final pack I will have to check out my options.
Hey Sara, good luck, and I say that more for your long-term health than from a financial perspective. Some things are way more important than money and your health is one of them.
I have never been a smoker, but I have many relatives that do and I know how hard it is for them to quit. I’m not sure if the patch or that gum could be of any assistance, or how expensive they are, but may worth a go.
It is one of those cruelties of life that people tend to gain weight after doing something as healthy as giving up smoking, but there are tips to reduce the ‘something in my mouth’ (don’t be rude) cravings that come with cigarette withdrawal online. And hopefully you’ll get some exercise and healthy eating in with quitting and getting your financial life in order; honestly when you have a good financial life you’d be amazed that the other aspects like health and career and family/friends fall into place.
I’m starting to make myself a little sick here with the cliches and smug stuff, but really, good luck to you! Oh, one more cliche: One day at a time.
Thanks Adam! I love a good cliche. The real reason I am quitting is the impact on my health, but seeing as this is a PF blog I wanted to look at it from a cash perspective. I’m not too worried about weight gain, honestly. That paragraph was mostly a joke, lol. I live a fairly healthy lifestyle filled with good home cooked food with lots of veggies and a respectable amount of exercise. I have heard cinnamon gum is pretty good for cravings and the whole “something in the mouth” thing, so I will probably try that.
Sara, Best of luck! I’m sad to say that my smoking habit is costing me about $2000 a year. Aside from the health impact it’s killing me financially. I know I have to quit and like you, I’ve been procrastinaing. I’m gathering my resolve and intend to quit, cold turkey (if using the patch counts as cold turkey). My quit date is 1/17/13. I’m keeping track of thispost so I can report back on my progress!
It is really brutal when you realize that so much of what would otherwise be fun money is going up in smoke (literally). I really hope we are both able to kick this habit! Check back in for sure to let us know how you’re doing!
You seem very intentional about quitting and committed, too. Good luck and if there’s anything I can do to help let me know.
We are coming up for one year smoke-free at the end of January. I won’t say it was super easy but after the first couple months it was a smooth ride. Looking back it was the best decision I made for my health and wallet. You can read all about our journey as I blogged about it along the way in a series. Never give it, the other side feels amazing! Mr.CBB
I’m confident that if I can just climb that six-week mountain it should be smooth sailing from there. Thanks for the support, and I will definitely check out your series when I’m feeling shaky!
I quit May 18, 1997 (but who’s counting?) through cutting down and then with a firm quit date. It was the Victoria Day long weekend and I went freaking snaky even despite the cutting down. I’m not gonna lie, at first I lost weight (a gallon a day of broccoli and cauliflower will do that) from ~ 130 to 125 and then I promptly gained about 30 pounds once I decided that since I was so good about not smoking, I should be able to eat whatever I wanted and not have to do my daily run anymore if I didn’t feel like it. Weird. I’ve read that the smoking substitutes (the fake cigarettes at the convenience stores) are good. Sometimes what smokers do is to use it to breathe deeply. I practically hyperventilated when I quit and it helped since smoking really is a good stress reliever, due in part I believe to the breathing.
Good luck to you! You’re getting control over yourself and that’s a wonderful thing. Oh – here’s the mantra I would say to myself and I hope it helps “I’m a puff away from a pack a day.” Although I never smoked a pack a day, for some reason it helped to know that I could easily get addicted again if I gave in just once. It was much harder to do back then since you could smoke in bars and restaurants and almost everyone I knew smoked. Nowadays, it’s a pariah activity which is probably a good thing.
I definitely have to keep that in mind. Whenever I had quit in the past I always ended up starting up again because I was just having one or two, next thing I knew I was back to half a pack a day.
Unfortunately, I am around smokers a lot. It’s more common than not in my office for sure. The challenge will be finding something to do during break times to distract myself from wanting to follow my coworkers outside.
Go for a walk Sara! At the time I quit, I had Wayne fricking Grezky’s brother Glen asking me to go for a smoke with him (one of my BFF’s at the time). Great guy, but I was like “NO, get thee behind me Satan! I’m on a mission!”
Everyone on my baseball team etc. seemed to smoke too. It was hard. You have to take a pitying attitude to them. Extra easy for you since it’s winter – right?
Quitting smoking must be much harder in my area because smokes are incredibly inexpensive. There are 2 Indian reservations near my city and they sell bulk bags of smokes. 200 for $25.00. That works out to about 12.5 cents each. Harder to quit because the only real disadvantage is the potencial of future disease.
Never started, can’t stand the smell, don’t want the lip wrinkles.
Yeah, we actually have bagged smokes nearby as well, but I don’t smoke them. Bagged cigarettes tend to be stale and strong and sometimes filled with wood chips. I’ve been smoking for years and I wouldn’t smoke them, so I don’t know if the cost really has much to do with it. A smoker will always find money for cigarettes, no matter how tight things are. I think it has more to do with the heavy habit, and less to do with cost.
Honestly, once you stop smoking for awhile you’re going to start noticing the horrible smell of stale smoke and that will be enough to entice you to never smoke again. My parents smoke and even though they always go outside, they constantly smell of smoke and it’s disgusting. When I lived with them I began to notice that I smelled too and it’s completely unprofessional nowadays to smell like smoke at work and I was constantly embarrassed by it.
So, more $$ in your pocket and better perspective of you professionally — win win!
For the record I’ve known Sara for years and she doesn’t smell like smoke. But I bet she’ll feel healthier.
Good to know I’m not stinky! lol. I think the smell has a lot to do with brand. I’ve noticed the strongest smells tend to come from low end or stale cigarettes, which seem to be stronger. It will be nice for my car to smell fresh however, because even though it never seemed to cling to me the smoke smell most definitely sticks to my car.