Now, let's do the numbers:
Number of cigarettes I would have smoked between April 3, 2009 and today, had I not stopped smoking on that date: 9,900.
Amount of money saved: $1,765.50.
Back when I was a smoker, it seemed like NOBODY else smoked. Once I quit, I saw smokers EVERYWHERE. And it seemed to me that a lot more poor people smoked than better-off people.
So I did a little bit of research, and sure enough, it's true: Poor people are more likely to smoke. Something about being socially disenfranchised. I don't know, but it seems like a pretty piss-poor decision to buy a pack of smokes when your kids are dressed in tattered clothes. I mean, COME ON.
Oops, there I go, being all judge-y there. All I know is, that's seventeen hundred bucks that I would not have right now if I hadn't kicked the habit when I did. And no, I'm not going to go back and try and figure out how much I blew on cigarettes over my thirty-year smoking career, 'cause than I'll feel like an even bigger idiot. Kids: DON'T START.
Moving on ......
5 comments:
awww! Thanks! <3 And congrats to you as well! We get to celebrate your one year very soon. :)
Hooray for you!
I never understood the appeal. Maybe it's a family thing, too. We grew up poor and my folks didn't smoke, so I had no desire to. My neighbor and friend's dad smoked like a chimney. I just don't get it.
Then there are multi-millionaire celebrities that smoke.
Now there are days when I'd love to pick up a pipe and try it. Just that smell ... mmmm.
I second the pipe comment. Yum!
As for the correlation between income and smoking, I'm not surprised. I could be judgemental and say that poor decision-making is the cause of both smoking and being poor, but I do think there's more to it. Maybe the jobs and family/social circles that people who are lower-income tend to have are more accpeting of the habit.
At any rate, congratulations again! $1,700 would easily pay for a semester and probably two semesters of full-time study at a community college--I say this because I wonder how many parents are smokers out there who want to help their kids go to college...
My dad was a chain smoker, so I literally grew up in a cloud of smoke. Of me and my five siblings, six kids total, four of us were long-time smokers. That's down to one now.
We may be slow learners, but we do learn!
My dad smoked for the first 12 years of my life, the younger kids were still just babies when he quit. I am the only smoker out of 5 kids. So I think it has a lot to do with family hitory. Each generation passing down the habit.
Congrats on your success!
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