Ten

First off, it was ten years ago today that the American Civic Association mass-murder happened here in my little town; it's the mass shooting that seemingly everybody forgot about. 

and it was also ten years ago today that I quit smoking. 

Number of cigarettes I would have smoked between April 3, 2009 and today, had I not stopped smoking on that date: 109,200. (!)

Amount of money saved:  $19,527.50. (approximately.  I'm terrible at math.) (Just to clarify: I smoked cheap cigs I bought on line. Had I been buying name-brand smokes at the 7-11, that number would have easily been double. And using today's cost-per-pack, you could triple that amount).  I used a figure of $3.56 a pack, since that's what my cigs cost at the time I quit.

When I quit, ten years ago, I surprised myself at the time.  I figured I wasn't "ready".  I supposed it would be my first attempt, out of many.  But I figured, what the heck, and I gave it a shot.  And to my surprise, it worked!


I always said that when I got my mortgage paid off, if I felt like picking up the habit again, I would, seeing as how my primary reason for quitting was financial.  But that was based on a couple of, as it turns out, false assumptions:  (1) that I would be in my 70s by the time my mortgage was paid off, and (2) that I would have spent the non-smoking years pining away for a smoke.

As it turns out, both of those assumptions were incorrect.  My mortgage will be paid off within the next few months (which I accomplished all by myself, without the help of my sister's estate - I've simply spent the past 10 years making a real effort paying down the mortgage), and I really, really have no desire to smoke again.

So here I am:  Ten years a non-smoker, and glad to be one. :)