Why Quit Smoking?

Ok, so you have heard all about the health consequences of smoking, but you don’t care because you enjoy smoking. Why not consider a different angle, like the cost of smoking and maybe this can help you commit and quit. A different look at breaking the habit is this: stop smoking to save money. Quitting smoking should be an important part of your personal stimulus package.

Admit it, smoking is a relatively pricey habit or vice. Aside from the fact that it could easily cost you $10-20 a day if you smoke more than 20 cigarettes or more than one pack, it also gives you so much hassle when you have to go out in the middle of the night to get your stick.

Twenty dollars a day is a lot. In a week, that’s about $140-enough to buy you a new digital camera. Are you really willing to throw away all that cash for something that just burn away, literally?

This recession gives us lots of reasons to quit smoking:

• If you have lost your job, it’s time to quit smoking. You can’t afford not to.
• If you don’t have a fully funded 8 to 12 month emergency fund, stop smoking and build up your emergency fund.
• If you have any credit card debt, one of the fastest ways to pay it down is the quit smoking and use that money to get out of debt.If you want to quit and find it very hard to do so, why not focus on something you need to purchase like your kids shoes or tuition.

Even if you are on solid ground financially, you need to spend your money wisely. Think of something you really want. A designer watch, new golf bag, or a new pair of shoes? How about a new laptop or even a motorbike? You may even want to take a trip, backpack across Europe or an Asian cruise. Consider donating some on the money you save to a food shelf or homeless shelter, to help families in your community who are suffering during this recession.

What you can do is to put your cigarette money in a cookie jar or a shoe box that you have sealed so that you will avoid getting tempted to get money from it. Religiously deposit your daily cigarette budget on your piggy bank or cookie jar. If you are a heavy smoker, you will probably need to bank this money every week or so. Before you know it, you would have enough money for whatever it is that you want to buy.

Saving instead of smoking may prove more beneficial than just teaching you a thing or two about saving money. At the end of the year, you would be $3000-6000 richer and you did not even notice it. It’s like getting a raise, quitting smoking makes more money available for things you and your family need. Unlike getting a raise, your taxes will not go up. In fact you will be paying less tax, because you won’t be paying state and federal tobacco taxes.

Aside from saving money by quitting, you will add years to your life. Yes, quitting can be really hard. As a matter of fact, quitting and committing to staying ’smoke-free’ may prove harder. But in these trying times, this is an ideal time to quit once and for all.