As you prepare to quit smoking you calculate how much you spend but that’s not the real cost of smoking.
Smoking is not only cigarette and a lighter. Your gains from quitting smoking will be much larger than that and I’m not talking about spiritual and health here. So what is the real cost of smoking?
The first part of this calculation is cigarettes. This Is the easiest to calculate expense as you can feel it every time you go into store to buy a pack or a whole carton.
I smoked for over a decade but I bought cigarettes by the carton only few times and only when I was going on a long vacation. It would have been cheaper and it did make more sense. Still I always bought only single packs of cigarettes.
Now that I look at it I guess my reason was that I always said to myself that I shouldn’t buy a carton as I might decide to quit smoking. I kept this optimism for over a decade.
Cigarettes are the most visible and, at least at the beginning, largest expense of your smoking habit.
I did my calculations only after I quit and only these direct expenses for buying cigarettes were exactly what I was spending on my car.
As large as your expenses buying cigarettes are, they are not what you are spending on smoking.
The real cost of smoking appears only when you start to consider the impact nicotine addiction has on your health. Again, I’m not talking about the spiritual losses.
I used to get bronchitis every year. Actually I would be ill for two weeks, twice a year plus up to four times I would get common cold. Yes, it sucked to be ill but it also had a direct impact on my wallet.
Unfortunately I wasn’t paid to be ill. I’m sure there are people who have such fetish websites. I’m not one of them so every time I was ill I had to buy medication, go to see a doctor. My poor wallet was taking a beating.
Calculate this into your list of money you are going to save. It is not only medication. You are missing work and this is another way how you are losing due to your nicotine addiction.
Some employers aren’t very happy about smokers because they are ill more often and they take more brakes.
It might be that you smelling of cigarettes during the job interview actually cost you that job.
You probably heard about employers encouraging their workers to quit smoking by giving them additional holiday days or bonuses.
They do this not because they care about your health. They do this because your smoking is costing them money. You can be sure that all cigarette brakes and all those sick leaves are being noted.
You are considering two candidates for a promotion. Both are performing more or less the same but one is a smoker. He or she has been already been ill few times and every time you look at her/his desk it seems that he/she is either away on a smoke brake, coming back or going for a break.
Who would you choose?
And that’s the problem with that advice to calculate how much you spend on smoking. You are spending a lot of money on cigarettes but that’s not the full cost you are paying for your habit.
The real cost of smoking is much higher and it involves money you spend on medication and the missed opportunities.
When you quit smoking don’t get your hopes up that you will be saving as much as you calculated.
I didn’t but I was spending money on the things I enjoy.
Be honest with yourself, you don’t enjoy the cigarette. It actually tastes like burning manure and it makes you stressed and anxious.
You are only feeding your nicotine addiction and trust me, you can spend your money in a much more fun way.
Think about it, depending on how much you smoke and how much cigarettes cost in your area – you quitting smoking might mean a free car for you.