Quit Smoking, Save Money

I am celebrating today my 21st 33rd smoke-free day. Yes, I am already three weeks over a month removed from the habit. Last time I stopped smoking, it only lasted two weeks, and it was because I was sick. This time, I am quitting permanently. It’s good to know that my honey has been very supportive of me. And my “yosi” buddies have been very understanding and respectful of my decision.

I quit smoking for several reasons. One of which is to save money, which I could add to my emergency fund. More on that later.

The other is health reasons. I don’t want to waste all my time and health to gain wealth only to spend it to regain health. As the old saying goes, health is wealth. Another reason is I don’t want my better half to have that burden of taking care of me because I didn’t take care of myself. And lastly, it’s a personal decision.

Now, going back to the saving money reason. I went over to dollartimes.com and saw the cigarette cost calculator (shown below). I wondered how much would I save in a year if no longer smoke? On the average, I used to consume 4 sticks a day. There are 365 days in a year and that amounts to 1,460 sticks in a year. A cigarette stick usually costs Php2.00 so that would mean I could save Php2,920 in a year. If it were invested in an instrument that earns 5% annually, I would have an additional Php314,512 to spend for retirement. Now ain’t that great? Who says quitters never win?

Put a Cigarette Costs Calculator on your site!

UPDATE: I have saved approximately Php264 since I started to quit smoking.

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