I used to spend A LOT of money on cigarettes. When I quit smoking I was up to about a pack and a half every day. There are 20 cigarettes-per-pack for those of you that don’t smoke and aren’t familiar with how many cigarettes are in a pack, so I was up to about 30 a day. There’s a handy calculator app out there called ‘QuitNow’ that tells you how much money you’ve saved since you quit smoking cigarettes, and according to that app I’ve saved approximately $17,979 since quitting 9 years ago (2989 days to be exact). With that in mind I’ve got ABSOLUTELY NOTHING on (1) how much this chick was smoking, (2) how much money she was spending on cigarettes, and (3) how much money she’s now saving after quitting smoking.
Paula Garnett is a 59-year-old woman from North Wales who was spending more money each month on cigarettes than she was on her own home mortgage. Paula was smoking 80 cigarettes per day, spending roughly $540/month (£370) to feed her addiction. Meanwhile Paula’s home mortgage only cost her ~$500/month (£345). Annually Paula Garnett was spending roughly $6,500 on cigarettes (£4,440)…
Now let’s talk about how much of Paula’s day was spent actually smoking. The general consensus is that (on average) it takes about 5 minutes to smoke one cigarette. Paula Garnett, mother of 5, grandmother of 26, and great grandmother of 17 was smoking 80 cigarettes per day. That’s 400 minutes every day that Paula spent sucking down girts, or 6 hours and 40 minutes of non-stop smoking while Paula was awake. Assuming that Paula gets 8 hours of sleep per night and is awake the other 16 hours then that means there was less than 10 hours a day in which Paula wasn’t smoking a cigarette (while she was awake).
Her son Tony, 33, did the maths for her, when cigarettes were under a fiver a packet.
“We were talking about what things cost and my son Tony calculated that it was costing more to buy my cigarettes than to pay the mortgage.
“Since I quit I’ve found there’s money in my purse for things I want to buy.”
Paula was spending around £4,440 ($6,500) a year on her habit.
It took a while for it to sink in, but Paula stubbed out her last fag in September 2014 and hasn’t touched one since.
Widowed Paula has five children, 26 grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren.
She started smoking when she was 12, copying her mum and dad as well as being encouraged to try it by her friends – something she has since regretted.
The 59-year-old started her habit on 10 cigarettes a day, which grew to a staggering 80 a day at its peak, with her habit costing her £348 per month – more than she paid on the mortgage on her semi-detached home.
She said: “My cravings when I was quitting were for sweets and chocolate.
“It’s been a bit of a struggle but I feel 100 per cent better for it. My hair and clothes don’t smell of smoke, I always have money in my purse and I’m a lot more relaxed.
NO SHIT your clothes don’t smell of smoke. And not only is there no smell of cigarettes on them but she can actually smell things for the first time in decades. This is actually what blew my mind the most after I quit smoking, how quickly I regained an acute sense of smell. When you’re chain smoking you don’t notice that you’ve lost your sense of smell, it’s almost as if your brain shuts down your personal awareness of that sense. But within two weeks of quitting smoking I began smelling everything again, to the point that when I moved to NYC the smell of the street vendors was overwhelming and nauseating at times because I hadn’t smelled anything that strong in years.
I quit with a combination of Chantix + a shot administered by a local doctor. The shot was basically 50% Benadryl and 50% whatever the active ingredient in Dramamine is, and holy shit did it work. I went from not being able to go more than 10 minutes at a bar without lighting up to walking away from cigs forever. I was out at a bar the very next night after getting the shot and didn’t have a single craving, it was amazing…I say this because if you bros are smokers and thinking of quitting then you should know there’s options out there, and your life will drastically improve if you kick the habit. (h/t Mirror UK)