Stories & experiences

Hate to hear about the heart problems, but 43 k ? Wow !
Have you calculated what you spent on them in 55 years ?
Here, in the States, I was still smoking for less than $2us pack..
I figure my total for 45 years was about $20,000 us, figuring average from the beginning. So, in 5 months, I have saved less than $ 300 us. I did estimate, that I had spent over 30,000 hours actually smoking ! How could we have been so stupid ?? Really crazy when we can look back...

Red-67, It literally was a waste of time and money - Back in the Fifties cigarettes were costing around one cent each, currently in Australia they cost over one dollar each. In todays money it works out at over a quarter of a million dollars that I've spent on polluting the World around me, with the only one to benefit being the Tax man by around two hundred thousand dollars - As you said we were stupid.

Yep, most of the cost is taxes, and when I started, they were about same, maybe 2 cents each.. But, imagine, if everybody quit, our governments would be short billions ! Then they would have to tax alcohol even more :(

I understand this. Big time. I reckon I spent more than $50,000 over 50 years of smoking. That's a new car! So far I've saved a hub cap. I'm hoping my body recovers too. When I lived in China the cigarettes I smoked cost $2.50 a pack and cost was never an incentive to quit.
I figure I've paid the cost of a few operations in taxes.

Hi Pall Mall & Moonbeam, I have been quit 277 days, I smoked for about 45yrs, I am saving heaps, I don;t have to go to the bank, I go when I need to, & not because I need smokes, I am so happy I found this site, & people like yourselves. Although some day's I feel like my body will never recover from the abuse of smoking, I will never go back to smoking, but some days I think I felt healthier when I smoked, & that is scaring me, Is my whole body trying to rid itself of the nicotene addiction. xx

Kath55, you've done the hard bit now you just have to keep it up. I personally believe the Nicotine addiction a "State of Mind" rather than a chemical dependence. The body will recover from the years of abuse to a certain point, although the circulatory system and skin (largest organ in the body) will never be the same as a non-smoker. Fortunately my lungs had recovered enough to allow the Doctors to jump start me again. But I was extremely lucky to have survived against the odds.