MoneySavers don't smoke!

friendly_ghost

I'm a 'trying to quit' heavy smoker. A major additional cost of smoking is the need to re-decorate the whole house because of the discolouration of the walls, greater use of cleaning products and the plug in air fresheners.

I hadn't realised quite how bad it was until I put my house on the market. I spent almost a week cleaning the house from top to bottom and was stunned to find just two weeks later my upvc window frames were covered in nicotine again, so I had to give it a top to bottom clean yet again. I have smoked in my car for years and it shows and will obviously lower the price when I sell that too.

I now smoke outside because obviously the smell of smoke puts buyers off and I don't enjoy time spent cleaning.

I've cut down my smoking to a third but can't seem to just quit.

clearvisor

scotgirl wrote:

When I lived in Bucks our local Tesco ran support classes with the local authority where you got the patches at a reduced cost for attending the classes weekly.

I know there is a service locally to me in Aberdeen which does the same thing and is run through the NHS Smoking Cessation Team.

Good luck to all planning on quitting!

Martin ,you are so right and it's all true,
I'm OAP and as you can guess been smoking for 50 yers nearky but 13 to 14
a day,which I class myself as lucky,trying to stop is like asking Martin to stop all eating from now on,I stopped all drinking and sex and the cigs have been a crutch so to speak for so many years now, that Im worried the if I hit it dead on the head I'll have emphcema or glaucoma,as it is my one bottom tooth has gone though smoking and the false on is really hell to wear.It gets in your blood stream and into the veins inside the ears,mouth and nose.let alone the lungs,
The smell is bad also, I fell sorry for the none smokers, I have tried the patches and im allergic to the gum on patches,tried hypnosis got down to three a day,why it didn't go further was because he told me he was learning.lost confidence in him.
Now have the new chewing gum and going to doctors to have a lung function test before during stopping and after to see how messed up the lungs are or how much better they are after few weeks,also tried the NHS smoking clicnicwhich didn't work either,I know it's going to be very hard and the least little bit of stress makes you want a cig again.
I watched Richard & Judy show with people trying to stop before Christmas where the nicotine was coming out of their skin Hands and feet,no idea what was done but they had given up, How I wish I could try that, I have a strong feeling it would work, but no idea who or where to contact anyone.as they didn't give that sort of info out.
Two yaers ago I retired from being the first female Gateporter for Oxbridge 19 years and left because delivering the post was more then my lungs could take,trying to deliver post to 1,300 steps,and I had worked from age 14 to 62,so decided I wanted a life before dying,So if anyone can help I'd really appreciate it. thanks Clearvisor

clearvisor

purplepurple wrote:

copied and pasted from the hypnosis thread.....

At my worst, I smoked 30+ a day.... but one day just stopped. I didn't tell anyone, didn't make a big thing of it, but just took it minute by minute.... then hour by hour... then day by day... and now it's been nearly 10 years since I last had one. If you really want to stop, and being pregnant is the best reason in the world, you will be able to do it. Just don't put the cigarette in your mouth! Just try to get through the next 5 mins without one, then the next 6 mins and so on.... you'll be fine!

NHS Pregnancy Smoking Helpline: 0800 169 9 169
NHS Smoking Helpline: 0800 169 0 169
Quitline 9am-9pm daily 0800 00 22 00

NHS giving up smoking web site
"Together" free NHS one to one help with giving up

If I could do it, you can do it.... I used to dream about smoking.. it was the thing I loved doing more than anything else! I couldn't get out of bed without having a cigarette in the morning....... and now I feel that giving up is the single most important thing I have ever done......

I think it depends on your age,how long you smoked and how many,how your stress levels are,mine are high and thats with just the family so I tend to shut myself away if i can pretend Im out.

RACHIE77

Suziebabe wrote:

'cos lets face it, you always find a way to get the money for a smoke.

Isn't that so true!! I am quite shocked when i see the price of the nicorette patches and gum and think it is really expensive...!! But when you compare it to a pack of fags you realise its not the case, i just seem to turn a blind eye to that spending - very scary!!

I also had a massive faliure yesterday, had a really really bad day and about 8pm ran out the house and went to the pub with a packet of the old cancer sticks tucked in my pocket... Felt really bad today and am still having a naff time because of it and feeling cravings again, but got a can of beer and some determination today....

SnowyOwl_2

Hello again

I have to agree that regardless what's going on there always seems to be money for smokes. The first time I gave up I used to get the £3 or so it was then and physically put it into a piggy bank at home every single day. It soon mounted up! The second (and last) time I gave up I joined an expensive gym, was about £80 a month - by that time I was spending about £4 per day on cigs, around £120 a month...so I was actually better off by £40 per month. In my mind though, because I had joined the gym and there was a long notice period if you wanted to leave it, I couldn't afford to start smoking again as the money needed to be in my account to go to the gym. And yes I did go to the gym, about five times a week as it happens.

Theory has it that if you physically put cig money aside and when you have say £30 or £50 go buy yourself some lovely treat eg CDs, books, perfume etc that you would otherwise not have had the dosh for, this helps your motivation. Immediately decide what treat you're going to have when the next £30 or whatever amount has built up.

Good luck everyone, keep working at it, it's definitely worth the effort - in the long run you won't be sorry you've given up.

MATH

Congratulations and good luck to all the MSE'rs who have stopped smoking:j

I gave up New Year 05 by going cold turkey. The carvings were not as bad as I expected but did last for much longer than I though they would. I was prepared for 12 weeks of misery and got 10 months of niggly wanting. I felt just the same as I used to when I got off a three hour flight and needed a ciggie and I knew if I had one in another three hours I would be no better off. After the first three weeks or so things started to get easier and I thought I had cracked it but weeks 7-12 were terrible and I felt I was no further forward than when I started. My aunt who was a heavy smoker told me a lot of stop smoking info is over optomistic about how long it takes to Kick the habit and not to expect to be rid off it for a year so I stuck with it. I'm so glad she told me that because although weeks 13-20 were ok by week 21 when I really thought I should be over it already I was having another hard time and would have given up if I hadn't remembered what she had said. I've been clean for a year now but it has only been in the lsat six weeks or so that I can feel inside that it no longer has any hold one me. You don't know when that happens, it just takes you by surprise some time later that you havn't even though about smoking for ages as a poster before has said.

Dora_the_Explorer_5

Putting the fag money in a piggy bank is a good idea and an even better one is to stick post it notes on the fridge door equal to the number of fags you would have smoked in a day........every night.
A squillion post it notes on the fridge door is a very powerful pictorial symbol.

purplepurple

clearvisor wrote:

I think it depends on your age,how long you smoked and how many,how your stress levels are,mine are high and thats with just the family so I tend to shut myself away if i can pretend Im out.

This is true, but nicotene (and the hundreds of other chemicals in a fag) speeds your heart up and gives you an adrenaline rush, rather than reducing the stress hormones in your body..... it feels like the cigarette is calming and relaxing, but that is only because it is reversing the effects of the temporary nicotene withdrawal between smokes. A person who is dependent upon cigarettes needs the nicotene to make them feel "normal". Smoking will increase your stress levels not deal with them.... it is very hard to give up... but I think regardless of age etc you just have to take the first step

Ember999

I've come on here just now, sat with a cuppa and I desperately want a cigarette. I wish this craving would go. 8 days in to the New Year and I still want one only very badly today. Been up about an hour and just had 2 puffs from my nicorette nasal spray and I'm waiting for it to take the edge off. I think it's psycological today as I have had a bad few days, really, really want a smoke I have been thinking about cigarettes constantly since I woke up. I sometimes can't stand this withdrawel. When is it going to end It's making me feel depressed and I have been mean as a rat these last couple of days. I thought it would get easier as time passed, but it's getting worse. What do I do?

larmy16

Ember it is so difficult to deal with those damn cravings. Perhaps if you could put your energy into acceptance of them rather than gritting your teeth and avoiding them if you get my drift.

Try to look at it this way, the physical nicotine addiction is actually in its dying throes. The psychological one is your stronger adversary. It will nag and bother you and do everything it can to convince you that you need to smoke. You never needed to smoke when you were a pure new human being and that is still what you are inside.

I still get a wistful ciggie feeling, particularly friday evenings, and it was there on New Years Eve! I just look at the cravings as a reminder of how daft I was to start in the first place, and a small price to pay compared to the feelings of disgust and smelliness, not to mention the health risks of being a smoker. Oh and of course burning money - not very MSE

Take care and :T