Do ex smokers REALLY save money?

Murtle

I didn't do anything when I gave up as I was a student, however when OH gave up I bought a teramundi pot and told him to put the smoking money each week or monthly for a year. THe joy of the pot is that you can't get money back out of it until you break it (no joy there) but that the money would go in, accumulate and then we'd have enough for a nice break. If you don't have the money for a teramundi pot, you can make a papermache one with a balloon, scraps of newspaper and wallpaper paste.

It worked nicely for us and was a great surprise at the end of it!

Good luck with giving up, it is possible and you don't have to put on weight or take up knitting

Dr.Shoe_2

If I was smoker I know that I wouldn't be able to afford the repayments on my loans and credit cards so I would not have committed myself. BUT I'd be no better off apart from the fact that I can expect to live 15 years longer...

cboo

I am going to give up smoking this week, will be getting a pot to put all the money I would have spent on smoking. Am currently reading Alan Carr book so fingers crossed.

cantcope

I've half read the allen carr book before. just didnt get it so went to the clinic in wimbledon (and failed), been to hypnotist's, tried the patches, and zyban.

Zyban worked but gave me nightmares so i stopped taking it and guess what? started smoking again.

Going to really persevere this time. I buy all my ciggies duty free so get them on the cheap anyway, about £25 for 200 so its not a daily spend for me.

Thanks for all your views. Will get a glass jar for me and give £30 to mum each month

isgman

Good Luck for next Monday.. But try Giving up Today... With luck you should be able to save "Some" of the Ciggy Money,, but don't expect to save it all, i had to get some new clothes as the old ones got to small... watch the weight,,, Hope you make it.. Good luck,, stick at it

In_Search_Of_Me

there was a thread which calculated how much you save on a recent thread....put the money in a jar & instead of putting it into daily life save for somehing special for you in the short term that you would really like. Some of course will argue that this isnt DFW but giving up smoking is really hard so at least if you have a really nice incentive it will help you give up! Good luck - I was going to give u recently & decided that it was just too muahc too soon - wimp that I am!!

lynzpower

good luck to you in giving up.

Im now thinking seriously about it ( ha, arnt I always!) but more serious by the day, health reasons over money.

A few thoughts

1) When my mum brought me 200 fags back from her hols I transferred a fiver to my b/card everytime I opened a new pack. Nice. Im pretty proud of myself for doing that

2) we have switched to rollups, but I cant roll for toffee, and we also buy 10 fags per day between us, but in reality there was 5 left today. SO they might last till tonight. A few weeks ago, and for aeons before, we were smoking about 20 a day each. Total £10-11 per day. Work out what you would spend on normal cigs. Draw this money out saay at the beginning of the week/month and put it in a jar. if you buy your tobacco/fags/papers out of that alone then you will see the saving. If you spend 70 a month, thats quite a big difference from my 'old' 70 per week.

I personally like the idea of banging this money in an ISA, ( or even better, an offset mortgage if you have one) then you can saee it mounting up. As many people say they dont notice this money, it dwindles away. Then when the day comes to give up totally, use a little bit for some final hypnotherapy, and the rest on a luxury holiday, new car, or a fab makeover for your all gleaming new skin/hair/nails/ etc. My feeling is I could save 280 a month- in fact me alone if I could go onto roll ups alone would save 280pcm. A few months of that and theres a flight with my name on it

Now, can I put my money where my mouth is?

black-saturn

I gave up smoking 8 weeks ago and have found it quite easy so far. The only time I get a craving is if I see someone smoking on TV or if I smell it somewhere when I'm out. But then I just think of something else.

I only used to spend about £4 a month on tobacco anyway so I havn't really noticed a financial difference. I suppose I should still put that money away though and save for something nice, but I havn't been as yet.

julybride

Me and hubby decided to give up 2 weeks ago, me using wil power and Alan Carr book hubby with patches. The main motivation Money!!!! we worked out we could almost halve the time it would take to clear our debts!!!!

1 week later I found out (unexpectedly that I was pregnant) SO now it is even more importnat for us and can't believe how positive i feel about it. Never thought I'd say it but it really is a key to getting the debt down. Or as I keep thinking about it...

If me and hubby continued to smoke until the end of our lives we would have spent £40,000!!!!!! that doesn't include interest or prices going up.. grab ALan Carr and do it.

yeslek

oh yes you do.

my mom quit a few weeks back and even i'm benifitting!!
she has money to throw around at the moment.

we worked out that instead of being broke an skimping to feed her habit she will be about 150 better off a month.
it was that bad she would often ask me for the odd fiver here an there.
now she's giving me the odd fiver if she know's i'm going out where as before she couldnt afford too.