really old style living?

Hippeechiq

Kiwisaver wrote: »

:T Thanks Hippeechiq you just gave me the final kick up the bum, which prompted me to finally sign up to the Quit line. I have been 'thinking' about it for way too long, feeling like a social pariah and feeling bad about my smoking. I don't actually smoke all that much (two packs per week) and my coffee comes as first priority of a morning. I just filled in the details to apply for a Quitpack, which includes vouchers for eight weeks supply of subsidised patches and a choice of lozenges or gum. Apparently, I AM a heavy smoker according to their assessment of my habit and they suggest I need both patches and gum/or lozenges. I have done the gum thing before and found it vile. I tried the patches many moons ago when they were new and they made me have terrible nightmares and generally made me feel spaced out. BUT I shall try again in the new year!!!!

I last 'gave up' about eight or nine years ago and stayed off them for well over a year; which worries me more than anything knowing how easy it is to undo all the good work. I don't have the staying power, BUT if I don't try I'll not ever give them up and maybe this time will be the LAST time. I have decided the first thing I will do with the 'savings' is get my teeth cleaned / whitened, then I might not be so tempted to relapse.

Yw hun

The only patch I tried was NiQuitin - so I can't speak for the others, and I was fine on those.

If you last tried a while ago, they may have improved since then

Everyone reacts differently of course, but I wanted a 24hour one, so that I had a constant tiny amount of nicotine in my bloodstream while trying to give up the real McCoy. At the time, the only way I could get patches on prescription was by seeing a "mentor" at a weekly clinic, which I didn't want to do. I didn't feel the need to discuss it with anyone, so I was paying out around £18 per box for my patches.

I had an extremely stressful week, the week I have up, and
I remember thinking how much I wanted a ciggie, and that I "deserved" one after the weeks events, and what smoker wouldn't? ........a cigarette was the first thing I always turned to when I was stressed.

But! - I didn't have one, because I realised, that, in actual fact I deserved not to have one, that cigarettes are not treats/rewards and that I was a fully functioning human being perfectly able to cope with stress before I started smoking, and that it was the addiction talking and not me IYKWIM

It's all about your attitude, imho (I too had had 2 previous failed attempts) but you seem focused! And deciding what to do with the money you save is an excellent start. Good Luck!

meanmarie

Gave up smoking almost 9 years ago...I give credit to the Allen Carr book as I had read it 4 or 5 times and was still smoking, rules changed at work which meant I had to leave the building to smoke, after 2 days I decided that I couldn't be asked going out in the rain....haven't smoked since and haven't felt the want or need....which is why I give the book the credit, every other time I had tried I had felt so deprived that I went back to them...good luck Annie and anybody else trying to rehabilitate yourself, as someone said 'never stop giving up', you will succeed.

Mardatha....am quite jealous of your cosy winter....we have had no water for 3 days now and am very near to meltdown....man coming to-morrow.

I have tried over the last few years to make Christmas a more calm and old fashioned time (for want of a better term) and have tried to get my children to see it my way too...someday maybe.

I wish you all the peace and joy that Christmas is really about

Marie

NualaBuala

Crikey Marie, you must be going demented with no water still. :mad: Really hope the man sorts it, *crosses fingers*

madras79

Gave up smoking january 1999 ,when irealised i had 90 pound to last the month ,so could n ot justifi the money on fags,also they wear making me ill i had spent 2 years being sick and weting my self through coughing for six months each year.

so whot i did, work gave me free patches .put one on before bed .the cig i missed the most was the one after a meal so to combat the craving i used to wash up. worked for me 6 months later fell pregnant wich was a blessing as had been trying to gfet pregnant for six years
good luck to all trying to give up

Broomstick

Well done for those who have quit smoking. For those that haven't yet, go for it!

I gave up and got my life back (well that's rather what it felt like) twenty years ago. Alan Carr's book helped me too and I think the thing that swung it was realising that non-smoking meant permanent freedom from constantly thinking 'have I got enough?, 'if I run out where is the nearest shop?', 'what are their opening hours?' etc etc. It's like the cigarettes are controlling everything and the moment you stop for good you lose all of that - instant freedom and it's good.

There are still moments, probably just once every year or two now, when I've had a stressful day and I pass someone smoking and think 'that would be good right now' but it's only a passing memory and I just notice it and forget.

B x

ChocClare

I'm another one who doesn't regret giving up smoking. I gave up WITHOUT A SINGLE PROBLEM when I wanted to get pregnant - no patches, no nothing - and didn't smoke for two and a half years - until my DS was about 6 months - when I went back to it. Wanted to get pregnant again and gave up without problem again. When DD was 6 months old, back I went to smoking. :mad:

So about eight years ago I said enough is enough. I will give up smoking, I've done it before with nary a problem.

AND IT WAS HARD!!!!

So then my dad, who has smoked cigars for goodness knows how long, went to a hynotherapist and gave up like that. So I did the same. He said, you will never want another cigarette. And I didn't. But I DID want something - so I spent about three weeks going through withdrawal symptoms just as if I was doing it cold turkey, feeling like something was definitely missing, but just not wanting a cigarette...

However, once that first couple of weeks was over, it was really plain sailing. I can't bear the smell of cigarette smoke now and shudder to think I once smelt like that. And if you think that I smoked 15 cigarettes per day and that a packet of fags cost £5, then 0.75 x 365 x 5 x 8 means that I have saved £10,950 in the eight years since I gave up smoking :T:eek: - and that doesn't include leap years :rotfl:

Broomstick

ChocClare, you've made my day! :T I never thought of working out the saving in retrospect before. I was on a packet a day so that means I've saved about £36,500 in today's terms.

Thank you.

B x

meanmarie

Packet of cigarettes costs around €8.50 here now so am not going to do the sum!

Have a water supply of sorts, via a hose from mains....we have a well too but it is completely frozen up ...hose is used to fill tanks in the 2 attics, there is then water to wash and flush toilets....but only one bathroom has a working toilet and a different one has a water supply to taps and showers are fed off direct feed from mains so can't use them, so it will be musical bathrooms in our house until the thaw...will only be 4 staying here though, as rest of family are staying with my brother and we are going there to cook and eat dinner on 25th, so will only have to try to keep house tidy until such time as I can wash the floors and use my DW and Wm again! Sounds complicated but it beats boiling snow to thaw it so that we could flush loos and buying water for everything else.

Marie

ginnyknit

Thank goodness you have a water supply Marie, every time I turned the tap on today I thought of you! Im sure in true O/S style you won't let it spoil your Christmas.

Would just like to say to a dear friend of mine - HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mardatha for tomorrow, havent posted you a card as the post is so bad but will send you a carrier pigeon tomorrow - don't eat him though. :EasterBun Hope you get lots of lovely sweeties and have a fab day :beer::beer:

mardatha

No card needed pet, kind thoughts are enough. And a pigeon. Load him up with a hamper ... Maltesers will be nice and light for the wee soul LOL !