The cost of my first relapse
Joel - July 24, 2002
Back in December, I started a parade that asked how long some of your past quits had lasted before losing them to a relapse. I think 14 people responded. Today I want to take another route. For members who had quit at least one other time in the past, even for a few days, and then lost that quit, I would like you to estimate how long ago that quit was lost.
Go back to the first quit you can remember ever doing, even if you had interim quits since then. This is a fair way of looking at it because if you think about it, those interim quits would never have had to happen if the first quit lasted. For those who never tried to quit, just work your calculations from when you started to smoke.
Then estimate how many cigarettes you smoked since that first relapse. Try to do a conservative estimate of how much those interim cigarettes ended up costing. This will often become an eye-opening exercise. When you think back to how all you wanted was one, how "borrowing" one seemed so harmless, and then realizing just what the cost of that first puff was. Let us know those numbers.
As sick as the resulting numbers may make you feel, understand it is nothing compared to how sick cigarettes may actually make you if you allow yourself to let it happen again. More than just making you disgusted and emotionally sick, it can actually make you physically sick and cost you more this time.
Besides the cost of cigarettes having gone up, smoking will eventually cost you your health and likely your life. To avoid a repeat of a past relapse, always remember this time around that your success is contingent on always remembering to Never Take Another Puff!
Joel
From: SweetLorraine (Silver) Sent: 12/29/2001
Hi Joel - Figuring thirty years since the first relapse and figuring $1.00 per pack - less in the beginning but way more toward the end $9,855 wasted - but here's the good news I might well save three times that much if I live another thirty years as an non-smoker! Talk about incentive!
yqf Lorraine
Two months, two weeks, four days without a single puff
From: Gigi Sent: 12/29/2001
The first time I tried to quit was at 21 yrs. old. That was 19 years ago. Cigarettes Smoked over last 19 years: 152,570
Approximate cost:
7628.5 packs = 401.5 pack a year.
Cost 2.30 average
$17545 spent on cigarettes
Length of cigarettes smoked:
40,939.61 feet
13646.53666 yards
7.75 miles
Time wasted:
762850 minutes
12714 hours
529 days
17 months
But now I'm Free! One week, three days, 9 hours, 19 minutes and 25 seconds. 311 cigarettes not smoked, saving $70.12. Life saved: 1 day, 1 hour, 55 minutes.
Gigi
SammymnGOLD - July 24, 2002
THIS IS A DISGUSTINGLY LARGE NUMBER:
My "One Puff" * in 1995, after 7 smoke-free years led to 51,100 more cigarettes.
*uneducated pre-Freedom act of an addict. Sam (19 days, 12 hours, 26 minutes of never taking another puff )
Alyson GOLD - Jul 25, 2002
Hmmm, let's see. My first failed attempt to quit was when I was 23, began sometime around February (now there's some commitment) with relapse coming on hard and fast (beginning with staying up late to steal roommate cigs - because "if I'm not paying for them, I'm not smoking" - and driving around to smoke them at 4am - I'm sure no one was wise to my stealthy ways).
So that's 13 years and 4 months at let's say a pack a day average: 160 months x 30 packs x 20 death sticks = OH MY LORD!
96,000 cigarettes smoked since my relapse.
At an average cost per pack of $2.75, that's 14 cents per feeding, so I've wasted $13,400 on my addiction since my relapse.
THIRTEEN THOUSAND & FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS! That's about what I spent on my first brand new car, a little Japanese compact, the same year I relapsed - I coulda had a mercedes.
Well, Joel, that was certainly a sobering exercise. Thank you!
Alyson
29D20H19M
BillW Gold - July 25, 2002
Hi Joel:
I promised this morning I was gonna post here. I lost a 6 month quit 13 years ago, at a pack and a half a day.....But looking up, I see Alyson has done the math for me.....Mine is 1.5 times hers, or 150,000 cigarettes smoked, about $20,000 wasted, or even worse, perverted to my (possible) distruction.
If I do wind up dying from this (I've nothing specific....I'm just being morbid), then it would have been cheaper to hire a hit man to just kill me! Dying from the extra 13 years of that relapse, of course, would be the true and ultimate cost of that last lost quit.
BillW
Five months, two weeks, two days, 12 hours, 37 minutes and 59 seconds. 4995 cigarettes not smoked, saving $986.42. Life saved: 2 weeks, 3 days, 8 hours, 15 minutes.
MareBear GOLD - April 30, 2003
I thought the math was going to be tougher. I probably just didn't want to think about what I'd done to myself all those years.
My first actual attempt at quitting (I am not counting the ones before because simply saying "I'm quitting" and then lighting the next cigarette five minutes later doesn't count as even a feeble attempt) was on my 30th birthday, 12/7/1997. So that means that between that failure (I didn't last the day) and my big success on May 28, 2002, I smoked 32,640 cigarettes and wasted approximately $5,712.00 of my hard-earned money on my addiction. "Well, at least I tried," I said to myself many times.
Then I got educated...and now I'm free! I can see gold from here...
MareBear
11 months, 1 day
smokefreeJD Gold - Apr 30, 2003
This would have been roughly 7 years and 10 months ago when I tried to quit. The length of that quit is debatable because I certainly wasn't nicotine free since my roomie at the time would dispense 1 cigarette to me after work each day as a "reward". Other than that it was only about 3 days long though but it sure seemed at the time like it was forever. That 1 per day ration led to 49,862 cigarettes up to my quit date and $6,274 just handed over to the tobacco companies.
Jill
Kicking Butt for 6 Months 3 Weeks 5 Days.
DubiouslyDos - Apr 30, 2003
I began at 14, and first tried to quit when I went to bootcamp at 18. In bootcamp I could run like the wind and I thought I would live forever. I saw my grandfather smoking 3-4 packs a day. At age 66 he died of heart disease. I remember my family being grateful that it wasn't lung cancer. These statistics are horrific.
I continued to smoke for 23 years after my first attempted quit at 18 and was consuming a carton a week. That would be 1196 cartons @ an average of 15.00 a carton = $17,940.00 since my first relapse. 1196 cartons = 239,200 cigarettes* *(I cringe to realize these represent cigarettes I no longer wanted to ingest)
At 3.22 inches per cigarette, my 239,200 represent 64,185.333 Feet, 31,395.111 Yards and 12.156 Miles if I were to place those end to end.
The good news is that after years of nicotine addiction and continuing unwanted smoking.....after many relapses and the rollercoaster weight issues of on again/off again smoking...........Thanks to Freedom I have been quit for 11 Months, 1 Week, 2 hours, 25 minutes and 58 seconds (342 days). I have saved $1,539.45 by not smoking 10,263 cigarettes. I have saved 1 Month, 4 Days, 15 hours and 15 minutes of my life. I don't have to smoke anymore.....neither do YOU!!!
Never Take Another Puff
Dos (Dubs aka Dubiously)
jdinkcmoGOLD - May 01, 2003#11
WOW, what a thought provoking thread this has turned out to be for me! When I read my OWN quote in the "one puff files", I immediately thought of myself as the Queen of Relapse.
My first CT quit was 2-14-75 for SEVEN years but junkie thinking got me back on them for 5 years. On Great American Smokeout Day in 1987, I did the CT thing yet again. This time it lasted for TWELVE years. I never dreamt I was susceptible to the nicodemon at that juncture. Yup, you guessed it...I played the old "party smoker" game in 1998 and found myself hooked all over again.
Today, I calculated the cost of losing those 2 quits, for 5 years each time. Since I quickly got back to my 45cigs/day habit, my usage was 82,125 cigs during each smoking period, for a total of 164,250 smokes at a cost of $27,512. So, not only did I blow an awesome amount of $$, I blew what could have been a 28-year quit. And I finally know why...I am a nicotine addict, and I can never take another puff. Only time will tell if I've managed to avoid health issues, but at least my third quit is my last due to the suppoprt and education here at Freedom!
Your very grateful quit sis, JD
Judy has been nic free for: 3 Months 1 Week 6 Days 15 Hours 1 Minute and has NOT smoked 4753 smelly cigs, for a grand $$$ savings of $796.15 plus life of Freedom extended by: 2 Weeks 2 Days 12 Hours 5 Minutes.
DlunyGOLD - Dec 07, 2003
I have multiple quits, one of which lasted almost 3 years (which was not my first) and because it was the longest and (I thought) at the time my last quit, I will calculate from there.
I started back smoking on May 25, 1999 and had 3 brief quits in between that and my final quit (each lasting 3-6 weeks, but I will NOT factor out those periods because it makes the computations easier). I quit on November 7, 2003. That is 18 days shy of 4 1/2 years or app 1625 days. I will figure my "final average" of 18 to be my average through this entire period because there were periods where I smoked none and periods where I smoked more than 18 so it should even out. That works out to 29,250! That is 1,462.5 packs! At an average of $2.25 per pack (when I started back I was smoking name brands and have steadily "stepped down the price ladder") that is $3,290.63 spent in just the last 4 1/2 years! At an average of 7 minutes to smoke each one, I wasted 3,412.5 hours of my life or 142 days (almost 5 months!).
How sobering this little exercise was! To recap:
time smoked: 4 1/2 years
cigs smoked 29,250
money spent: $3,290.63
time wasted: 142 days
yqb, David
Four weeks, one day, 11 hours, 6 minutes and 29 seconds. 530 cigarettes not smoked, saving $39.77. Life saved: 1 day, 20 hours, 10 minutes.
CandidCandiSilver - Dec 07, 2003
Wow, David ~ those calculations were just too much for me! Just re-read the first post in this thread to be sure I get it right.
I'm just gonna give you guys the dates and let someone else do the math for me . . . . . . I'm afraid if I saw the figures pop up myself it would just be too much to bear!
My very first quit was November 1978 (25 years ago). I lost that quit sometime in 1981. Joel said not to deduct for any interim quits since they never would have happened had we not lost the first quit. For the ease of the mathemeticians we'll just say it was December of '81 ~ when you're talking 22 years what's a month or two?? Pack a day. Cost/Pack???? Can't even remember how much they cost back then. I lived in VA so I think the tax was lower than most places.
So ~ 22 years/pack a day/$$?? Anyone for doing the math for me??
Candi ~ I have been quit for 1 Month, 1 Week, 6 Days, 21 hours and 58 minutes (44 days). I have saved $163.48 by not smoking 1,257 cigarettes. I have added 6 Days, 2 hours and 39 minutes to my life.
sunnydaze529 - Dec 07, 2003
Hi all. I blew a six week quit in Dec. 1998. That was my first and longest quit. I've had interim quits, but we're not supposed to add them in. So, here goes my stats.
time smoked: 5 years
cigs smoked 36,400 or 1,820 packs
money spent: 5,460
Not to mention smoking through two pregnancies that I "cut" back my intake (in other words, constant withdrawal) for because I wasn't strong enough to never take another puff. Thank heavens I found this site.
Kathy
KTQ 14days
CandidCandiSilver - Dec 08, 2003
Well, no one took me up on doin' the math for me . . . . . curiosity got the better of me so I did it myself.
22 Years X 52 weeks/yr = 1144 weeks
1 carton/week = 1144 Cartons = 228,800 cigarettes
$20,000+ spent
1,601,600 minutes; 26,693 hours; 1,112 days; 158 weeks; 36.7 months; 3 years wasted smoking cigs.
I am grateful that during those 22 years since I lost my first quit I did put together around 10 years smoke free, so it's not as bad as it looks!! Just would have saved myself lots of grief, shame, deceit, wrinkles, and health concerns had I never smoked after my first quit 25 years ago.
Grateful that I have been quit for 1 Month, 2 Weeks, 20 hours and 53 minutes (45 days). I have saved $166.96 by not smoking 1,284 cigarettes. I have added 6 Days, 5 hours and 48 minutes to my life.
Asdfgjkl5 - Dec 08, 2003
My name is Scott, due to my relapse in 1996 I smoked for 6 long years & 11 months, 21 days, 11 hours, 52 minutes and 44 seconds (2548 days).
I smoked 101,940 death sticks after quitting for one whole year. And spent $5,670.12. I lost 353 days, 22 hours and 58 minutes of my life just from a 7 year relapse...... I wonder how much of my life I lost for the total 25 years I smoked? It is so sickening, i'm not even going to tally. What an eye opener....................Scott, Free & Healing forever & ever amen..................Never another puff ever.........t.g.f.f.
Joel - Apr 01, 2004
Today the cost of cigarettes in Cook County, where I live and spend most of my time went up 82 cents per pack due to a new county tax starting today. The thinking is most businesses will round the price increase up an even dollar. The average cost now is about $5.00 per pack, making Cook County one of the highest costs in the country.
Being that we have an international audience I thought I would pose the question we have posed a few times here at Freedom in the past. How much were you spending on tobacco when you quit and what are your neighbors who still smoke spending on them now? Anyone spending the time and doing the math will realize that considering the cost of cigarettes on your pocket book and more importantly, on your health and your life is higher than you are willing to pay. The only way to guarantee that you will never have to pay to support such an expensive, dirty and deadly addiction again is to stick with your personal commitment to never take another puff!
Joel
TeraGold - Apr 01, 2004
I quit in Feburary 2003 for 4 days when my best friend called and told me that her father was dying from lung cancer. He died last August. I quit 24 days ago.
I live in Germany and roll my own cigarettes. I have averaged 25 a day at about a Euro a day for tobacco, filters, and papers($1.18). If I were to have smoked normal cigarettes I would have paid 3.94€ a day ($4.65).
That means losing my quit cost me: 345€ ($407.10)
If I smoked regular cigarettes it would have cost me: 1359.30€ ($1,604)
Jeesh. $407 would be enough for a nice trip to Italy. Definately next year!!!
Tera - Free and Healing for Twenty Four Days, 18 Hours and 6 Minutes, while extending my life expectancy 2 Days and 3 Hours, by avoiding the use of 619 nicotine delivery devices that would have cost me 24,78 €.
SandyBob GOLD - Apr 01, 2004
Hi Joel. OK. I am up to this calculation now. I guess that it was 7 years prior to my final quit on 6/11/2002 that I had quit for 6 months. That one puff that I took almost 8 years ago cost me $9650.55ugh! and I smoked 64,337 sickorettes (give or take) yuch!
Thank God I found this great group of quitters! I am now very proud to say that I haven't taken a single puff in over 21 months, saved over $2600.00, and haven't smoked over 5,000 sickorettes. Yipppeee! Oooops! I meant to say over 13,000 sickorettes not smoked in the last 21+ months. WOW! Sure does add up!
SandyBob
kattatonic1 gold4 - Apr 01, 2004
Freedom's really making me work today! Bill's got us writing lymericks; Joel's got us doing math! See you all in gym class later!
So my first and longest quit was 8 months. I think it was 1984. I'm going to guestimate and pop mid-year 1984 into my quit meter. It is supposed to add 3% annually to adjust for price hikes. Drum roll, please... it calculates to about 19.5 years I would have been quit. I wouldn't have smoked over 100,000 cigarettes (yikes! that means I did!!!!), and would have saved around $30,000. That's Canadian dollars, but yowsers, I could have used that.
All righty. I still don't want to smoke any more. Never Take Another Puff. Nope. Thanks Joel. Eye opening as always!
~ Kay ~
100 Days! Woohoo!
Just Gie Gold - Jul 18, 2004
Well, I had quit when I was pregnant for my son for about 4 months. If I hadn't of relapsed my stats would say:
I have chosen not to smoke for 3 Years 4 Weeks 1 Day 9 Hours 2 Minutes. Cigarettes not smoked: 11253. Money saved: C$4,642.18.
What they really say is:
Angie- 6 Months 3 Days 23 Hours 31 Minutes 15 Seconds. Cigarettes not smoked: 1487. Money saved: C$595.14.
That's a difference of 9766 cigarettes, and 4047.04. Woah.
kwhtlw - Jul 18, 2004
By the age of 27 I was smoking and chewing (among other things). I quit both for a period of six months. I am now 36yrs old and have chewed an average of one can of tobacco per day since.
36yrs - 27yrs = 9yrs
9yrs x 365days per year = 3,285
3,285 X $5.00 per can average = $16,425 wasted on nicotine.
If I add only the cost of the chewing for the other 8yrs (not the smoking) at an average of 3.00 per can the estimated grand total that my addiction has cost me is.... $25,185 and that estimate is very conservative. WOW I NEVER KNEW.
Do you think I could get the tobacco companies to give me a refund??
This information is definately something I am going to chew on for a while. It is a great weapon for me to use in the exercise of never taking another dose of nicotine. Thanks Joel and everyone who participates in Freedom and Whyquit.
Kevin
Still Nic-Free and Luv'n it for 4 Weeks, 1 Day, 20 hours and 17 minutes. I quit chewing tobacco on 6/17/04, have saved $149.22 while expecting to be on earth 2 Days, 1 hour and 40 minutes longer
jeroen - Sep 13, 2004
Interesting. I smoked since i was 12 and a bit. First time I tried to quit, I was 17. I'm now 28. So 11 years, approx. a pack a day (conservative estimation) times 4 EUR. thats (11*365)*4 = 16,060 EURO and in reality it's probably more...
that's one expensive borrowed sigarette :o
AnitaMCK Unread postSep 13, 2004#26
History of my relapse:
Smoked 8 years, then quit July 8, 1981. Smoke free for six months, until January 1982 when found sample packs of cigarettes in cupboard. Smoked them, which led to buying a pack, then another, then back cartons... Next quit: 22 1/2 years later - same day - July 8, 2004.
Cost of my relapse, due to those "free" samples:
Smoking 22 years = 264 months + 6 months = 270 months
Average two cartons (20 packs in 2 cartons, 400 cig. per month) = 400 X 270 = 108,000.00 !!! cig.
Cost = don't know. They're $4/pack now. Let's just say $2.50 per pack = 20 packs X 270 months X $2.50 = $13,500.00 financial cost.
Emotional cost = embarrassment and shame that I went though telling people I had started again.
Psychological cost = tormented every year when my "quit date anniversay" of July 8 came around.
Physical cost = Reynauds syndrome, tendon problems due to decreased circulation, stress fracture in foot due to bone problems, chronic post nasal drip, ugly yellow fingernail, finger, and stained teeth, even my thermometer is stained from the smoking!!...probably a few extra face wrinkles...Thankful I quit in time before those ugly ones above your lip.
Until this year, when I successfully quit again on July 8, 2004!!
AnitaMCK - Free and Healing for Two Months, Five Days, 10 Hours and 58 Minutes, while extending my life expectancy 3 Days and 11 Hours, by avoiding the use of 997 nicotine delivery devices that would have cost me $199.92.
Carm899 - Sep 13, 2004
Well let's see, my first quit was January of 1991 so that means I smoked for 13 years & 3 months. Which turns out to be, OH MY GOD, I had to go back & check my numbers and unfortunately they were correct. If I had stayed quit in 1991 I would of saved my body from the torture of 72,795 cigarettes which would of saved my wallet $10,919!!!! I'm shocked, even if I took into consideration the 5 year quits in between (which were not supposed to do but I can't help myself) I would end up with 45,345 cigs smoked & $6,801 up in smoke. I can't believe it, what a waste of money not to mention what it did to me physical & physiologically. I don't even want to think about the withdraw systems I had to go through each time I quit. Plus the weeks it took me to retrain my brain to "enjoy" smoking. Man, I don't EVER want to smoke again!
Carmen
I'm hugging this quit even tighter! Free for 5 months 1 week & 1 day Saving myself from smoking 2,385 cigs and adding $477 to my not smoking jar.
AntiqueRadioGuy2 - Sep 13, 2004
I'm sorry to report that my 1st attempt to quit smoking was in the summer of 1982. I lasted about 3 months. . ."Ran into a chum with a bottle of rum. . ." and you know the rest.
In any case, had I remained nicotine free since then I would not have smoked 200,750 Marlboro "reds in box." Allowing for price increases, those cigarettes cost me $30,112. A fine investment.
Now: had I bought shares of Microsoft with my smoke money over the same period, my portfolio would be increased by $867,000 (not including dividends paid in cash).
Think I'll call Charles Schwab. . .
Randy
I have been (FINALLY) nicotine free for 12 days. I have saved $86.17 by not smoking 313 cigarettes and have recovered 1 Day, 12 hours and 31 minutes of my life.
agnesjtom 1 - Sep 13, 2004
Here it goes... Smoked 11 years. Quit 8 times (for about two or three weeks each time). Total cigarettes smoked: 64,240 Total cost about $28,000 CAN
Wow... when I put it that way it does sound extreme!!! Didn't realize it was so many ...
Glad I did stop smoking
Agnes - Free and Healing for One Month, Five Days, 13 Hours and 45 Minutes, while extending my life expectancy 2 Days and 5 Hours, by avoiding the use of 640 nicotine delivery devices that would have cost me $262.92.
deToxinUK - Sep 14, 2004
Lets see... My first quit was in February 1991 for 3 weeks... about 13 and a half years ago. Thats about 4930 days. I probably smoked 20 a day on average over that time... Thats 98,600 cigarettes. Average price of a pack of 20 over this period was probably £3.75 or so... Thats almost £18,500 spent on cigarettes! (about $33,000 US).
Ouch!
Wonniebad - Sep 14, 2004
I remember my first relapse very well. I was about 15 years old, already smoking a pack a day and having a fight with my mother made me decide to "quit again another time". Not only did I continue to smoke, I gradually smoked more and many more every year...
That cost me the fine amount of 53,781.27 euro's . (I found a site with the cigarette prices in the last three decades that proved me helpful). If cigarettes had cost back then what they cost today I would have spent more than 90,000 euro's. I'm not sure I want to think about that!
But shouldn't we think about the 15-year old that may relapse today for much the same of a non-reason and has to pay today's prices? I haven't quit for very long but I'm increasingly perplexed that it is allowed that so many of our youngsters are lured into addiction every day. I am walking around and start to notice just how many people smoke and wonder how that can be allowed, so many people being crippled and killed and not a voice raised? I am slowly realising how great the impact my smoking has been on my self-esteem and face in disbelief I have never been my true self since the age of 10. And it cost me *how much?* to be a junkie for the best part of my life?
Vonnebeest - Quit for 1 month and 13 days
johnnynonic - Apr 23, 2005
I wanted to quit when our first child was born, but failed, I never smoked in the house after that, but...
I could have been quit for 16 Years, 10 Months, 2 Weeks, 4 Days, 14 hours and 7 minutes (6,166 days). I could have saved $26,917.15 by not ingesting 110,998 nicotine delivery devices. I could have saved 1 Year, 2 Weeks, 6 Days, 9 hours and 50 minutes of my life. If My Quit Date had been: 6/4/1988 11:00 PM
Had I never taken that first puff some 32 Years ago, I could have saved $51,138.55 and not ingested 210,880 nicotine delivery devices (thats somewhere around 2,108,800 puffs, talk about conditioning).
JohnnyNoNic
I have been quit for 3 Weeks, 6 Days, 13 hours and 41 minutes (27 days). I have saved $120.33 by not ingesting 496 nicotine delivery devices. I have saved 1 Day, 17 hours and 20 minutes of my life. My Quit Date: 3/26/2005 11:00 PM and I am Free...
I WILL NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!
mohammed moid - Jun 12, 2005
I lost a 2 year quit in 1997 and never tried again till this one in 2005. Could have saved close to $7K+ if I had not taken that one puff (actually started with chewing but I didnt realize it at that time). but thats past...i've already saved $500 in the last 4 months.
Moid
Smoke free for Four months, three days, 3 hours, 59 minutes and 29 seconds. 1477 cigarettes not smoked, saving $531.90. Life saved: 5 days, 3 hours, 5 minutes.
GrumpyOMrsS (Gold) - Jun 12, 2005
Could have saved close to $7K+ if I had not taken that one puff (actually started with chewing but I didnt realize it at that time). but thats past...i've already saved $500 in the last 4 months.
Hello Mohammed,
You very well may have saved far more than $500 this past four months. You may have just saved your life.
Linda
RickD - Jun 13, 2005
Rick
Free for 11567 days. Working on day 11568
I've not smoked 427965 death sticks, and saved $271,558.43. I've saved 1485 days, 23 hours and 46 minutes of my life.
Smokes were lot cheaper back then so the money saved would change
Andy (Silver) - Jun 13, 2005
My first relapse was the classic story of rationalization. I was out of town with some buddies. After a few drinks a cigarette couldn't hurt right? Wrong! the first one I practically spat out. It was disgusting. After only six months of not smoking I had forgotten how bad they tasted. Uggh. But, give me another. And another. And another. By the third one I could easily smoke the whole cigarette and the six months that I had already invested just flew by. $10,220 just flew out of my pocket over the next 8 years and who knows how much life I took off choking down those 58,400 cigarettes. There is only way to guarantee success and it is to never take another puff. Take your quit seriously and guard it with your life.
Andy
Smoke free for 2 years 6 mos. and 11 days.
amicalm Gold - Sep 18, 2005
I haven't seen this thread before. Yikes. My first quit was in college. I suppose that I had already smoked 6 or 7 years. I would have not smoked 146,000 cigarettes. And saved at least $47,000. WOW!!!!
tanya
FoolishWorkinj - Mar 19, 2006
My first quit was in 1985 and lasted 8 weeks, until I had "just one puff." My current quit has last 9 weeks, and I will never take another puff.
I've saved almost $600 and have NOT smoked over 2,000 cigarettes. What a shock that number is!
marie1968 - Mar 28, 2006
I don't know about my first relapse, had too many to recall. But I can calculate the costs of my last (and final) relapse. I had quit for amost 4 years....smoked for 8 months and it cost me......
-my dignity (for knowing after that first nasty one that I was in trouble) that one ended up being over 5,000 cigarettes in 8 months Spent about $875.00 on over 240 packs ONE = ALL - ALWAYS!
my circulation decreased
my heart/chest pain increased
my breath stunk, i stunk
my daughter started smoking (arrggghh)
fear of the unknown damage
WE CAN NEVER HAVE JUST ONE - NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!
Marie 1month 3wks 6days 22hrs over 1,230 not smoked
Miguel HW 22 - Aug 12, 2006
Had my 1st attempt at the age of 18 and got smoke free for 3 months.
Miguel - Free and Healing for Five Years, Three Months, Twenty Two Days, 4 Hours and 58 Minutes, while extending my life expectancy 134 Days and 17 Hours, by avoiding the use of 38804 nicotine delivery devices that would have cost me 5.784,55 €.
Geeezzz NTAP
JoeJFree Gold - Oct 11, 2006
Interesting I've never replied to this one. I guess I know how frustrating and embarassing the numbers will be. You see, I quit for one week while away at summer basketball camp in the summer of 1972. I'd smoked fairly regularly from age 8 in 1964 until that time. Already I was a seasoned nicotine addict at age 16. I'd smoked tobacco for half of my life at that time. That would include Boy Scout summer camp (quite a few of us smoked as did most of the staff). Same goes for family vacations (my parents both were smokers, as were most of my aunt & uncle pairs whom we tended to visit on vacation).
So in the week in 1972 that Hurricane Agnes hit the East Coast I stopped smoking. My buddy JT and I both quit, more out of necessity than choice.
My lungs healed rapidly. I could run for hours. I remember easily running up a steep hill that had been a struggle to walk earlier in the year. An then I took -just one from my buddy John. How could just one hurt?
Here's what that ONE cost in Today's U.S. Dollars, (disregarding the effects of simple interest and compounding): 34 years, 3 months, 23 days, 1 hour, 56 minutes and 50 seconds Ago (12533 days). Would have Not needed, wanted or missed 250,662 deadly dose delivery devices, and retained $87,667.72. Could have spent free 870 days, 8 hours and 28 minutes doing anything other than smoking tobacco cigarettes.
My life surely would have been very different. My children would have been attending college for free.
If you are now free stay free by NTAP. If you are not yet free, there is no better time than now to get started by making a personal commitment to never take another puff and take back control of you life.
JoeJ - 21 months actually free of nicotine and grateful for finally finding freedom.
smsh28 - Oct 11, 2006
I don't remember when my first quit attempt was. I do remember the first quit that lasted more than half a day. It was in 1993. I quit for 5 months. It's really quite shocking I lasted that long considering the fact that I was bitter that my husband didn't quit with me the entire 5 months.
The longest quit...the one before this one was about 4 years. I quit right before I got pregnant and stayed quit until my son was around 3 1/2.
A year later I'm on my last quit...26 days in.
If I had realized the importance of NTAP back in 1993 I seriously doubt I would now be in the midst of waiting to find out if the prolonged cough my 4 1/2 year old has is the onset of asthma. (can't even begin to tell you how horrified this thought makes me.) There is no amount of money or life saved that could compare to that, but I also would have saved $7,834.14 and 244 days of my life by not smoking 70313 death sticks.
And I was conservative on that estimate.
What the heck, Joel??? Sadist!!
This is a horrible exercise. What was I thinking participating in it???
On the bright side I have been Free and Healing for Twenty Six Days, 16 Hours and 50 Minutes, while extending my life expectancy 2 Days and 18 Hours, by avoiding the use of 801 nicotine delivery devices that would have cost me $116.28.
Oh, and I totally, really, completely, utterly get it now. NTAP. ONE = ALL. It's drug addiction and I am an addict.
Sonya
MichQuit122GOLDin08 - Jan 30, 2007
I quit smoking the first time when I was pregnant with my son. (thank GOODNESS I did that...WHAT was I thinking starting up again after he was born after 9/10 months???DUH!) Anyway, as I was figuring this out..I went 365 X 13 (years) and ended up with 4745 ..I said to myself...I wouldn't have smoked 4745 cigarettes?Then I realized..no WAIT...that's only the amount of DAYS...I can multiply that times 20 for a pack a day... I could NOT belive it...I still can't. My numbers are...94,900 cigarettes I could NOT have smoked and could have saved $18, 031 by today's prices. WOW. M.
I have been quit for 1 Week, 22 hours, 59 minutes and 49 seconds (7 days). I have saved $30.62 by not smoking 159 cigarettes. I have saved 13 hours and 15 minutes of my life. My Quit Date: 1/22/2007 6:45 AM
System Pilot - Jan 30, 2007
I quit smoking for 22 months when I relapsed. I smoked another 4 years and 7 months before I quit again. using an average cost of 28 dollars a carton smoking 25 cigarettes a day for (an estimated) 1,675 days I figure I threw away $5,862.50. That's a good bit of money...
johnnynonic - Sep 24, 2008
I wanted to quit when our first child was born, but failed, I never smoked in the house after that, but... I could have been quit for 20 Years, 3 Months, 2 Weeks (7,415 days). I could have saved $32,370.64 by not ingesting 133,487 nicotine delivery devices. I could have saved 1 Year, 3 Months, 6 Days of my life. If My Quit Date had been then
Had I never taken that first puff some 35 Years, 5 Months, 3 Weeks Years ago, I could have saved $56,592.04 and not ingested 233,369 nicotine delivery devices (thats somewhere around 2,333,690 puffs, talk about conditioning).
JohnnyNoNic
I have been quit for 3 Years, 5 Months, 3 Weeks (1,276 days). I have saved $5,573.90 by not ingesting 22,985 nicotine delivery devices. I have saved 2 Months, 2 Weeks, 4 Days of my life and....
I am Free...
I WILL NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!
Theresa10458 - Sep 24, 2008
If I had stopped at age 28 and stayed quit - I would have have not smoked more than 365,000 nicotine death sticks and I would have saved more than $118,625. I am 54 now and have attempted to quit over 8 times.
Theresa - Free and Healing for Three Months, Eight Days, 1 Hour and 52 Minutes, while extending my life expectancy 10 Days and 10 Hours, by avoiding the use of 3002 nicotine delivery devices that would have cost me $1,055.16.
Jazzlady4 - Sep 24, 2008
Wow! I quit in 1976 for a short time, but was soon inhaling the deadly fumes for another 11,130 days. I wasted 1,652 days of my life. I consumed an additional 222,600 cigarettes before I said "enough". That is probably over $40,000 spent on cigarettes. For the good news.... I quit 747 days ago, and no more of my life or money is being wasted on cigarettes. I am "FREE" and will NTAP.
Jazzlady - Free and Healing for Two Years, Sixteen Days, 11 Hours and 48 Minutes, while extending my life expectancy 51 Days and 21 Hours, by avoiding the use of 14950 nicotine delivery devices that would have cost me $2,721.39.
msanders - Feb 23, 2011
What a telling thread. I started smoking everyday when I was almost 19. Within a few months after starting, I quit. I quit for 6 months, so my first quit was longer than my whole smoking career at that point.
Then I had a cigarette, because I thought the addiction was over.
That one cigarette turned into another 15 1/2 years of smoking. That's 5,657 days spent smoking, every.... single..... day. At a pack a day average, that was another 113,150 cigarettes. At say, $2.50 a pack over those 15 1/2 years (this is a tough estimate) that's about $14,142.50 I spent for the pleasure of poisoning myself.
Knowledge is a Quitting Method
