Can you believe that I started smoking cigarettes when I was 11 years old?! I can’t even believe that. Thankfully, I quit smoking in 1998. It definitely wasn’t an easy thing to do. In fact, I even took an anti-depressant medication called Wellbutrin for a couple of weeks because it was supposed to help you quit. I am confident today that I would have never been able to quit on my own without that medication. It worked really well and made getting through the first couple of weeks much easier.

When I started smoking, cigarettes were only 50 cents a pack. By the time I quit smoking, they were almost $2.00 a pack! In addition to the health risks, the cost of them was a big reason I wanted to quit smoking. Yesterday I was behind someone in line that was purchasing a carton of cigarettes. I was shocked and so thankful that I quit when I heard that he would be paying $49.00 for the carton!

This got me wondering how much money I had saved by quitting. So I came home and did the math. Can you believe that I have saved over $42,000 since I stopped smoking 16 years ago? That is a gigantic chunk of money! That’s the equivalent of approximately 3 brand new cars! Plus, I don’t have that nagging cough anymore. If you’re still a smoker, knowing this might be just the motivation you need to quit.