Dennis G Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 Stood behind a guy in line at the grocery store the other day. He bought a pack of cigarets, $10.23 USD. Holy moly! If that's not incentive to quit, I don't know what is. Near $3900 per year at a pack a day. Not to mention that I quit about 30 years ago (when you could buy a carton of ten packs for less than $4), and my doctor said, paraphrasing, "that was probably the most important decision you ever made for your overall health". Point being, if you wanted to quit, now is the time; if not, so be it. Stepping off of soap box now, and as always, YMMV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'Scales Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 That is so inexpensive compared to Australia you wouldn't believe it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brad1 Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 I quit about 20 years ago. Best decision I ever made in my life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karloff Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 this june will be 24 years since I quit. so glad I did. 1st pack I bought i was 10 yrs old. rode my bike to the bowling alley dropped 35 cents into the vending machine. sat in my tree house puffing away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NHTom Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 Thank God I never started, but that dollar amount blows me away............buy a custom shop LP every year just by not smoking........WOW....in those numbers it's mind boggling. NHTom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fortyearspickn Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 I started when I went away to college in North Carolina. A carton was $1.95. So was a pitcher of beer. Life was good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave1963 Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 I gave up about 6 years ago. A pack of 20 over here is £11.00. They were £00.40 when I started....I was in New York in February and someone asked me to bring them some smokes back, until I told them the price was comparable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksdaddy Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 I've had a few "quit events" but this time I think I nailed it. I went cold turkey on July 9, 2014. I went a long time where the smell actually made me angry. Hard to explain. Now I don't really care one way or another. Every time I play my Telecaster my hands smell of stale cigarettes, in spite of me actually soaping it up and rinsing it off in the shower. (It's a Telecaster, it won't hurt it) I am addicted to nicotine and I simply choose to beat it, every waking minute. Do I feel better? I can't say that I do. I've developed what has informally been diagnosed as bronchial hyperresponsiveness, which means I carry Albuterol with me all the time. It will scare the crap out of you, inhaling and feeling like you're suffocating no matter how deeply you inhale, which then makes you panic and breath harder and you still can't get a breath. I don't know if 40 plus years of smoking did that to me or not. All I know for sure is that if I could go back to my 12 year old self, I would slap the cigarette out of my hand and beat that little brat within an inch of his life for ever reaching for one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tx-ogre Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 I smoked two packs a day for about ten years. Back in those days, I could get a carton of cigarettes (20 packs) in the PX for about $4.00. Fast forward to February 1986. One night I decided to quit smoking, going from 2 packs a day to "cold turkey" overnight. It's easy to remember the date because it was exactly one year to the day before I married my non-smoking wife. And until she was advised by a co-worker, she never knew I smoked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zigzag Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 I remember well the days when most people smoked, even pregnant women. All my life, we knew that smoking was unhealthy, even when "doctors" were used to sell cigarettes on TV. Edward R. Murrow smoked on TV during his broadcasts. Sheriff Andy Taylor took a smoke to relax, occasionally. In college, a pack of cigarettes, a gallon of gas, and a draught beer were each 35 cents. I lived in Winston-Salem, NC and Richmond VA, and worked for companies who sold products to cigarette manufacturers. "Enjoy Smoking" signs hung in the lobbies during the '80s and '90s. Quitting is easy... I've done it dozens of times. Literally! Smoked my last almost twenty years ago when I was diagnosed with heart failure. Quitting is a lot easier when you know that death is staring you in the face. It amazes me when I see someone smoking today that I was once that stupid and that controlled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 Glad I never did, when I was about 12 or 13 and we moved into this new home, my parents went for another load of furniture and while they were gone I saw this pack of cigarettes one of the workers must have left. So I lit one and took one puff and thought I was going to die trying to catch my breath. That cured me then and there about smoking! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave1963 Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 It amazes me when I see someone smoking today that I was once that stupid and that controlled. This is exactly how I feel. Most of my friends of a similar age still smoke and I have to stop myself from screaming at them that they are killing themselves and what an awful end it is. I lost my mother to lung cancer; it took her a year to die after the initial diagnosis, all the time in pain and out of breath. I had to witness everything as I was taking her to all the hospital appointments and chemotherapy, going through the pain and anguish of knowing what was coming. It is at these points I could have cursed the internet, as everything that was predicted by various medical journals manifested itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksdaddy Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 I lost my first wife to lung cancer in 2011 at the age of 45. I don't know if she smoked a pack a day...maybe close to it. She also smoked weed. A lot of weed. A lot has been said about using weed as a multi faceted cancer treatment; some say it's just to help the pain, some say it helps the nausea from chemo, some will claim it CURES cancer. Um, nope. She began having chest pains in September, a biopsy confirmed cancer in late October, a visit to a cancer center in late November confirmed Stage 4, and she died January 6th. Smoked Marlboros and weed right up until the last day. Yet I kept on smoking for another three years. My new wife quit cold turkey in January 2013 and I eventually followed suit in spite of me being asymptomatic; I had no cough, seemingly no shortness of breath, etc. I felt great. However I also realized it's not just a matter of shaving X amount of years off your life from smoking. Nope, there are things like limb amputation, bladder cancer, stroke, heart attack, all those lovely things. I could picture myself going to the doctor for a routine visit and walking out with an oxygen tank I didn't plan on acquiring that day. Then it's too late. That's when you would give any amount of money, throw your $50,000 collection of Gibsons and Martins into a pile, push the Corvette off a bridge, just to be able to go back in time and snuff that cigarette out. And to then tell your children, your wife, your MOTHER that life is going to be a lot different from now on and maybe we should plan vacations months ahead instead of years ahead. Maybe just the ONE year subscription to Reader's Digest and not the three year. And at some point you won't even want to buy green bananas. The thought of waiting for the results of an X ray or biopsy, plus watching videos of smiling people adjusting to life with their new portable oxygen tanks scared the crap out of me, so I quit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Notes_Norton Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 Quitting is easy, it's the stopping that's hard :D I quit in the 1970s when I picked up the flute. The flute takes more air than even the tuba, because much of the air is wasted not going through the instrument. And beginners with an undeveloped embouchure waste more air. So I was getting hyperventilated and dizzy. At that time it was coming out that the tobacco industry was spending millions on the 'merchants of doubt' trying to convince people that smoking wasn't really as bad as the naysayers were telling us it was. Between the two, I decided it would be in my best interests to quit. I weaned myself by smoking a pipe (and not inhaling) but that lasted only a few years. Too much of a PITA, not the instant gratification of opening a pack, taking one out, and lighting one up. One week I was very busy learning a few new songs. I do my own backing tracks so I have to learn the drums, bass, and other rhythm and comp parts good enough to get them down on tape (this was pre digital). I realized I hadn't lit up the pipe in a week or two, so I decided it was a good time to throw everything out. I sometimes see young people smoking, and wonder why. When I was young, everybody did it, there were no non-smoking sections, and there were even ash trays in department stores near the clothes racks. The tobacco industry was in full "climate denial" and those merchants of doubts had ads with doctors in them telling people that smoking would reduce your stress and make you live longer - or - 4 out of 5 doctors recommend "Camels". Now that it is out in the open, and the link between smoking and disease has been proven without a doubt, I wonder why a young person would take up the habit. I guess it's a risk vs. pleasure thing, something we all face every day, but to me the pleasure isn't worth the risk. To each their own. Notes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie brown Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 NO, no smoking for me, since 1972! I stopped both smoking (anything) and drinking, back then, just because I was not fond of how I felt, how my clothes, hair, and even my skin smelled, and/or how food tasted (or didn't). And, for me, it wasn't a problem, at all. I never experience any negative "withdrawal" symptoms, whatsoever. But, I suppose I was luckier, that way, than some folks. Good Luck! CB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hall Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 I never quit; I just stopped 20 yrs. ago. As above, and Mark Twain too, "Quitting is easy. It's not starting again that is hard." The irony is I never had a notable health problem until well after I stopped. Go figure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deeman Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 In Cook County/Chicago IL a pack will run 10-12 bucks. I can drive 5 minutes to the next county, DuPage and you can get a pack for about $6-7. Still too expensive for me. I quit smoking about 2 years ago. I've been using a vaporizer since, slowly lowering the nicotine content in hopes that next year I will be 100% smoke free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave1963 Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 I quit smoking about 2 years ago. I've been using a vaporizer since, slowly lowering the nicotine content in hopes that next year I will be 100% smoke free. Good move. I really hope it works out for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristopherJ Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 From the CDC: Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, including more than 41,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure. This is about one in five deaths annually, or 1,300 deaths every day. On average, smokers die 10 years earlier than nonsmokers. If smoking continues at the current rate among U.S. youth, 5.6 million of today’s Americans younger than 18 years of age are expected to die prematurely from a smoking-related illness. This represents about one in every 13 Americans aged 17 years or younger who are alive today. To put that in perspective, in 2017 there were 15,581 gun related deaths in the US (not including about 22,000 suicides) 346 of those were deaths attributed to mass shootings. There is no Constitutional right to smoke tobacco... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 those "Round here" that still smoke, head for the border (New Hampshire) from Mass. where it's DRASTICALLY cheaper, but still expensive in comparison to what it USED TA Be... A lot of to the cost you see here in this state are from TAXES that go right to your State's coffers. I confess.. I'm a bit of a social smoker myself.. I can have a ciggy or two at a jam along with a few beers with the boys, and I wont touch another one for weeks/months/years. I never think of it till I'm takin 5 from a jam session. (odd how the habit is often associated with some activity) OTOH, I was never a big time smoker, even in the days when I considered myself one. a pack would last me 4 or 5 days. but at 10bucks a pack,, it would make even ME rethink this a norm activity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rct Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 After we put away the guitars we get out the cigars. There aren't a whole lot of good ways out of this life, so I choose to enjoy as many things in moderation as I can. rct Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brc Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 Unfortunately I still do. But considering at one time, I was up to almost 5 packs a day, but down to maybe 3/4 of a pack, I am cutting down. Being in construction, I built a suite for RJ tabaco, and they would give me cases, ( not cartons ) but cases of cigarettes , so because I had them of course I smoked them. When the seven or eight cases ran out, I realized ,”Damn” now I have to pay for these damn smokes. When you consider that a single cigarette will burn out in 7 min without any one touching it, I litterally had a cigarette in my hand day and night. But one thing I never do, is smoke inside my house or any one else’s house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jannusguy2 Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 I quit a 2 pack a day habit 8 years ago when I calculated I was literally burning through 4300.00 a year buying cigarettes. I now have $30K worth of guitars with the savings from not smoking. I pxssed away a small fortune on cigarettes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Gibson Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 Yep 4-5 a day now. I'm getting there,goal is to quit this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merciful-evans Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 I had quit 30 years ago, but then met a woman who smoked and... yep, started again (after some 7 years of being clean). I quit again about 12 years back (I quit the woman 20 years back) . Its for good this time; unless maybe the end of the world is announced... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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