Coming up this year during Lent will be seven full years of being tobacco free. I gave it up for Lent in 2010 and haven't had any tobacco aside from a cigar maybe one a year since. What I noticed after the first few months was that I hadn't really saved any money. A big reason I wanted to quit was to have that money back I had been spending on tobacco.
I looked through my monthly charges from the last few months of tobacco use to the first few months after. I was being killed by micro transactions, as well as unnecessarily purchases. I'd go out to eat more, make excessive stops at a convenience store rather than stock up at a grocery store. Once I saw what I'd been spending on tobacco in the past, I made a point of putting that money toward something specific (rent, gas money, groceries, savings, etc). Didn't take long to see more money on my bank statements after that.
Whether you have a piggy bank at home, online transfers, or can be disciplined enough to account for it yourself, you need to plan what that extra money is for.
Example: I spent roughly $20/week on tobacco in college. Not that much money at the time, but an extra $80 for a poor college student every month for bills, expenses or savings does a lot. I started taking $20 from my bartending tips and putting it in a jar every Sunday.
Christmas rolled around and I had started budgeting a lot better by then. As a broke college student I was and to get my family members some cool stuff for Christmas just from money in that jar. Whatever you use it for, just make sure you have a plan for it.
TL:DR If you're going to quit something because you also want the financial benefit, plan to spend or save that money, or it'll find a way to disappear.
Submitted February 10, 2017 at 05:28PM by summerfest2009 http://ift.tt/2kBKiwv
