“Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degrees of presence.” ~ Alan Watts
I was a two-pack-a-day smoker. I smoked Marlboros, called Marlboro Red Label now from the looks of it, but in my last years, I switched to Marlboro Lights (as if). Cigarettes were about $1.00 a pack back in 1980 when I started. The price was about $3.00 when I quit twenty years later, and I thought that was expensive. When I quit, I dreamt a carton of cigarettes had reached $32.00 a carton. I awoke appalled. They’re going for close to $50 a carton today. I was in the checkout line today, and the single packs caught my eye. I can’t imagine paying that kind of money for cigarettes. I would have been out $14.40 a day. That’s over $5,200 a year. There’s so much I wouldn’t be able to do if I still smoked; for all I know, it would have killed me by now. Every year on my quitting anniversary, I calculate how much money I’ve saved, and every year I scratch my head at just how much money I’ve saved. I celebrated my 22nd year as a non-smoker in July. The national average for a pack of cigarettes is $6.28. That’s a savings of $183,000 since I quit. This is why I can afford to own a house. Boy, am I lucky…for so many reasons.
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