Money Problems? Stop Smoking

by Ronyae⁽¹⁾
Writings by Ronyae

I know the title seems a bit harsh, but it's the truth in a sense. Let me share a story with you to prove my case:

I know a guy who is constantly complaining about 'being broke', but then, this guy spends more than $10 a day buying cigarettes. So, recently he began his song and dance about not having enough money to carry him through the week, and that's when it escaped my lips, "If you spent less on cigarettes and more on gas, you'd have no reason to complain." Somehow once it escaped my lips, I felt regret. Not regret for actually stating it, but regret that it may have been a bit harsh to state. See, just because we were all tired of hearing him complain, didn't give anyone of us that heard the complaining to spit a cruel, but truthful cure for his complaining.

He agreed to what I had stated, but I know he has a bit of defensiveness about his reply. I knew then , that my statement had reached its destination: the conscious.

Alot of people who are seen and heard complaining about lack of monies are not always people piled up with bills, they can be people with expensive habits. Inwhich, I find no fault, but there has got to be some form of recognition to having these expensive habits such as smoking cigarettes, or cigars, drinking fine wines or liquors, and of course eating the delicacies that only a rich person could afford. Not saying that all delicacies are very expensive, but that's another story. Smile.

But it just seems, a bit redundant to complain about being broke, when you are spending $5-$8 for a pack of cigarettes. Obviously, you aren't broke if you can afford that price for 20 sticks of tobbacco.

Let's look at a breakdown of what a person spends on average for a cigarette smoking habit: A pack of cigarettes on average will be $5, and if you smoke a pack a day, you are spending up to $35/week! Now, if you take that weekly amount of $35 for your smoking habit, and multiply that for five weeks in a month, a person would be spending $175 or more, depending on brand name, for their smoking habit. And let's not go into the money spent over a year's period of time.

Now, how's that for a high-priced lung disease, or even better, stained teeth, bad breath, dry coughs?... and the list continues for those who have been smoking longer than others. Sure it may not seem like alot of money as each pack is purchased, but that money adds up. And sadly, the effects from smoking adds and builds up as well.

Reality Bites! and so does high prices. The next time complaints come to surface on your lips, think about the things that you do that are causing these complaints....and then do something about it.

Article submitted Wednesday, February 11, 2009 & read 19196 times.

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» left by Anonymous (4 years 76 days ago.)

As a Child Welfare worker dealing with child abuse and attempting to get families back together, I remember talking to a mother who did not have the money to take a bus and go visit her children, who were in state custody, and as she talked I looked down and saw that she had two packs of smokes in her purse. I pointed out that she had the money she needed to go get cigarettes, but she didn't have enough money to take a bus and go see her children. Priorities get all twisted.

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