It has been 2 years today since I stopped being a butthead! At least physically. I am still working on the mental part!

I grew up in a house with 2 very heavy smokers. There were many times that I had to put out my mom’s cigarette after she had fallen asleep on the couch. They even had ashtrays in the bathrooms! I swore up and down as a young kid that I would never, ever smoke.

Well somehow that grand idea changed when I was 15. It was not due to peer pressure either. My friends hated me smoking and I even had one friend who would knock my cigarette out of my mouth if I smoked around her!

I started out slow. A pack of cigarettes would last me for a week. My mom didn’t find out that I smoked until I was 16.  We were living in Connecticut at the time and we were snowbound for a day. My mother was running out of cigarettes and frankly I got tired of listening to her bitch about it so I threw her a pack of my cigarettes to shut her up. Once I was out of the closet I started smoking more and more and thus began my 3 pack a day habit!

My mom had a stroke and died at 65 and my dad died of Emphysema at 66. Both death certificates state that cigarettes contributed to their deaths. It finally occurred to me almost a year after my dad passed away that I did not want my death certificate to read the same way.

I quit cold turkey! Twenty years of smoking at least a pack a day stopped in a day. I actually spent the first day sleeping. I slept for 21 hours straight! This was the easiest way not to kill anyone!

I still wake up in the morning and actually crave a cigarette and my husband still smokes so they are here if I want one. I even still like the smell of cigarette smoke! I figure we just can’t afford the $4,368 a year for me to start back up!

Man, do I wish I had the $87,360 I smoked away over the years!

*Dollar amounts are based on a 3 pack a day habit at a cost of $4.00 a pack. These figures do not include doctor visits, extra dental cleanings, or increased health and life insurance rates.