how we saved $3400 in one year

So here’s the story… In May of 2011 my husband and I were on our way to see our grandson’s dedication. We were 4 hours into our typical 6 hour drive to the Texas Hill Country, when I realized something was different.

My husband of  27 years was not acting as usual.  Something was missing, then it hit me…when we stopped for bathroom breaks or snacks he wasn’t lighting up.  You see my husband was a smoker.  In fact he confessed to me one night that he had been smoking since the age of 16.

When he was 16 the year was 1976, there were no laws in place preventing minors from buying a pack of smokes.  In fact, at that time the legal drinking age was 18.

I processed my thoughts a few minutes and then casually asked why he wasn’t smoking during our stops.  I’ll never forget his answer…he replied; “I stopped smoking”

Okay.  let me give you some history here.

He’s quit several times in the past, only to fall off the wagon.

I didn’t nag my husband about his smoking simply because I knew he was a smoker before I married him.  I knew what I was getting into and I’ve never been one to believe that I could change someone.  I shared my concerns about the effects of smoking on occasion and when we purchased our home in ’86, he never smoked in the house again.  I didn’t ask him to do this, he did this on his own.  In fact, he would rarely smoke in the car if we where in the car.  If he did, the window was down and his arm was out the window.  But like I said, that was rare.   He was aware of the dangers of smoking, but he simply told me one day that he enjoyed smoking.  Enough said.  In my heart I knew that he would have to truly want to quit, nothing anyone could say or any commercial (even as graphic as they are) could make him quit.

or so I thought…

Although I was very excited to hear that he had stopped smoking, there was no reason for me to get ahead of myself, he had quite before.  But I praised him and asked when he had stopped.

It’s sort of a joke in our family, that I can go several days without noticing my husband has gotten a hair cut.  So I was thinking I had been blind to the fact that he had stopped.  I was preparing my defense when he stated that he had quite right before the trip.  Are you imagining my skepticism written all over my heart at this point?  Again I praised him and said a silent prayer for me to be encouraging and keep my mouth shut.

So here’s the story in a nut shell….

He did indeed quit smoking that day and he hasn’t smoked since.  It was a year in May!

Praise God, right?  Absolutely!

I will tell you that he did not quit cold turkey as he had tried to do several times.  He had help.  His doctor had written him a prescription for Chantix.  He actually wrote two.  The first one expired after a year of going unfilled.  My sweet husband took it to the pharmacy and tried to fill it without telling me.  He wanted to surprise me.  When the pharmacist told him it was expired, my husband called his doctor…this is the same husband who has me make all of his doctor appointments.  The prescription was renewed and filled and he began taking it.  He was a week into it when we began our trip, the day he officially quit.  It seems this Rx allows you to smoke the first stage of the treatment and then you lose the urge to want to smoke.

This is how we saved approximately $3400 in one year.  I wish I could tell you the money was tucked into a savings account, building interest, but I can’t.  I can tell you that we have decreased our debt, and we have been able to do more DIY home improvements because of the extra savings.

So are you wondering what finally made him want to give up something he enjoyed so much?

Only something he enjoys more…his grandchildren!  He later shared the real story with me.  It was Paisley…she spoke the words that changed his life forever.  He told me she sweetly said; “Grandpa, you smell like smoke.”  I’m almost sure she giggled as said it, with that cute little smile of hers, batting those big brown eyes.

That was it.  She didn’t realize her words changed a life, but they did.

So now I’m passing this story on in hopes that it will change a life.  Let’s face it, the extra money is great, but it’s the “saving of a life”…that’s the real meaning behind this post.

peace.love.rust
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Katherine’s Corner