A woman shared her story with me. Her bad habit was smoking
cigarettes. She smoked less than a carton a week. Along
with her husband’s habit they used about two cartons a week.
On occasion the decision had to be made whether to buy food
or the cigarettes. Guess which one got bought.
She made the choice to get a job outside her home, to make
the food/cigarette decision go away. Now she could have
both. Work began to take more and more of her time. She
enjoyed the other stuff besides cigarettes the money would
buy. A budget was never considered, she spent every dime
she made. She had STUFF!
It all came to a halt when her son began failing school.
It became important to stay home and help him with his homework.
The problem was she had STUFF. She and her husband returned
to one income but had much higher bills. Something needed
to give.
The stuff had to go, so she started with the obvious, the
cigarettes. Not before she tried every way to keep them.
She tried to fit them into her budget. She lowered her grocery
bill, began hanging her clothes, used only cold water in
her washing machine, anything to save money to keep her
cigarettes.
She discovered that whatever she did she could not scrimp
and save enough. It came down to another decision: Stay
at home with her son and quit smoking or, go back to work
to keep her habit supplied.
She made the decision to stay home with her son. She stopped
smoking. In the three and one-half years since she has quit,
she has NOT smoked 27,000 cigarettes. She has saved $7,185.00,
more than $1900 a year. She has put that money to better
uses.
You know you could find a place for more than $150 a month;
I know I could. Don’t let your bad habits rule your life
and drain your resources. Get them under control and put
that saved money to good use in your financial plan.
(C) 2005 David Wilding
