I've always been the type of procrastinator who loves to set goals then watch them slip away due to some unforseen distraction or quite simply, lack of "umph". New years, birthdays and various other calendar days have come and gone yet my habits would persist.... until last month! (wow i feel like an infomercial lol)

Yippee!!!

I was watching tv sometime in early January and saw one of those anti-smoking commercials that really touched me. I discarded my half-empty pack of Marlboro Lights and have not looked back thus far. The reason I say "thus far" is because quitting a habit is never a permanent thing in my opinion. Alcoholics who follow a twelve step program acknowledge this day to day phenomenon and are quite comfortable admitting that their method to kicking habits was not by flicking a simple "on/off" switch. I have quit smoking dozens of times since my early teens.. so instead I say "no more for me thanks. Not today".

::rumroll:::What does this have to do with saving money?

Thanks to the insightful posts I read here and in other frugal spots on the net, I have decided to put the money I'd use to buy cigarettes in a girlish little box my seven year old decorated for me (celebrating my choice to give up smoking) along with another expensive habit (which compared to smoking is not quite as costly as I had once thought)- salon manicures. I would have my nails done three times a month at twenty dollars a piece.

::::drumroll:::: Grand total of savings thus far?
$116.00
(That's a whole lot of chump change! Too big to find on the floor in one spot in Downtown Manhattan, too bulky to find in a jean pocket or dirty pair of BDU's, and too savory to put into a bank account just yet!)
Two weeks of smoking (NYC $7.00) X 4 packs a day= $56.00
Three manicure sessions $60.00

I hope to stay off the 'sticks and keep my nails short and soft for a while.. let's see just how much this army wife can actually save.... (a bientot high maintenance.. hello frugal living!)


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