Quit Smoking, Make Money!

Sounds good right? Quitting smoking is not an easy process and I know this all too well. I quit in 2007….kind of. I quit habitually smoking but would smoke every now and then, which eventually led up to a habit/addiction again. This time around I vowed not to let myself be that casual smoker and I told myself that if I was going to quit, I would not make the same mistakes as last time. So far it’s been over a month and this is the longest time I have been without a cigarette since 1994. Kind of sound pathetic to a non-smoker, but if you have ever been a smoker then you know how difficult it is.

Some employers offer smoking cessation programs and even cash incentives to employees that quit smoking. Why would an employer care if an employee smokes or not? For obvious reasons like increased productivity. Sure nicotine may be a stimulant but smoking also decreases oxygen in your blood. Some companies don’t have designated break times and employees can take “smoke breaks” at their leisure as long as it’s not too often and as long as the work is getting done. Take away the habit/addiction of smoking and people will actually use that time to do work, thus increasing productivity and efficiency. Quitting smoking also decreases healthcare costs from employer covered costs and decreases employee absences.

General Electric participated in a study where employees were offered cash to quit smoking. The New England Journal Of Medicine Published the study that found more people that were offered a cash incentive ($750 to be exact) to quite smoking remained smoke free after 9 to 12 months than those that were not offered cash but only information. A company that I used to work for offered a cash incentive for quitting smoking for at least 6 months. I didn’t know about it until after I quit the first time and the company did away with the branch I worked at shortly after and was bought out by another company. Had I known back then, I probably would have tried quitting earlier. Back then I wasn’t as health conscience as I am now either, so my desire to quit was not as strong.

You personal health should be your primary reason to quit smoking, but a little cash in hand in this economy could be a little bit of a push. I once figured that I probably spent about $520 a year in cigarettes and that was if I bought cartons. That’s a lot of money to just throw away and pave your lungs with. I figure it was probably actually double that because I only bought cartons a few times a year with the average cost of a carton of my brand being about $30. That’s in the south where the average carton of cigarettes is less than half of what they cost in the northern states, so you’ll have to do your own math with regards to cost per carton where you live. I know up north a carton of generic cigarettes cost more than $30. The amount of money we spend on non-essential, potentially life threatening products is ridiculous. Spend more money and shorten your life and increase medical costs too? Doesn’t make much sense to me, but we do it every day.

More on the subject of smoking tomorrow.

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