I was a heavy smoker for nearly 20 years. I began smoking when I was 16 years old, and continued smoking until I was 35. When I finally quit, I had been smoking four packs of unfiltered cigarettes every single day. (That means I had a cigarette in my hand or mouth, nearly every minute that I was awake.)

Sometimes I would find myself with a lit cigarette in my hand, and another one burning in an ashtray. Smoking was part of every facet of my life. I smoked at work, I smoked at home, I smoked at parties, and I smoked while I was driving.

I tried to quit unsuccessfully twice, so I know that it can be a struggle.

The first two times I tried to quit smoking, I told myself “I am trying to quit.” That left open the possibility of failure, and I was unsuccessful both times. (Although once I managed to quit for several months, I began smoking again, first at parties, and then, not long after, every day.)

The third time was the charm; it has been many years since I quit smoking, and I wanted to share some of the things that helped me quit.

One thing that helped me along was some simple arithmetic. When I quit, cigarettes cost about five dollars a pack, which meant I was spending $20 a day, or $140 a week on cigarettes. Based on what I was earning per day at the time, I was actually spending more than a day’s take-home pay on cigarettes, every single week. When I realized I was actually spending more money on cigarettes than food, I decided that it was time to quit smoking.

I also worked out that I was spending more than $7000 a year on cigarettes, and decided that my life would be much better if I spent that money elsewhere.

This was one of the shifts in my thinking that enabled me to quit. I don’t know if you are smoking that much, or if you are spending that much on cigarettes, but looking at the actual numbers over a year (or longer) could be the push you need to become an ex-smoker.