Here's to a great 2012!

I'm not big on New Years Resolutions, mainly because most people (including me) don't keep them. It seems to me that except for the thought that goes into them they're generally a waste of time. I do, however, think improving ourselves is a good thing. Any time of the day, week, month, or year. In light of that, I stumbled upon an improvement recently.

18 days ago I quit smoking! I didn't plan for it, didn't really intend to do it but a few weeks ago I knew a quit was coming so I bought a box of nicotine patches. On December 16th I ran out of cigarettes and remembered I had the patches so I put one on. I haven't smoked a cigarette since and haven't used a patch since December 25th.

Interestingly enough, I've had not major cravings. I've had fleeting thoughts of cigarettes,  a hand full of minor desires for one, and Saturday night I wanted a cigarette for several hours but other than that, it's not been bad. The last time I quit, on January 2nd of 2007, I had a similar reaction but did chew the heck out of cigarette-length cut straws! I had a few of those ready this time but haven't used one.

I thought it would be good to have a visual reminder of how much money I'm not spending on cigarettes so every day I put into a pretty jar one penny for each dollar I haven't spent on cigarettes.

The picture above, taken yesterday, represents 144 dollars not spent on cigarettes. Several people have asked what I'll do with the money I don't spend killing myself and I've given that quite a bit of thought.  Half will be saved to take myself on a nice vacation and the remainder will go to a local charity I've chosen. I think those are both good things to do with the money.