It’s no secret that smoking can cost you a lot of money. There’s the famous example used where if you quit smoking cigarettes and you pay $10 dollars a pack and smoke a pack a day, you could save $70 a week, $300 a month and $18,250 over the next five years. That’s enough to get a new car! Smoking can also double or triple your life insurance and health insurance. However, smoking is also one of the hardest things to quit as nicotine is as addictive as cocaine. There are many substitutes available in the market, to avoid smoking cigarettes. Yes, nicotine can be very addicting, but the inhalation of smoke via cigarettes is an added detriment to your overall health. So, using alternatives like nicotine pouches from websites such as Nicotine-Pouches.com may help you eventually quit by reducing your nicotine dependency over a period of time. Nevertheless, here are some more tips to help you out.

• Stay away from smoking areas – they will be incredibly tempting for you and are a sure-fire way to trigger cravings
• Keep yourself busy when you’d normally smoke. There’s a lot to smoking that is based around routine. Like with getting hungry, if you normally smoke at a certain time of day, you will feel a craving at about that time. Try to switch from smoking to a habitual activity like doing a crossword (which is a great substitution after lunch), or cleaning
• Sadly, you are your surroundings, and that means that if your friends smoke, hanging around with them too much when you’re trying to quit will mean your cravings are at their highest. Try to explain to your friends your predicament and ask that they either don’t smoke around you, or if they don’t mind you taking a break while you’re trying to quit for good
• Reach out to God if you believe in him. This may sound strange, but God is a powerful motivator in the battle with addiction. He plays a massive role in Alcoholics Anonymous recovery programs. If you don’t believe in God, try and substitute religion with non-religious spirituality, maybe practice mindfulness to get connected with your spiritual side
• Don’t hang out where you smoked at home. Your environment can be a powerful motivator for cravings and can make it incredibly difficult to quit. If your house or apartment is small, try to take the opportunity to change the design of the room in which you most often smoked. A new lick of paint or some new furniture can transform a room and help trick your environment-dependent cravings

If You Can’t

Some people struggle to quit smoking more than others. If you’re unlucky enough to suffer from an extremely addictive personality, you may feel like you have no hope. You should never feel hopeless. Try everything you possibly can and do it incredibly regularly as there is always a chance it will work. You can make lifestyle choices that make it cheaper if smoking is really impacting your wallet, like switching to snus pouches like these, rolling tobacco or even vapes. You could also look at getting health and life insurance that doesn’t require a medical test, as this will reduce the costs involved in the policies. This type of insurance is called guaranteed life insurance.

Never stop trying to quit, but do keep trying to cut costs at every opportunity. Staying motivated is most of the battle, so always keep in mind the benefits of quitting. If the health benefits for some reason don’t matter to you, think of all the money you’ll save.

UK life insurance broker Reassured.co.uk have written a comprehensive article on life insurance for smokers, which may be of interest.