Save money! Save health!

Ok, so that title make no grammatical sense. I couldn't think of anything better.

Since I've been posting about allergies and colds I figured this post would go right along with that. Chances are you or someone you know could save some cash. I wish this post would work for all of us but it's rather topic specific.

See, this is about cigarettes. I'm not even going to touch on the health impact. I won't mention it, not even once. I'm going for the money argument. A long time about I used to be a smoker. I know it's hard to quit but the way I eventually did quit was by checking my bank account. I added up everything I spent on cigarettes and I was not happy.

I'm going to make it quick:
Average cost of Cigarettes per pack by state varies from $4.96 in Kentucky to $14.50 in New York. (Prices from theawl.com)
I'm going to run averages a few different ways: The lowest average price per pack $5, Highest price per pack $14.50, and average price per pack $8.4622 or $8.50 for simplicity.
First how much it costs a year.
Smoking only a pack a day you spend: $1,825.00; $5,292.50; or $3,102.50.
Smoking a half pack a day: $912.50; $2646.25; or $1,551.25
Smoking a pack a week: $260.00; $754.00; or $442.00
and 2 packs a day: $3,650.00; $10,585.00; or $6,205.00

Numbers, numbers, numbers...

What does it mean?
For college students:

Average cost of a 4 year college per year for a full time undergrad $22,092. (according to NCES) So if you smoke a pack a day at the average price of $8.50 a pack you can pay 14% of your tuition out of pocket every year or $12,410.00 by the end of college. That like getting a semester free of loans!

For high school students:
Again with a pack a day.
You can buy a scooter or put a down payment on a car. You can have one very awesome prom dress or tux plus enough cash for weekly mani/pedis and possibly enough for your favorite stylist or shopping trip.

For young adults:

You can use the money to help pay off a student loan, put a down payment on a car, get your weekly mani/pedi, invest in stocks, or put it in a 401k.

So lots of things to do with it other than smoke it.

Stay green,

Yasha

Downsizing to a Minimalist

We're out of the house and back into an apartment. Not a big deal for us. Some repairs were made to the house but there was so much wrong with it. It needed more work than we were told, plumbing, structure, etc. Just goes to show you even if you think the repair job is good you could run into more than you can handle.

One of the things we're going to have to fix is the amount of stuff we have! From the 15k sqft house to a 700sqft apartment things certainly do NOT  fit. So how to make it fit? First we downsized out entertainment center from a 2 piece to a small 1 piece that fits just the tv and game system. The desk has gone from a corner desk to a single top desk. And no more dining room. That last part is the only sad thing about it all.

But what did we do with all the stuff? We sold most of it! Between Craigslist and a yard sale we got rid of many things we didn't need and made a small profit. The rest of it went to charity. Since we don't have room I didn't want to keep it all here; we didn't see the point in renting a storage unit for things we don't need. So, out it went!

Here's to a less cluttered home!

Stay green,
Yasha