Smoking was costing me $1,000 a month by the end. But that’s not why I quit

‘The addiction came first, always, and honestly I’d do the same again. Not because I ever particularly wanted to be a smoker, mind you, but because my mental health was abysmal and it wasn’t being treated effectively.’ Photograph: fontgraf/Getty Images/iStockphoto

I quit smoking and all I have to show for it is this beautiful house where my amazing mother can retire early and in peace, free from the financial pressure that had come to define our lives.

By the end, in early June, the cost of my habit was more than $1,000 a month – more than half the cost of the monthly mortgage, which I’d entered into just weeks before. It’s a shameful number, though not the reason I stopped smoking. However, it is the reason I can never go back to smoke.