Unfortunately, the only stimulation I’ll be feeling is my morning coffee. I just checked, and using this handy calculator, I discovered I won’t be getting a $600 stimulus package. Imagine that – someone who might actually spend the $600 on goods and services instead of using it to pay off the credit cards he ran up or making a mortgage payment he missed won’t receive a cent.
Oh well. I’ll deal. My guess is that the majority of the stimulus package (that isn’t applied to personal debt) will go to two places:
1. The oil companies
2. China
Kevin Drum has the schedule if you’re wondering when you’re going to receive your payment. My suggestion: use a portion of your stimulus payment to push Balloon Juice past the $15,000 mark! There are 203 donors so far, and we know there are WAY more than 203 Barack Obama supporters who read this blog. It’s $600! Found money! $100 won’t kill ya!!
P.S.: Because it was brought up on last night’s thread, I thought I would mention that last night at 9:45pm, I smoked my last cigarette. I’m doing it through a program at work where they pay for all the stop smoking aids, etc. Wish me luck. I opened a mutual fund savings account, and I’m going to throw $25 a week into it, about what I was spending on smokes, as a motivator.
Marcus Wellby
Good luck with the quitting! I quit a year and a month ago — the first few days were rough, but it wasn’t all that bad in retrospect. I do get the odd craving from time to time, but it does pass.
Watch out for other changes though — I fall asleep at about 10 each night and am up at 5AM (when I used to stay up past 1AM and sleep in most days I could); I suddenly love olives, which I never, ever cared for before; and my gums bleed on occasion even to this day, which my dentist said was normal with quitting smokes. Odd!
Notorious P.A.T.
Congratulations Michael. I read once that the instant you quit smoking, your health begins to improve. Keep at it!
ty lookwell
I’m getting $300 back. Because I’m making so damn little this year. (I wonder how common this is. I only hear about $600 or $1200 refunds)
gypsy howell
Best of luck on the quitting. Mr Howell, who smoked 2 packs a day and then quit about 20 years ago, says the physical addiction is over after 3 days. From then on, it’s a battle if the mind. His advice: just skip one cigarette at a time — “I just won’t have one RIGHT NOW.”
Hope that’s useful advice.
Ross
Good luck. I quit myself several years ago using nicoret gum for the “physical” addiction. For the “psychological” addiction here’s something that helped me. I drew up a long list of all the pros and cons of being a smoker vs. a non-smoker. (Nearly the only pro-smoking reason was “I like it”.) I took all the pro-quitting ideas, one by one, and wrote them on little post-it notes, which I stuck all over the place. Bathroom mirror, in my wallet, on my laptop, in the fridge, on my desk, dashboard of my car, etc etc etc. That kept me focused on the reasons why I was doing this… so when the urge came along to have “just one cigarette” I had all of the reasons for quitting still fresh in my mind to keep me strong. In retrospect I think the best thing about quitting is that flavors become more vivid and pleasing.
calipygian
Added bonus – the gas tax holiday will save me a whopping 20 bucks.
That for sure will make me switch my vote to McCain in the general.
Svensker
Yay on the quitting smoking!
What really helped me was thinking of myself as a non-smoker. I wasn’t a smoker who craved a cigarette but couldn’t have one, I was simply a non-smoker — and non-smokers don’t smoke!
The thing you’ll realize when you become a non-smoker is that smoking is simply dumb. And totally unappealing.
susteph
good luck on the quitting. i quit 10 years ago. the one big, big take-away for me was YOU CAN’T HAVE EVEN ONE. just one, and you’re back to smoking again. once i got that through my remarkably thick skull, i was able to do it.
and yes, you crave for years, but only very rarely. i go weeks without thinking about it at all. weeks and weeks. but every now and again, i get a whiff of smoke from someplace and think how good it smells…
again, bon chance.
Tim C
Ah, and you can put your $600 in the same mutual fund. I’m not getting a cent. Funny, I have a friend who I believe smokes one cigarette a day. I ask her why she bothers. She doesn’t know.
p.a.
Good luck! I never smoked, so I have no tips to give you, but friends who successfully quit basically have said your mindset should be ‘I want to quit’, not ‘I really should quit’, or ‘my doctor said to quit so I guess I’ll try’, etc. One said when he got the urge to buy a pack he thought of the image of himself burning a $5 bill for no good reason as a disincentive.
John Harrold
Well I made $2500 last year as a Peace Corps volunteer. I could sure use $300 right now :). However, I disagree that it’s money found though. It’s got to come from somewhere and that somewhere is, well me and my kids and their kids and their kids kids…
Good luck on the smoking thing though. From what I understand, it can be a difficult monkey to get off your back.
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
You’ll take my cigars from my cold dead hands. (Much cheaper than $25 a week too.)
douglasfactors
Missed it by a hair. Could have used it too–I’m not exactly a rich man in DC.
d.
Good luck, Michael. Did it a few years ago myself and couldn’t be happier about it (quit smoking that is, not donated to Obama). Everyone’s different so listen to all the advice & ex-smoker’s tales out there to find what works for you- some people love the gum, others not so much, some find their breaking point is being out with friends & not smoking, others have their worst times waiting for that first smoke in the morning. Observe, adjust & conquer. You can do it.
Heck, just to show support I’ll go throw some of my stimulus into that Obama pot right now.
Incertus
I’m getting a gubment check, and I can’t wait to get it. I’m doing a half-and-half–some will go to immediate necessities and I’m buying a digital camera with the rest. I’ll drop a little in a politician’s bucket as well, but I’d like to remind people not to neglect local races. The reason we’ve won some recent battles in Florida is because we’re putting pressure on incumbents, and local races impact your day-to-day at least as much as the national races do.
Bob In Pacifica
Since my kid’s going to pay for it anyway, I’m going to give some of it to her for her 21st birthday. And I have to replace my iPod. And if there’s any left I need to buy a pallet of rice.
Dennis - SGMM
At the rate that we’re printing dollars that rebate would have bought you a loaf of bread, a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs. While the McCain-Clinton twins propose non-solutions for our self-inflicted energy crisis food prices have quietly gone up four to five percent this year – about twice the normal rate of increase. This hurts Americans to be sure but we spend, on average, about nine percent of our incomes on food. In the rest of the world the percentage is much higher. Some of the less stable governments out there, in the Philippines and Egypt for example, are in danger of being toppled by their starving citizens. Iraq and Afghanistan are already suffering under the burdens of war, widespread inability to afford staple foods may well push both of them into complete chaos.
Throwin Stones
Anyone used, or know of anyone who’s quit using Chantix? I’m back and forth on the idea of using meds to quit, but it’s time, and I personally know 3 people who’ve quit with Chantix.
El Cruzado
My wife doesn’t have a SSN so we’re not getting a single penny. How cool is that?
Punchy
fucking JUNE? I gotta wait until JUNE?
Zifnab
Ok, I’m kicking in $20 a week till November for the Big O. I’ll consider it the Presidential Tax – money I have to shell out to get a decent President. If he needs more than that, he can call me.
But it won’t come out of my rebate check. That money is going directly into $600 worth of US I-Bonds. Fuck you America. You can take your pathetic handout and shove it up your stagflated ass. I’ll still walk out of this mess a winner.
A.Political
good luck with quiting, I did it for 8 months, but alas back at it now. Stay strong and never never allow yourself one smoke while out with friends drinking b/c you think you can handle it….shit is evil.
smiley
That calculator said I may get $600. That’s very helpful.
And I have to wait until July to find out.
smiley
Oh, and good luck quitting smoking, Michael. I did it 25 years ago. It’s a good thing to do.
Face
I’m confused. I thought that if perhaps you stopped buying them, you wouldn’t have them.
This idea that smoking is too hard a habit to break is ridiculous. Close your friggin wallet–or dont hit the QT at all–and most assuredly you’ll run out of smokes and not have a source of fresh ones.
chopper
my check is goin straight into the bank. no mortgage, no fill-ups, none o that (tho i should pay my CC bill down a little).
as to smoking, good luck. i’ve been free of that filth for about 5 years now. don’t miss it really at all.
first rule of quitting – say goodbye to parties, bars etc for like 6 months. if you hang around booze and smokers you’ll never make it past the crucial first stage.
Breschau
Right. Because, of course, you could never go out to, say – a bar or something, where somebody else might have them, and be willing to give you one.
And besides, everyone knows that buying it the hard part – because poor people never get addicted to anything.
This is genius – who needs AA, or drug counseling? Let’s tell all of the alcoholics: don’t buy alcohol! BINGO – problem solved.
charles
Wow, the calculator predicts I’ll receive $1500 by direct deposit at the end of May. Coincidentally, I’ll be spending the first two weeks of June in Barcelona and Paris, so I know exactly where that money is likely to go–to stimulate the European economy.
Dennis - SGMM
Celebrate: Today marks the fifth anniversary of “Mission Accomplished.”
Davebo
Nancy Reagan lives.
Hey, Keith Richards, we don’t have to be on drugs anymore!
Chris
I’m getting $600, which is dangerously close to the price of a Sony Playstation3. Out, out foul demon of temptation! That money is for sensible things!
A Different JC
Good luck Michael.
Bey
Two years ago on Mother’s day, I had a little heart attack.
Twelve hours and two stents later, I had quit smoking for good after 33 years of a pack-a-day habit. I asked my cardiologist what the link was, really, between smoking and heart disease.
He told me that nicotine is an irritant. It causes tiny wounds in the arterial walls which the body patches with the only spackle it has available – plaque. Sticky plaque. Couple that with an functioning liver (most of the cholesterol in your body is made by your very own liver), and voila!
Congratulations on quitting. I was shocked at how easy it was to quit once the correct leverage was applied.
SixStringFanatic
Good luck on the quitting. I stopped the first of this year, after over 20 years of smoking. I used Chantix and found it to be much more effective than other methods I had tried (nicotine patches and cold turkey, basically). Chantix almost completely eliminated the physical cravings for cigarettes; the habitual cravings I conquered by thinking of all the ways I was benefitting (better health, sense of smell returned, ended my annual winter-long cold-type illness, put money back into my pocket), rather than thinking of it as restricting myself from cigarettes. As p.a. stated, it really does help to think of yourself as a nonsmoker, rather than a smoker who has quit. Good luck, it’s well worth all the effort.
Pisco Sours
I’m getting $20. You have to read that prior sentence as if Charlie Brown were saying, “I got a rock.”
A.Political
Face Says:
I’m confused. I thought that if perhaps you stopped buying them, you wouldn’t have them.
May 1st, 2008 at 9:01 am
—
Guy, your confused?? I’m joining the club after reading that comment of yours.
Alex
Apparently I’m getting $300, even though I haven’t paid a cent in U.S. taxes since 2001 (when I became a full-time resident of Canada). My $300 will go towards paying my accountant for wading through the incredibly complex pile of tax returns that I had to file this year, despite owing $0.
The U.S. is the only developed country in the world that requires its citizens abroad to file tax returns – and even though the exemptions and foreign tax credits mean I always have and always will pay $0, not filing puts me at risk of thousands of dollars worth of fines; and the forms you have to file to get those exemptions and foreign tax credits are ridiculously poorly documented.
Andrew
Man, smoking is so cool.
James Hare
Hey I’m a month into quitting myself! Congratulations on kicking the habit — it’s a bitch for a few days but then you just want a cigarette every once in awhile. Last night I sat at a bar with 5 friends all smoking cigarettes and I was fine without one — a real accomplishment.
The only thing I can pass on is to stick with it. “Just one” is never “just one” so just say no every time. One little lapse means 3 or 4 days of fighting urges you beat early on. I never found a quitting aid that worked for me, but good old willpower will do alot for you. You’ve just got to be firm with yourself and say no more, never ever again.
mrmobi
Much luck with quitting, Michael. Don’t be discouraged if you fail the first time. My wife tried 3 or 4 times to quit, and finally, with the help of the patch, succeeded.
Further reasons for quitting can be found in abundance in this thread.
I’ll add my 2 cents and tell you that my mother smoked cigarettes from the time she was 11 years old until she was 56.
She died of COPD, a chronic disease which you can read about on the internet, if you need further motivation. Basically, you suffocate over a period of years. It was horrible to watch, and I don’t want to imagine what it must have been like to experience.
So, good for you, Michael. You’re doing a very good thing for yourself.
chiggins
I’m about 5 1/2 weeks off the smokes now. I smoked for about 24 years, and I’ve quit before for periods of 6 weeks to 9 months, using a variety of methods. But this time, no patches and no gum, it’s just happening.
About 5 1/2 weeks ago, though, I had what felt like a muscle spasm in my chest riding my bike into work. It persisted through the morning, and it didn’t feel like what people say heart attacks are like, but I’ve never had a chest pain before, so I went ahead and went to the hospital to get it checked out.
After the first EKG, they thought I was fine. After the second one, half an hour later, the doctor came back over to me with an alarmed look on his face, trailed by a couple people pushing carts with electonic equipement on it.
It turned out that I was probably right, it was probably a muscle thing. But, having a doctor look me in the face and say, “we think you’re having a heart attack right now, and we need to get you upstairs, every minute counts!” got me really focused. Thinking about leaving my family on this Ride prematurely was even more attenuating.
Happily, after a couple days of testing, and a couple more recovering from the tests, not only was the verdict negative on the heart attack, but they say that for someone who’s smoked as long as I have, my arteries actually look really good, and quitting will big benefits pretty quickly.
At this point, when the voice of nicotine suggests to me that it sure would be nice to have one, there’s another stronger voice that busts in with, “of course you want one, but jesus, whatta ya gonna do, smoke? C’mon man.” The only regret I have is that I wish I’d known that the last one I had that Monday morning was my last one, I mighta been a little more romantic about it. Probably better that I didn’t.
Anyway, good luck. Remember too that if you slip, it doesn’t mean it beat you, anymore than getting a hit of a pitcher means the game’s over. Also, don’t let your guard down after the first couple weeks, it’ll sneak back up on ya.
Billy K
Michael – or anyone who wants to quit – I cannot recommend enough that you read this book. It is remarkable. I’m not a self-help book guy (this is the only book in that vein I’ve ever read), and I really don’t trust that whole cottage industry, but this is the real thing. If you follow the instructions (which are super easy) you will quit.
Also, as another commenter mentioned, do be ready for other weird changes to your body. My sleep schedule was wrecked for about 2 months, maybe more. (It went back eventually)
/9 months without a smoke.
General Disorder
Good luck quiting. Been there, done that, decades ago. I went to a hypnotist. With all the money you’ll save by not buying cigarettes, you’ll be able to afford more gasoline. Lucky you.
Billy K
The other day, someone asked me how long it’s been since I quit (9 months), and I had to think back to when exactly I did. And I tried to remember when my last one was. I really have no idea, and I think that’s a good thing. A big part of the book I recommended above is the idea that we build up the importance of the cigarette SO MUCH, that we think we’re missing out on something. We’re not. It only takes from you. Cigarettes never, ever give anything back.
Bill H
I will wish you more than luck. I will give you a pat on the back and three stars. I will tell you that you are saving your life. I will tell you that I am a living and (barely) breathing example of exactly why you should hang in there. I have, today, just fifty percent of my left lung intact and slightly less than that of my right lung. The rest is dead air space. But it doesn’t stop there.
Because my heart is having to pump blood through damaged lungs, one half is working really hard. It’s called “unbalanced pulmonary hypertension.” It causes arrythmia and reduces blood flow. It also causes atrial fibrillation, which in turn causes blood clots to form in the upper chamber of the heart. Those clots go to the brain and I have had seven strokes.
All because I did not stop smoking until I was 42 years old. I am 65 now. I intend to live quite a few more years, but I am having to work at it a lot harder than I would have if I had just known to stop smoking sooner. Or, better yet, not start.
I also have Parkinson’s Disease but, as far as I know, smoking did not cause that. The emphysema, heart problems and strokes are absolutely directly attributable to smoking.
PeterJ
Anyone remember the good old times?
The Tax Rebate of 2001?
When two dollars got you three Canadian dollars? When a dollar was worth 1.17 Euro and not only 64 of their cents. When you got a gallon of gas for 1.5 dollars…
The good old times…
Jerome McDonough
Three cheers for quitting! And an extra cheer for quitting because you’re smart enough to just stop. I quit after a month in ICU recovering from a viral infection of the heart lining. Three guesses as what the doctors said weakened the immune system and opened me up to the infection. :/
Quitting’s not easy, but stick with it, and you’ll be amazed at how much more energy you’ll find yourself having in a few months.
MIKE
Best of luck my friend. I had bad cravings, but it was in social settings. I found when I was alone it was much easier no to smoke. Plus cigs taste like asshole, so that made it easier to quit also.
Paul
Good luck, Michael!
Billy K
I hate hearing that. I think it’s an awful thing to say to someone who is finished with smoking. It insinuates 1) Luck is somehow involved (it’s not); 2) it’s at least partially out of the quitter’s control (it’s not); 3) It’s a near-impossible task (it’s not).
Just say “congratulations.”
Don’t know if you read this, but I just saw it yesterday, coincidentally.
CrazyDrumGuy
Congrats on quitting and best of luck!
Tax Analyst
Ah, sounds like Form 2555, Foreign Earned Income, where you have to calculate your income by source, then also your living expenses if you want to take a housing exclusion or deduction and finally calculate whether and how much income you may be able to exclude. Lotsa fun…yeah, but at least it appears your accountant is handling it.
Good luck with the smoking thing, Mike.
Rebate thing is a total farce…an attempted Election year buy-off/sop that only teh stupid could really fall for. No, they are not doing you any big favors here. At the rate the FED keeps lowering interest rates (read: printing money) that $600 or whatever you get will be eaten up in a relative flash. If they really gave a shit about the economy these assholes would have included the unemployed and even folks who worked but had under the $3,000 floor threshold…these folks would be almost certain to spend that money on SOMETHING. Me? Yes, it’s going in the bank. No, it won’t change my spending habits. I will still buy what I need and some of what I don’t necessarily need, but want anyway, just like always. I probably will pitch some of it towards Obama’s campaign, so I guess that amount will circulate to some degree, initially into large media hands and then some of it down from there.
But the truth of the matter is that the idiotic, Wall Street-centric FED policies will cost me substantially more than $600 this year; directly in the form of reduced interest from CD’s and other interest-bearing accounts, at the pump, because all this rate-cutting devalues the dollar and oil is paid for in dollars, and then once again at the store, since everything in it has to get there somehow, and the higher fuel prices have been bumping those prices up at only a slightly lower rate than gasoline pump prices lately.
Meanwhile, back in the Real World, wages are still stagnant…and will certainly remain so – or perhaps even start DROPPING as businesses go-under or try to avoid that by tightening their belts. The housing market will still be difficult…and it really needs to be to correct all the over-valuation from that ridiculous Real Estate bubble that kept our Fantasy-based economy flowing the last several years. It’s not going to be fun.
If I thought this Rebate gimmick was really going to help the economy I wouldn’t mind, but it’s just this side of total bullshit…there is no sound theory or thinking behind it, just the usual sucking up to Wall Street with a dash of Wishful Thinking and a Large Dollop of the Customary Elite Cynicism that believes the public will slobber gratefully at being tossed a nasty little old bone to try and gnaw something off of.
As most of you are probably aware, there is only so much one can expropriate from a bone, no matter how long you suck on it.
Bey
Ok, last thing and then I’ll get off this soapbox.
Heart attacks manifest in a bazillion different ways – do NOT rely on the “crushing chest pain, shooting down the left arm” indicator. Mine was persistent heartburn – that’s it. I got concerned when it didn’t respond to the usual treatments. My cardiologist told me of another woman whose heart attack manifested as an earache that wouldn’t go away.
Serious biz: 1/3 of all heart attacks have a single symptom – death. Do NOT fuck around if you experience a weird feeling that doesn’t respond as you think it ought to.
/climbs down off box
Leisureguy
One of the very best books on stopping smoking is Changing for Good: The Revolutionary Program That Explains the Six Stages of Change and Teaches You How to Free Yourself from Bad Habits, by Prochaska et al. Actually, it helps in changing any habitual behavior. And at the link it’s pretty cheap. (Used copies)
Leisureguy
One of the very best books on stopping smoking is Changing for Good: The Revolutionary Program That Explains the Six Stages of Change and Teaches You How to Free Yourself from Bad Habits, by Prochaska et al. Actually, it helps in changing any habitual behavior. And at the link it’s pretty cheap. (Used copies)
KRK
Congrats to Michael D. and all the other quitters on the thread.
Since you mention financial benefits of quitting, thought you might be interested in this. It was started by a former professor of mine and his friend to help people stick to self-identified goals by making binding financial commitments.
I’ll probably get the details wrong, but basically you set a goal (could be anything: not smoking, exercising, visiting your grandmother, etc.), timeframe, and a dollar commitment. If you meet the goal, no cost. If you don’t meet the goal, you can choose to have the money go to either a random selection from a short list of “non-controversial” charities (e.g., Doctors without Borders) or what they call an anti-charity, i.e., a non-profit whose work you strongly oppose (my favority example being the George W. Bush Presidential Library).
Just FYI.
oh really
Wish you luck? That’s rich! Aren’t you the same guy who said this recently:
I think I’ll save my good wishes for someone a bit more deserving.
louisms
Check this out..http://whyquit.com/pr/082506.html
louisms
Damn it, lemme try again
louisms
Stii not what I wanted to do, but it’ll work. Should I have hit the “link” button before I pasted the link? Or maybe I oughta study up on tags so I can do it manually, eh?
chiggins
Do NOT fuck around if you experience a weird feeling that doesn’t respond as you think it ought to.
Heh. That’s what I was thinkin’ when I went in. “I don’t think this is a heart attack, but how the hell would I know, and the cost of being mistaken…”
Cost me a week of work, and I had to watch way too many Judge Joe-Six-Pack shows and every variant of Law&Order made. And the food sucked. Overall, not a high price to pay.
(And yes, Lucky Stars have been thanked for the good luck of being at a gig with good health insurance.)