Before I went back to school last year, I lived for 9 months in a loft with 3 other broke bummy wannabe bohemian types. 3 of us were smokers, and for a few months, all unemployed smokers. During one fine December cold snap (-20 C, 3 feet of snow on the ground), having spent literally our last penny, we loaded up a shopping cart full of empty beer bottles from a big party, carried it down a flight of steep stairs and pushed it 4 blocks through inches of snow and ice. We got about $10 dollars for our trouble. We had had no food and no smokes all day. As you can imagine, we didn't spend our $10 on groceries. (Though we used the $3 left over from the pack of smokes to buy 2 slices of pizza). You see, we were addicts and couldn't think about getting food until we had taken care of our bigger need...the need for a fix. It is with this same motley crew that I first learned the trick of collecting butts from an ashtray, opening them and rolling a cigarette with any disgusting, burnt scraps of tobacco we could scape off. (This also only worked after we'd visitors or a party, because we all smoked our cigs down to the filter.) What is shocking now is not that this happened--we were addicts--but that it ever seemed normal.
Linz - Free and Healing for One Month, Seventeen Days, 17 Hours and 37 Minutes, extending my life expectancy 1 Day and 15 Hours, by not smoking 477 nicotine delivery devices and saving $153.05.