Cigarette Fund

For as long as I can remember, I've thought that since I don't smoke, have never smoked, and don't plan on starting, I should take the money that I would have spent on cigarettes and put it in a cigarette fund to use for vacations, or whatever, really. I saw recently that the brand names are up to over $5 a pack--that's $1825 for one year at a pack a day. More recently, I've thought I should take the money that I don't spend on fancy coffee and put that in my cigarette fund, too. Let's call that $4 each, 4 times a week: $832.

Over the past couple of years, I've fallen out of the habit of packing Hubby's lunch each day. I try, but there are so many other things to do that are more pressing, and unfortunately, because Hubby is an adult, his lunch usually falls to the bottom of my to-do list. And to be fair, there have been times when I have made his lunch, only to be told that he doesn't need one that day. You can see how that experience might weaken my lunch-packing motivation. So, this morning, as I was about to scoop some easy chicken and biscuit casserole into a smaller container for Hubby's lunch, I said to him, "now would be the time to tell me you don't need a lunch, if you don't need one."

He paused, poor guy. How do you respond to that potential mine-field of a wifely question? He decided to answer, "well, I could use a lunch today, but if you don't make one I can just go out." Good answer, don't you think? I said, "oh no, don't do that, because that would cost at least $5," as I scooped. And so, now I will be adding $5 to my cigarette fund every time I make my husband's lunch--I think this will do wonders for my motivation. Let's say, on average, Hubby needs a lunch 4 days a week*. He works around 49 weeks a year, so that's, potentially, $980 per year.

Are you doing the math? That's $3637 each year. That will do nicely for an annual spring break vacation to someplace warm...

*I figure 4 days a week is a fair estimate, because when Hubby was interviewing for this job, they told him it would be 10-15% travel, and 1 day gone a week would be 20% travel.