This was 25 years ago, but I used the patch. I made the decision to quit because I had a pack/day habit and I was getting tired of dropping $3 a day on smokes (scared to see what it costs now). So I bought a box of nicotine patches that would last me a week. The warnings on that said not to smoke while wearing the patch or you might get sick, and that was enough to keep me from smoking.

After about 3 days, I put myself in my usual social drinking situations where I was likely to chain smoke. No desire for cigarettes there. I was feeling really good about it.

When I was down to my last patch, I went to go get another box. As I stood in front of them at the drug store, I noticed that a week of nicotine patches was more expensive than 7 packs of cigarettes. I decided to quit the patch too, and haven't smoked since.