The Thrifty Therapist

Today, I am starting up the official post series for The Thrifty Therapist. I am trying my best to make all sorts of efforts to share tips and techniques for saving money as a music therapist. I think that there might be someone out there who will benefit from these posts, so here we go.

I have some things that I have learned over the years about making inexpensive instruments, getting as much spending from every bit of my money, and making difficult decisions because I don't have much room in my budget for buying new things. So, my intention is to write a bit about these tips and techniques on Tuesdays.

I almost forgot today - I was home due to being dizzy and not able to move around. I think I am better, so I plan on going to work tomorrow, but I did not do my usual morning blogging routine today, so here we go!

Let's talk about being thrifty.

Part of this consideration is the underlying fact that music therapists are not often well-paid. Many other professions are in a similar place in the financial world, and there are so many reasons and things that are not right about this situation, but it is also not something that will be easily fixed, so while we are STILL waiting for equal pay, let's talk about stretching the monies that we do have as far as we possibly can! Okay??

Let's start with one of my favorite free resources - TPT! This used to be called Teachers Pay Teachers, but the site went through some rebranding a couple of years ago and is now just called TPT. If you work with visual aids at all, then getting a free account at TPT is a great way to start or continue building your resources to use with clients.

TPT is somewhat bulky to navigate if you don't know what you are looking for. If you have themes or specific goal areas, the site becomes a bit easier to find what you need.

Now, here's the best thing about TPT. Every creator has to release at least one FREE resource with the community! There are all sorts of things out there for free, and there are lots of things out there that you can adapt to use in music therapy clinics for specific goals and objectives. I highly encourage my fellow music therapists to check that site out. (By the way, I do not get any financial benefit from letting you know about any sorts of resources or websites that I recommend here - other than my own store, of course! If you can find my store, I would appreciate it if you interact with it in some way - there are a couple of free files on there, and lots of inexpensive resources as well.)

I have found lots of free things on TPT that I have then printed off, colored in, laminated, and used over and over again. That's another good thing about TPT - once you purchase something, you can use it again and again. 

The one thing that makes TPT work is an acknowledgement that all of the information that is shared is copyrighted and has a one-user licensing agreement - don't share with other people but encourage them to purchase their own copies. That's one of the reasons that I try to keep prices low on my store - I don't make much money, but I know that the people who are purchasing my materials are not breaking the bank when they purchase things from me.

So, today's tip is TPT!! Check it out!