music, therapy, and me

A couple of months ago, I decided that I needed to be more money conscious about my extraneous spending, so I started an envelope system. I started with five envelopes - fast food, books, crafts, home, and miscellaneous. In the past four months, I have used this system to help me make decisions about spending in these categories. Let's do a little bit of an update on how this is working for me. Overall, I think it is going pretty well. I have spent my fast food envelope more than the other four, with the books envelope coming in second. I have spent a bit from the other three envelopes but have not come to end of the cash there. I have done less spontaneous shopping, and that is making a difference in my budget. Today is payday which means I am currently flush with money. That will only be sustained for a couple of days as bills will be paid, but I have enough money to get my envelope allowance to replenish my envelopes. Since I spent some of my account money on books and food this...

What can I tell you? How to be thrifty as a music therapist - Perhaps an update on my own financial systems? Perhaps a recommendation for how to be a bit more budget-minded as a music therapist? Perhaps a dialogue about savings that are accessible to music therapists with school id cards? These would all be great topics, but they need a bit more preparation to be fully realized. There is so much to consider when you are a music therapist - financial things, self-awareness things, professional advocacy things, personal advocacy things, fun things, administrative task things, and client things. When you are your own boss, then there are other things that crowd the calendar and the list of daily tasks (I'm not there yet...). One of the best things that you, fellow music therapist, can do to maximize your financial status is to ensure that you get everything else done. I am a strong advocate for the phrase, "Work smarter, NOT harder." For me, this phrase encapsulates the thin...

It is almost payday, so it is time to look at my current entertainment budget which I am monitoring through the use of envelopes. If you are not sure what I'm talking about, here is the link where I started my discussion. It is the first time for looking at my spending and getting things back to full envelopes. I spent all my fast food money and more than what was there this past pay period. I had two large food orders (one was benefiting the region's music therapy student association) which cleaned me out and cleared out much of my miscellaneous envelope as well. I just made a Thriftbooks order, so money has to come out of that envelope as well. The cash that is there will be put into my replenishment fund because I used my card for those purchases. I will take out less money from this paycheck to get me back to the amount that I keep for entertainment. I did not spend money on crafts this month. I did not spend money on my home this month. I did not spend money on the other ...

Here it is, Tuesday again, and I am avoiding the thought of having to go to work - not because I am not looking forward to working, but because I just don't want to leave my bed. Bed is comfortable, but money is essential, so I will get going. I did not sleep much overnight, waking at 1:30 and not getting back to sleep, so I am just plain old tired, but that's not the topic of this morning's post. Today is Tuesday, so it is time to talk about being thrifty! Speaking of thrift, let's talk thrift stores! My sister and my mother are champion thrifters! (Spell-check doesn't like that word, but I do, so we are going to keep it!) They have a series of thrift stores that they frequent several times per month where they keep an eye out for things for my sister's classroom, for my mother's various collections, for gifts for others, and for my music therapy practice.  Now, I am nowhere near their level of thriftiness, but I am starting to try it out. Things to look fo...

Welcome back to the Thrifty Therapist series here at music, therapy, and me. Let's talk about sound makers and finding ways to make them for our clients to use during music therapy sessions - sound makers that do not cost much to make, use, or replace when needed! As a beginning music therapist, way back in the very late 1900's (yep, I am THAT old), I had no money. I mean, I was living with my parents, paying them for groceries, and barely making my car payment with my $6.50 an hour job. I was a recreation therapist at a residential treatment facility, and I had nothing. I think I had a guitar and that was about it, but I still needed to find ways to make music with my clients. As a result of little to no money and very few resources, I had to get creative. Fortunately, I have a mother who taught us to get creative and to look in all sorts of ways to do what we need and want to do. So, finding ways to make music with my clients was something that I took as a challenge more than...

I asked my sister, the second grade teacher, for a topic for today's Thrifty Therapist post, and she suggested that I talk about the importance of laminating and having a laminator. Now, I am going to take this and make it my own, but know that I purchased my own laminator as soon as I possibly could because none of the methods that I had to use before I bought my laminator worked well for me. They work well for others, but not for me for some reason. On this post, I will talk about inexpensive ways to laminate visual aids (and then I will talk about the pitfalls that I have found with each of these materials - I hope that you will have better experiences with this than I do!). Technique #1 - Clear Contact Paper - You can find this for about $6 USD if you do some bargain shopping. Make sure that you make note of the width and the length of the rolls to ensure that you are getting the best deal for your money. Clear Contact Paper is very good for covering large visuals. It is flexi...

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 simil...

It is time for a new series - The Thrifty Therapist - something to happen on Tuesdays because I like alliteration and themes. Here's what I'm thinking... One of the things that unites us all is a quest to get more for less. We music therapists are no different from anyone else - we want things that work for us for less money. So, I am working on ways to do just that. Now, this does not mean that things will be free, but there are ways to find materials, share ideas, and stay within a firm budget as a music therapist. This series is going to be a way to share ideas and things that have worked for me in my decades of being a music therapist. There will be products that I use, things that I offer and sell in various places, some free things to download and use right away, and some questions and surveys of the music therapy world. I have recommendations for gifts for music therapists and for equipment, instruments, and supplemental materials for working with different populations o...

I am going to try something this month that I have never tried before. I am going to offer a webinar through a program called Meeting Burner. The webinar is NOT CBMT-related and will not be eligible for CMTE credits for those of us certified through the Certification Board for Music Therapy. It will, however, show you a technique for making mallets. Now, I am sure that many folks out there are perfectly fine with purchasing mallets, but I have always been someone who prefers to make my own materials, so I was thrilled to learn how to make mallets that look and feel like the ones I can purchase. If you are interested in learning how to make mallets, please register using the following link: http://MJ.enterthemeeting.com/m/4ESCNYYB . This meeting is limited to 10 participants. After you register for the webinar, you will receive a materials list and a bonus tool! Thanks for considering it!! See you on the 15th of March from 7pm to about 8:30pm Central Standard Time (or GMT -6 ...