Saving Money, with Random Courses

I’m so good at saving sometimes, I astonish myself. The trick to saving money is something really secret, so come in closer. No, closer. Closer.

I’m going to whisper the secret in your ear via the internet: not spending money.

Wait, come back! There’s more to it than that. That’s the first half of the trick: the second is…spending loads of money every now and then. I work on the same principle as that movie series where all crime is extra, super illegal for 24 hours, to let the nation’s police officers vent some steam after all those crimes they couldn’t stop. The Splurge, that was it. And oh boy, do I splurge every few months. You have to spend, spend, spend in one massive session, get out all your urges, and you’ll be just fine.

I just booked a dry needling course, taking place in Sydney. What!? Crazy! I don’t even need to, but I did it as part of my splurge. You can’t just spend the money on bags and expensive slices of cake at big restaurants, oh no. You have to keep your spending urges guessing with surprise purchases. I saw a posted for a dry needling course, and I knew it was perfect. As a physiotherapist I’m always looking for new ways to help my patients. I whipped out my phone and booked it right on the spot, right there on the day of my splurge. It was a Splurge Casualty. Woo!

And it’s not like I don’t need it. You don’t go totally nuts and buy stuff you don’t even need. No, all splurge day purchases have to have a purpose, and I just happen to like the idea of dry needling. It’s progressive, it’s not messy, and the whole thing just seems really therapeutic, both for the person getting it done and the person actually doing the needling. New experiences rock, and are perfect splurge targets since they also give you something to look forward to and the effect lingers beyond the splurge.

I’ve said splurge too much. But you get it. My dry needling course is coming up, I couldn’t be happier, and all my urges are gone, gone, gone like cactus dust on the morning Midwestern breeze…

-Mauritia