The Money Game

As a nail education junkie, I passed up opportunities to attend classes and shows because I just didn’t have the money. Also, the idea of committing to an event months away seemed daunting and impossible.

I read somewhere how just saving a small amount of money on a regular basis would slowly add up to a healthy amount. I gave this some serious thought, but it never seemed that I had extra money to put away. Because I am a gamer and gambler at heart, I decided to play a game with myself.

I was already in the habit of saving my change in a 5-gallon bottle, but it was a hassle to deal with and never added up to an airplane ticket or “nailcation.” I moved on to saving $1 bills. This was better, but still not adding up fast enough. So, I decided to get serious and started saving $5 bills!  

At first I thought I couldn’t afford to do this, but I decided to try it for a month. Whenever I had a $5 bill, I immediately put it in a special place in my wallet. Every night I put the bills in a tin in the closet. It quickly became a game! Here is the tricky part: Under no circumstances (well, just once for an emergency vet visit) would I dip into the “stash.”

I would also use a $20 bill to pay for the smallest purchase just to get change back. If a clerk gave me a $10 bill, I’d ask for two fives. At the salon I shared my game with clients and a few of them started saving fives too. I even had some paying me for their services with $5 bills!  

So the trick to saving money for me was to define my priorities and find a plan that works. One of my educational priorities is Cruising with NTP each year. And, yes, I will make this happen again with my $5 stash!  — Nanci