Or does your budget not allow for such a thing? Fortunately/unfortunately, I’ve had some random a$$ things come up where I’ve had to ask myself the very same thing. And luckily (due to sexy budgeting and knowing where all my money hides), the answer has been a firm YES.

The most recent occurance happend as I popped into my dentist this morning for a routine checkup…and left with an extra $80 bill! Now, in my defense I could have easily spouted a “no thanks” to the proposition in question, but it really was for my own good.

My dentist had recently become certified in oral canceer screening through ViziLite Plus, and wanted to know if I was interested in getting checked out. Naturally, the first words outta my mouth were Hell Yeah! a) I’ve never gotten checked for cancer in my mouth and b) the process for finding out seemed cool :) Plus, the earlier you catch that stuff the easier it is to treat.

It involved swishing around a mouthfull of vinegar/raspberryish formula for 30 seconds, and then waving around a black light to see if there’s any nastiness in there (*shiver*). While it was scary as $hit waiting the 45 seconds for my answer, it was well worth the postive outcome I received.

But before we even got to all that, I was told up front that health insurance doesn’t cover it! Apparently people think you have to be at least 40 years or older to GET cancer – WTF? Anyone can catch that junk! So it was totally up to me whether I wanted to spend the $80 on the spot or just do without. Mrs. Dentist advised it was a good thing to do at least once a year to be safe, so it came down to one question: Do I have enough wiggle room in my budget right now? And as I mentioned, that answer was a YUP – I sure do! (This is what all that obsessive account checking does for ya ;) )

But the important thing here isn’t so much whether the money was there or not, but KNOWING that you can make a quick decision like that comfortably. If you can do that, you’ve mastered you’re money baby!