Profile

I am thirty one years old and I am the Stage Manager/Lighting Director for Clifford the Big, Red Dog! I make $700 a week and receive a $30/day per diem.

Saving & Spending

This month, while totally average, just felt like such a let down after all the big wins of February. Why can’t we get tax refunds every month? ;o)

The month started with a few big expenses. I bought tickets to see Absinthe in Las Vegas on the last day of the month. I bought mine, my roommate’s and my best friend’s tickets, so that was nearly $400 on my card. We also filled up the company van at a place that rejected my corporate AmEx, so another $90 went on my card that day too.

This reminded me of why I’m happy to be on top of my expenses. My roommate paid me back for the theater ticket almost immediately, but my best friend still owes me and the company messed up my reimbursement so I still haven’t been repaid for the gas. However, I still paid off my credit card with no issues at the end of that week.

On the flip side, it also means that I’ve been a little behind on some of my savings goals. Ideally, it means they’ll get a $200 bump early on in April.

I’m also trying to let go of the HIT ALL THE MONEY GOALS mentality for April, since I usually stockpile money the last full month of work to get me through the summer.

But in other exciting news – I have my next two gigs lined up. I’m stage managing The Marriage of Figaro for OnSite Opera in NYC through May and June. This is really exciting to me because working on an opera was on my stage management bucket list.

I had sort of figured I wouldn’t find anything after it ended that would allow me to make it home for my best friend’s wedding, but I actually wound up interviewing with two places that do a high school arts camp type thing. I wound up taking the job stage managing in Virginia for July and part of August, even though the pay is way below my usual minimum working wage because I don’t actually have any musicals in my resume and Roanoke seems like a perfectly fine place to spend a month. It also fit pretty perfectly into the time frame I needed to fill.

So I don’t need to stockpile as fervently as usual, although I’m not sure at what point I’ll get paid for the opera. There’s a good chance it will all be at the end, so I need some stockpiling to get me through May and June and then replenish the coffers in July.

My other best friend and I are tentatively planning a trip for the first week of July before I head off to Virginia, which would cross another item off this year’s list of goals.

My food budget was way out of whack compared to usual and my entertainment budget was a little high too (Absinthe better be worth it). The majority of the people on our show have also been sick this month, including me, so medicine got it’s own budget line in March too.

Also, one of my largest money suckers this month was setting aside all the money to pay my car insurance payment in June. So I’m set to make that payment for 2016, but it definitely impacted my ability to save for other goals. I’ll be happy I did it in June though.

My spending breakdown this month:

• Gym – $10.70
• Food – $718.50
• Entertainment – $161.34
• Healthcare – $190
• Gifts – $20.40
• Clothes – $16.20
• Medicine – $23.08
• Miscellaneous – $122.15 (this includes the company gas I’m waiting for the refund on)

Total Spending in March – $1,262.37

Hustling

My income this month was made up of Clifford paychecks, brokeGIRLrich, and UserTesting.

• Stage Managing – $3,044.08
• brokeGIRLrich – $638.62
• UserTesting – $10

Income This Month: $3,692.70

Wonder why you should prioritize investing? My net worth went up nearly 2 grand more than I made this month and that’s completely without taking expenses into account.

Most Popular Post of the Month: 114 Side Hustles: Ways to Make More Money

My Favorite Post to Write This Month: My Money Story

Elsewhere on the Web: Items with a Lifetime Guarantee U.S. News & World Report

How to Cultivate a Mindset of Frugality U.S. News & World Report

Entirely Unrelated to Personal Finance (or is it?)

The Tieks are doing a little better. They got worn on a second outing that turned into a lot more of an adventure than I’d initially planned.

On one of our infamous roadside attraction stops, we went to the Pirate Tower in Laguna Beach. I thought it would be a quick stroll down the sand to snap a shot of the tower, but we wound up climbing jetties and scaling some rocks to get over to the tower. Surprisingly, the Tieks did ok with this.

Then there was an impromptu jaunt to Downtown Disney for two hours of walking. By this time, there was quite a bit of pain. We hit up Olive Garden and I definitely sat with my shoes kicked off under the table. Then everyone wanted to go shopping, so I wound up throwing down $17 at Payless for a pair of plaid slippers that I then wore around like a sad slippered hobo.

So… the amount of time before I want to hack my own feet off while wearing them has expanded. They are still not the magical foot pillows I thought I was buying.

Goals

1. Contribute $1,000 to my Emergency Savings Account– Nailed it.
2. Max out my Roth IRA– Done. DONE. Does a little dance, done, done, done.
3. Contribute $3,000 to my Down Payment Fund– $2,650 to go. Maybe I’ll get there… eventually…
4. Contribute $2,000 to my New Car Fund– Just over half way there with $1,050 added this year. I’m kind of hoping to finish up this goal by the end of April, but I also know I should probably wait till the end of the summer. I think I’m going to compromise and put any hustled funds in.
5. Have a $1,000 Best Friend’s Wedding Fund– Done. $100 of it is already spent on the dress, but there’s $900 sitting there, ready to be used when necessary.
6. Buy $1,000 of stock– Nothing on this front yet.
7. Develop 2 new resume skills– Nothing here yet.
8. Track all the time I spent on my computer outside of work for 1 week and then go without a computer for a week and see how I use that time– I will not be attempting this goal until I find myself in one of those weird periods of unemployment/massive underemployment again. I’m sure there’ll be one at some point this year.
9. Go on a vacation with a friend– things are looking good for a July vacation with the best friend.
10. Look for a big show to stage manage– I’m stage managing an opera in June! And then a musical (granted, the latter is full of high schoolers)! But still, I’m excited to stretch my stage managing muscles in new directions.
11. Run a 5k– I used to think that hitting $3,000 in my down payment fund was the goal least likely to happen, but now I’m not sure. It’s definitely a toss up between these two.