Profile

I am thirty-nine years old, a digital event producer and occasional freelance stage manager. I make $55/hour at the digital production company I work with, though work has been very slow this year. I work a variety of small side hustles and am a full-time student working on a PhD in Drama.

Spending & Saving

Highlight of the month – making manicotti from scratch when I couldn’t find it anywhere in London.

A thing I appreciate about tracking this data is that I felt like the pound to dollar exchange rate was terrible this month but it was actually a little bit better than it was last month. It’s funny how easily perception skews.

Definitely not a strong income month, but I knew that going in. I didn’t do many digital production session the month before. Next month won’t be a lot better.

So I very reasonably planned a long weekend away with my best friend for when she visits at the end of June and beginning of July, which started with budget flights and quickly snowballed into a fairly expensive long weekend. She owes me a little bit for that weekend but she was also booking some of the things we’re doing, so I suspect in the long run, that’s going to be close to the whole total before food and gas for the road trip.

And we’re planning to go to York for the other weekend she is here, which has nothing booked for it yet.

In the two weeks between when the BFF goes back to America and I head over with the boyfriend for two weeks for a family vacation, we’re moving to another city in the UK, so between the security deposit and moving van and everything… it’s looking like an expensive summer.

And you know what, whatever. I will figure it out. May will be crazy hours in the TAing job and I start adjuncting an additional class too. Hopefully digital workshop sessions will pick up a bit.

At some point in early June we have to get over to Peterborough to look at flats. My rent should drop anywhere between £300-£500 a month once we move. I am excited about that.

But there is a fair amount of YOLOing this summer, along with quite a few academic things I have to prep for like the workshops that are part of my data collection, two conferences I applied for (fingers crossed I get accepted) and potential drafting an article if my abstract is accepted (should head back sometime next week), as well as finding up the drafts of the first two chapters of my thesis and my analyzing my first case study data.

Overall though, it wasn’t a terrible month for expenses other than piling on another summer adventure, which I paid for by pulling a little from savings.

• Taxes – $1705.00
• Rent – $1280.70
• Salzburg & Germany – $743.33
• Food – $476.57
• Gifts – $211.83
• Entertainment – $193.86
• Healthcare – $147.16
• Transit – $119.48
• Utilities – $90.60
• Apartment – $76.75
• Blog – $68.19
• -$65.77
• Charity – $39.99

Total Spending in April: $5219.33 (or $3514.23 without the taxes)

Hustling

This month’s income:

• Teaching Assistant – $1341.22
• Digital Producing – $591.25
• brokeGIRLrich – $143.77

Income This Month: $2,076.24

Goals

• Save up $5,000 for school– via saving or scholarships.
• Max out 2023 Roth IRA. 
• Max out 2024 Roth IRA ($7000). 
• Max out HSA ($4150).$100 contributed, $4050 to go.
• Stage manage a show.Starting strong! I’d like to hopefully stage manage another before the end of 2024.