Profile

I am thirty years old and I am a stage manager/lighting director for a show about to head out on tour. I just moved out of one of the most expensive cities in America in favor of storing my stuff at my parents house while I’m on the road until the end of May. I make $700 a week with a $30/day per diem once we hit the road on January 1st.

Saving & Spending

This month was sort of ridiculous. I was really excited to get paid two weeks of vacation pay from my previous job, only to learn my boss had messed up and given me too much vacation time back in August that we both thought I had banked, but in reality ate up those days. So… yay for 1 vacation day of extra pay.

Sigh. It really just felt par for the course over there when our HR person was going over that with me. I did however finally get the reimbursement from my flex account for my contacts, so my final check had that additional $525 in it.

On the plus side, I don’t work there anymore. And life has been much better since I left in the middle of the month. Also on the plus side, the week before starting my new job, I was told by their HR person that I was getting paid at 60% the week before for any prep work I had to do – which was pretty exciting since I did do several hours of prep work that week, including going to a meeting with one of the producers, but I didn’t expect to get paid for any of it. So while it wasn’t the two weeks of pay I was expecting, it was still a few hundred extra dollars.

After the vacation pay snafu, I wasn’t sure if I would make my savings goal for 2014, but this week I did top off my savings account! It’s sitting pretty at $5,025. Nailed it. Also, since my rent is $0 with my parents, that is definitely more than 6 months of expenses covered. My end goal for my emergency savings is actually $10,000 but I think going forward my goal will be to add $100 a month until I hit it.

I’m also holding onto a few hundred dollars in my checking account to dump right into my IRA on January 1st. I’m going to start the year out right.

As far as spending, I thought it would be a much more expensive month than it was. I finished most of my Christmas shopping by the end of November. Speaking of, my favorite post I read this month was from Brian over at Debt Discipline who asked What Did You Get? You should all check it out if you haven’t already!

I ate lunch out pretty much every day of rehearsals, but I had a gift certificate from my aunt for Christmas that funded all of that… it sure didn’t hurt that I was rehearsing around the corner from a $1 pizza place and I love that stuff (this is probably why I failed at that whole losing weight goal). Other than that I was trying to clean out my cabinets, so all other food I ate for about a week and a half came from home.

I also met up with a few other PF bloggers to go see Stefanie from The Broke and Beautiful Life in How the Grinch Stole Christmas! It was a terrific show – although I’m not gonna lie, it was the first time I’d heard some of those songs about all the crap the Whos buy and thought “these would make some excellent blog posts.” Anyway, she was terrific and the set design was a lot of fun.

My big spend this month was on tickets to a masquerade ball for New Year’s Eve… which I’ve been increasingly excited about since I bought my mask.

Hustling

This month’s hustles weren’t super impressive, possibly because I felt like I was running full tilt into a wall most of the month.

• brokeGIRLrich: 96.80
• eBates Check: $105.96
• Dividends: $18.56

*~**~*~**~*

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

My Favorite Post to Write This Month: Give Thanks the Smart Way: How to Check a Charity is Legit

Inside the Artist’s Wallet: Episode 3: Artistic Dreams and Financial Responsibilities 

Elsewhere on the Web: Why Shopping in Your Home State Can Help You Save at U.S. News & World Report

How to Save Money by Staying in Hostels at U.S. News & World Report

Entirely Unrelated to Personal Finance 

I was really excited to learn that my new cast loves board games. I’m kind of an addict myself and am planning to pack a few for the tour. Does anyone have any van friendly recommendations?

Also, the song I’m really into this month is Murder in the City by the Avett Brothers. It’s just so weird, I can’t stop laughing while I listen to it.

Goals

Oh my gosh! A whole new years of goals!

1.) Max out my IRA (didn’t I just do this? Sigh. Circle of life).

2.) Contribute $1,000 to my emergency savings.

3.) Buy $1,000 of stock.

4.) Save $100 a month for a new computer (hopefully the current one will make it another year).

5.) Save $100 a month for a new car (I’m hoping the current one will make it to roughly 2021).

6.) Save $2,000 for a house down payment.

7.) Find a job for when the current one ends at the end of May.

8.) Side hustle and credit card reward my way to FinCon15 – if my work schedule allows.