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I am thirty one years old and technically, I am still the stage manager and lighting director for a touring children’s theater show called Clifford the Big Red Dog Live! Although this month has been month one of a two month unpaid layoff. I worked as a stagehand where I went to college for about a week (thanks, Dan!) and I substitute taught a few days. Fortunately, I pay no rent and have about $210 in monthly bills, so this wasn’t a huge problem

Saving & Spending

This month was one of those when planning ahead paid off. About a two weeks ago, I started getting this weird postcard shaped box of white lines across the bottom corner of my computer screen, but if I wiggled the screen it would go away. About a week ago, the postcard shape spread across the entire bottom and wouldn’t go away. Finally, I went to turn it on the other day and the entire screen stayed so dark you could barely see, even after going into preferences and trying to adjust the monitor. I could get the screen back to normal, but as soon as I touched a key, it would go back to too dark to see.

Instead of thinking “ahhhhhhh, my computer!” I sighed and thought, “there goes part of my awesome net worth, but at least I’ve got $1,200 saved up specifically for this already.”

So my biggest spend this month was on a new Macbook Pro. I did not manage to get the best deal since my computer died around 3 PM and by 8 PM, I had a new one, but I’m ok with the amount I spent. I’m really hoping Macbooks are as sturdy as ever, since this new version doesn’t feel as resilient as my old one and that’s the main reason I think Macbooks can be a frugal decision.

I topped off all my savings goals for this month last month, so I didn’t have to worry about them, although I did manage to pay for health care coverage from my checking account and didn’t have to touch the extra money I stockpiled into my emergency savings.

So not a lot has happened this month. I spent a week with friend’s from college while I worked down where I went to school.

I baked a bunch of Christmas cookies and wrapped a lot of gifts for my mom. Bought more gifts than I should’ve myself – I think I spent a week obsessively writing about overspending at Christmas because I was doing it. Sigh.

I got a shiny new computer.

I spent the holidays with family.

I also joined Planet Fitness with the hope of being able to run another 5k in May… and maybe even a 10k. It’s supposed to be very easy to cancel, which always seems to be a lie, but we’ll see in February.

My spending breakdown this month: 

• Computer – $1282.93
• Gym – $31.03
• Shipping – $11.56
• Food – $200.85
• Charity – $500
• Entertainment – $27.38
• Transportation – $57.63
• Gifts – $237.78
• Miscellaneous – $5.33
• Healthcare – $185

Total Spending in December – $2,539.49

Hustling

My income this month was made up of a final week of pay from Clifford, finally depositing that initial substitute teaching check, brokeGIRLrich, eBay and a few dividend checks.

• Stage Managing – $756.17
• Substitute Teaching – $473.01
• brokeGIRLrich – $777.23
• eBay: $12.31
• Dividends – $22.40

Additional Income This Month: $2,041.12

So overall about $1,000 net worth drop, which is pretty exciting considering I didn’t know how employment was really going to work out this month and I wound up buying a computer.

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

My Favorite Post to Write This Month: Does Influenster Really Work?

Elsewhere on the Web:  Tips for Conscious Holiday Spending U.S. News & World Report

How to Support Small Business Owners on a Budget U.S. News & World Report

Entirely Unrelated to Personal Finance

After getting hooked on The Newsroom last month, I binged watched everything I could find of Aaron Sorkin’s, including Sports Night, which was a pretty amusing look back at the turn of the millennia. The haircuts were a little rough circa 1999, but the writing was still awesome and hilarious.

I also had a lot of time to read while working as a stagehand, so I finished George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger. It was actually a really cool book – I had no idea spies were such a big thing so early in our military history.

I’ve also been working on ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garret. It’s got lots of useful tips, especially about building sticky readers… many of those tips I’ve not been that good at doing. So I’m going to try to improve.

Goals

Ahhh, it’s the last goals update for 2015! Where did this year go??

1.) Max out my IRA… Done.

2.) Contribute $1,000 to my emergency savings. Done. Obliterated actually. This year I contributed $2,425. Some of that was extra top offs before going into seasons of un/underemployment, but I never wound up needing to touch it.

3.) Buy $1,000 of stock. Done. Bought $1,000 of DIA, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF.

4.) Save $100 a month for a new computer. Not only done, but done in the nick of time. I’m writing this now from my new Macbook Pro.

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

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

7.) Continue looking for work for December and January. Done. I was offered a position ASMing another show that goes right up until the day before Clifford restarts, except it requires me missing the Clifford drive down to Missouri. I’m waiting to see if the company approves my request. If not, I’ll just be subbing until we start up again.