Profile

I am thirty four years old and I was the Performance Director at Big Apple Circus. I made $70,000 a year and lived in a show provided RV. I also had health insurance through this job that was deducted straight from my paycheck, so I didn’t really count it in my bills since it’s never money I saw anyway (it’s roughly $200/month). My last day at works was December 22^nd and I’m on a six month leave till the beginning of June, when I’m currently scheduled to return to the BAC.

Saving & Spending

Honestly, money doesn’t even matter this month.

My mom had lung cancer and in September she supposedly had about a year to live. I wasn’t doing too well being away out on tour, so I made this plan to take several months off starting December 22^nd to get to spend what we thought would be some good time together.

I was home for the day on Monday the 17^th when she collapsed because she couldn’t breathe. She was sedated on the way to the hospital and never woke up again. We took her off life support on Christmas Eve.

None of it seems particularly real yet.

The only way money has mattered this month is that I have enough of it to not care at all. Whatever food we needed, I just bought. When the funeral arrangements became an issue, I just paid for them. I’ll be reimbursed out of her estate later, but let me tell you, I can’t even imagine how much worse it would be to be hit with nearly $10,000 in expenses in those moments and not know how you were going to pay it. She had about $4,000 that we could take out of her bank account immediately, but the rest we had to figure out and we picked like really cheap funeral options as it was.

Oh, I would also say money never matters more than time. I could’ve started this leave from work earlier and I was trying to balance several months of unemployment with making enough money to get through it easily. I had plenty really. I could’ve walked away from this job at any point this season, but I stayed. And so now I have six months to sit at home and freak out about what a poor choice waiting was, rather than time to hang out with my mom.

So, the moral of the story is, if you can, go hug your mom. And stock your emergency savings fund well for the day you can’t anymore.

My expenses this month:

• Food – $533.39
• Travel (Gas, NJ Transit, MTA) – $62.85
• Health Insurance– $140.63
• brokeGIRLrich – $2.99
• Funeral – $7432.12
• Books – $51.62
• Glasses – -$86.95
• Fun – $118.45
• Gifts – $901.64
• Tuition – $650.50
• Credit Card Rewards – -$119.52

Total Spending in December: $9,687.72

Hustling

My income this month was from performance directing at Big Apple and brokeGIRLrich.

• Stage Managing – $2,819.67
• brokeGIRLrich – $463.24

Income This Month: $3,282.91

Most Popular Post of the Month: Doin’It By the Decade: The Wealthy Barber Review

My Favorite Post to Write This Month: Great Stocking Stuffers for Your Favorite Theatre Nerd

Goals

• Max out my IRA. – Done
• Max out my 401k.– Done.
• Buy $5,000 in stock. – Done
• Contribute $3,000 to my New Car Fund – Done
• Contribute $5,000 to my Down Payment Fund.– Done
• Go on a family vacation. – Brigantine Beach 2018.
• Go on a best friend vacation. – Iceland 2018
• Develop 2 new resume skills.– OSHA 30 Training done. I’m counting starting an accounting degree as skill 2.
• Max out my Health Savings Account for the year.