Profile

I am thirty seven years old and I’m a freelance digital event producer. I make $50/hour at the main company I work with. I also work part time for a theatre company doing a digital murder mystery/escape room for £15/hour a few evenings a week.

Spending & Saving

I had a lot of feels on my birthday about what even was this last year? And I am presently deep in a well of feeling stuck again, even though… I’m not super stuck.

Like, I could take a regular stage management contract, but I have gotten sort of picky about the amount I expect to get paid or what I want to do if it requires deviating from my present setup.

I had several conversations with potential advisors for doctoral programs and spent a lot of this month researching applications, finishing my research proposal draft and researching funding. I expect to have most of my applications done by the end of August and to do formal interviews in September.

I also think it’s not entirely impossible that I may get into two schools but funding for arts programs is all garbage, so my list of external charities and foundations to apply for once I’m actually accepted somewhere grows every day.

I know some of my current very stuck feeling is that last month was kind of a slow work month and I was supposed to be going on a trip this week with a friend that we didn’t plan in time, then prices got too expensive, then we hesitated again and she got offered a great paying gig SMing a music festival – which is fantastic for her and put an end to our plans.

It’s also that weird break between summer and fall courses in with the accounting stuff I’ve been doing so… lots of free time, little to fill it with. Never good for my mental state.

I do plan to go to a winery in two weeks with a different good friend, so looking forward to that.

I also know that I am low key jealous of a good friend who I talked to pretty constantly during the pandemic but has returned not only to his regular life but just mixed his first West End show this week and I am like “what am I even doing with my life?” Sigh.

Sigh. Sigh. Sigh. So that’s my life update. Everything is fine but not at all how I want it to be. Much like last month’s update. I love stagnancy liminality.

But you come here for the money.

Despite this being a slow month and me lightly dreading what my August income will be, July’s was really quite good.

Food was kind of high because of a combination of trying to lose some weight, but being very lazy and wanting things prepackaged and ready to go, and meal kits. We finished up Dinnerly (total garbage, do not recommend) and started Home Chef (quite good, actually).

Gifts were also a bit high. Some graduations, going a little overboard on the BFF’s baby shower gifts (worth it though), and a couple additional splurges for others in that category.

Entertainment included a $75 theater ticket. Yes. Theater. Weird experimental VR based theater, but the event was in an actual location. I was called Liminality at the Museum of Future Experiences and I don’t really think it was worth the ticket price and it was super strange. But I did appreciate the subject matter considering my general mindset the last few months. I also went to a cabin in the woods in Virginia with my three best friends from high school for a long weekend. A lot of those expenses were sorted in advance, but the remainder are lumped into entertainment. Also probably one of the best things I did for my soul all year.

Fitness is high because I am old and apparently every ailment that can happen to a swimmer has been happening to me, so various creams, drops, ointments, and the cost of better goggles to not cause permanent damage to my old lady eye sockets are all lumped in there with the gym expense. Awesome. Awesome.

My health insurance is still doing the amazing but creepy thing where it looks like I have a credit, so… my only expense was a co-pay for a doctor’s visit on the endless quest to figure out my stomach pain. I’m sure I’ll get a bunch more random bills in the mail from this quest in August.

Despite all that, a pretty low spending month and I was able to chip away at several financial goals. The stock market right now is undoing most of that progress but… that is what it is.

My expenses this month:

• Food – $492.56
• Gifts – $364.28
• Entertainment – $295.62
• Fitness – $138.28
• Clothes – $130.56
• Gas – $98.25
• Miscellaneous – $57.34
• Health – $50
• Stage Management – $40.00
• Toiletries – $27.80
• School – $14.95
• Postage – $13.54
• Candles – $7.00

Total Spending in July: $1,730.18

Hustling

Most of my income this month came from digital producing income. I finally got paid for all those extra shifts in May and June with the murder mystery though I’m a little sad that we had invoicing issues and my payment was delayed by like 3 weeks, during which the pound to dollar conversion dropped a fair bit. I also did some UserTesting, sold some things on eBay, and brokeGIRLrich made a little money.

• Digital Event Producing – $5975.00
• Stage Managing – $1699.05
• brokeGIRLrich – $401.82
• UserTesting – $60.00
• eBay – $20.14

Income This Month: $8,156.01

Goals

• Max out my Roth IRA. Done
• Max out my HSA. This is on track. I’m actually a little ahead since I put in for July and August, anticipating the lower income next month.
• Invest $2,000. Done.
• Save up $3,000 for post-pandemic traveling. $2250 saved so far, about $205 of it spent.
• Add $1,000 to the emergency savings account.
• Add $2,000 to the new car savings account.
• Break $300,000 net worth. Updated to break $325,000. Technically I achieved that this month! But I suspect that if I get into school, the expenses to get my visa and everything will jeopardize this – so we’re not going to consider it a success for sure until December.
• Do two things to build up my stage management skills. COVID compliance officer certificate and immersive theatre design class.