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 and I work as an adjunct. I also work a variety of small side hustles and am a full-time student working on a PhD in Drama. And this is my last accountability update before I turn 40, which is kind of wild to me.

Spending & Saving

This has been such a strange month. I did actually do a little more work than usual lately with the digital producing and I for school I’ve been really focused on the workshop I’m developing and writing up my literature review and methodology chapters.

So it has been a lot of time alone in my flat. Which definitely had some sort of effect on my mental health because it has not been 100% lately. This month was also the countdown to a fairly wild July, with my best friend visiting for a two weeks starting at the end of June, a move to another city in mid-July, and then a trip home that we leave for the last week of July.

So with July looking like that – much of which is delightful – I know I had to buckle down and get as much school work done as possible.

I think it went ok, but ugh, I felt more chained to me desk, in my increasingly warm apartment, than the last few months where I was often on campus and interacting with other humans.

But, in better news, my boyfriend and I found a place to live starting next month. I find I am largely just excited about moving in together (though my dad certainly is not). I think because I lived all of my anxiety and uncertainty about the whole thing before I agreed to do it. So it will be really nice to be together and it will be nice to have lower bills because that single person tax is not joke. Good-bye weird little London flat – you’ve been functional for what I needed for the last two years and hosted some friends and family for some really great adventures. But on to new adventures!

Some of the higher expenses this month are plane tickets for that trip home and final a payment for our family trip to Maine in August. The boyfriend actually reimbursed me for his half of that and half our moving costs so far. Food and entertainment are a bit higher too – I think we were trying to squeeze the last few weeks out of London living opportunities.

Also, the last two years were full of wedding gifts, this year seems full of baby shower gifts. So the gift total is still very high this month. I did also find a really excellent Christmas gift for my boyfriend on Kickstarter that I’m pretty excited about.

Other than that, it was quarterly estimated tax time, but I clearly have been having a pretty low 1099 income quarter.

• NJ Trip – $2591.28
• Rent – $1422.72
• Food – $658.89
• Taxes – $512.00
• Moving Costs – $364.22
• Gifts – $270.46
• York Trip – $232.18
• Entertainment – $220.68
• Apartment Stuff – $173.05
• Utilities – $167.57
• Transit – $146.34
• School – $121.57
• Toiletries – $100.41
• Clothes – $87.38
• Blog – $68.57
• Charity – $40.47
• Birthday Party – $31.98

Total Spending in June: $7,209.77

Hustling

This month’s income:

• Boyfriend Reimbursements – $1756.19
• Teaching Assistant – $1448.11
• Adjuncting – $993.67
• brokeGIRLrich – $208.55
• Digital Producing – $192.50
• School Reimbursement – $74.47
• BFF Reimbursements – $71.35
• Dividends – $41.60
• Cashback – $0.80

Income This Month: $4,787.24

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.