Profile

I am forty years old, an occasional digital event producer and freelance stage manager. I work as a TA and an adjunct. I also work a variety of side hustles and am a full-time student working on a PhD in Drama.

Spending & Saving

I think the main killer expense this month was food, which kind of flabberghasted me at first, and then I realized that I spent two weekends away this month and they involved a lot of eating at nice places. Which add up so quick.

Entertainment was also high because of these adventures. And almost $130 of that was an incredible afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason that was worth every penny between the excellent food and excellent company. It also included my portion of a car rental for the trip to Cornwall we took to meet up with friends the first weekend of November.

Utilities also were a bit of a bump because of the quarterly water bill was due, but really it wasn’t super high. It’s always a gamble on those first bills when moving into somewhere new, but around £30 a month for water was what we had expected. We also started running the heat a few times this month and were pleased that our bill is definitely higher but still affordable – we are scarred from trying to heat our flats in London.

Trains were also very high. It does include an extra ticket one way from my town into London for a friend  and an unexpected extra trip into the city for a panel I was asked to present on for my research center. I also gambled on that last trip and instead of booking my usual roundtrip ticket, because I also used a gift certificate I received from my cousin last Christmas for a massage that afternoon, I booked the tickets last minute and in and out of a different spot in London and it added almost $20.00 to the total ticket cost.

Transportation also skyrocketed because it turns out I have no fortitude to ride my bike at 6:50 AM in the pitch dark through a scary, wooded bike path that is often flooded in the cold. I am hopeful I will return to the bike riding when the weather lets up in the spring, but I suspect I will wimp out and Uber to the train in the mornings… and completely run out of steam and Uber or taxi home at the end of the day, adding about $20-25 to every travel day.

Otherwise, it was a fairly calm month. We went on that adventure to Cornwall and other than eating probably too well for dinner each night, we mostly hung out and played games and did a nice cliff walk. It was also Bonfire Night while we were there so I went to my first bonfire, which was kind of cool and definitely a little weird to set fire to a straw man Guy Fawkes to the tune of every song that has ever mentioned the word fire. But it seemed like a nice community event and there was mulled wine!

In the middle of the month, one of my best friends flew out for a whirlwind long weekend here, which was amazing. She had never been to London before and I was so excited to spend some time with her. We showed her all the exciting highlights of Petersborough the first day: the cathedral, The Dice Box and the Weatherspoons. Then we got up very early the next day and went into London and spent the next two days there. We went on a tour of The Globe, bought too much tea at Bird & Blend, walked through several Christmas markets, went to the Tower of London and the Ceremony of the Keys, rode the London Eye, went to that spectacular afternoon tea and walked around Greenwich. And we saw Six on the West End. We packed a lot into those 48 hours before she headed home.

The following weekend, we had friends over to play Gloomhaven all weekend and that was the month. For school, I’ve been co-teaching a senior course called Performing Technologies which has about two weeks left in December. I’ve been working on a book chapter with my supervisor and his theatre company. A journal article I submitted almost a year ago was accepted with major revisions needed, so I’ve been working on that too, which is due the 10^th of December. And I wrote a draft of the full chapter for my last case study.

I did feel a little stressed all month. It was kind of a lot, and whenever we didn’t have people over or we were not away, I’ve pretty much been working every weekend too to hit these deadlines.

I am really excited for the holiday break. It feels much less break-y than the first few years of the PhD, but that’s ok. It is also already filling up quickly with friends to see and things to do.

Fingers crossed next month is a little less expensive, but it will be what it will be.

Expenses this month:

• Rent – $795.94
• Food – $639.04
• Entertainment – $347.11
• Trains – $293.79
• Gifts – $218.00
• Utilities – $172.61
• Fees – $148.21
• Transportation – $140.42
• Home – $103.21
• Council Tax – $83.41
• Charity – $40.75
• Blog – $37.00
• Clothes – $28.57
• Toiletries – $10.19

Total Spending in November: $3058.25

Hustling

This month’s income:

• Adjuncting – $993.67
• Blog – $856.85
• Digital Producing – $756.25
• Teaching Assistant – $84.45
• Murder Mysteries – $38.20

Income This Month: $2,729.42

Goals

• Save up $5,000 for school– via saving or scholarships. £500 to go in February to sweet freedom from all tuition payments. Maybe that prize money will come through by then?
• Max out 2023 Roth IRA.  That happened.
• Max out 2024 Roth IRA ($7000). 
• Max out HSA ($4150). $100 contributed. I’ve shifted $1300 from savings into my checking account to move here next month.
• Stage manage a show.  Done