Profile

I am thirty seven years old and I’m a freelance stage manager and digital event producer. I make $1826 a week working for a circus and $50/hour at the digital production company I work with. I was able to work both for the last few months in preproduction, but October is the end of that. I also worked as a stagehand for a few days and made some money from the blog.

Spending & Saving

This month was still a little intense, but less so than last month. Letting go of the murder mysteries was the right call, because clearing up my evenings made me feel a little more in control of my life despite working pretty much two full time jobs this month.

I did sub on 3 murder mystery games over the course of the month, which was actually a lot of fun. That group of co-workers are really so fantastic despite the whole thing being digital. It was fun to run some game with them again.

But otherwise I spent most of the month working on the digital events and doing preproduction work for the circus I’ll be working on for the next three weeks in Virginia. November should also be a pretty good income month but December is looking like it will be nearly nothing because I will have done no digital workshops while on site with the circus (and since they pay out 30 days later, that means December will be the rough month). Also December is a slow month for the digital producing, so I think January will also be really low if I even wind up picking up any shifts.

But I will just try to do a good job saving this month and next month and it will all be fine. Probably. Who ever really knows what’s coming next in life?

BUT this month we did all the things again, so my income is… pretty high. I’ve set aside a large portion of the circus money to try to max out my self-employed retirement account. It also looks possible that even if I do get into school, I may still manage my $325k in 2021 goal.

Speaking of, still don’t really know what’s going on there. I thought it would all be sorted by the end of summer, but nope, here we are, still chilling in the endless state of luminosity. With my first choice school I’m still waiting to do my final interview because the guy who would be my advisor got Covid.

My second choice required that you submit a full doctoral proposal, but they partner you with your potential advisor to work on it so that just took… a bazillion drafts before she approved it but I was finally allowed to submit my full application just this past week.

I get a bit stressed when I don’t have a set plan in life and we’re now on… what? Month eighteen or so of no set plan… so I’m not the happiest camper.

It’ll all work out somehow. Or not? I don’t even know anymore.

Anyway, as I type this, I am on day one in the hotel for this circus and I have to say, I felt super apprehensive and like… do I even want to live this life anymore and the absolute most ridiculous thing switched a switch in my head today and made me excited to be here.

I laminated the dressing room signs (as you can see above in the picture).

And I felt like a real stage manager again for the first time since January 2020 – despite honestly weathering the pandemic better than many and doing many things that were tangential to stage management and even a few little one-off stage management gigs.

Anyway, I’m excited about this job and to help create this show.

Back to the money stuff. I did spend considerably more than normal. I ate out a few more times than the last few months and also just stocked up a ton of food to eat in the hotel and at rehearsals. I did GreenChef meal kits with my dad this month, which were more expensive than most of the others (and not so good, do not recommend).

I also decided to try shipping Factor and Farmer’s Fridge to see if I can mitigate some of the healthy choice damage that I’m like 90% sure is likely to happen while I’m out here. So, food is real high, though some of that food is to eat in November, so maybe it’ll be notable low next month? I am also staying at a hotel that has breakfast and we are being served dinner during tech and three show days.

Entertainment is also very high. I bought tickets to The Woman in Black to go see with a friend later in November and he still owes me for his ticket. I also did bank on the idea that I will be living in England by May and bought a ticket to Punchdrunk’s new show, which is probably my biggest step towards believing it may really happen. If not, I guess it’s a super weird excuse go to London one random day in May.

I also bought a ticket to Third Rail’s digital show, which was… yet another digital show? I didn’t love it. But I also felt like I should watch it considering the whole doctorate goal and all. Hopefully it at least gives me something to talk about in all these upcoming interviews.

Other than all the theater (which is like 2/3 of that cost), I went to several breweries with different friends this month.

Stage managing included buying a bunch of supplies that I realized were broken or missing as I got my life together to be here working on this show.

I did notice I’ve developed a questionable habit of wandering the mall when I have free time and am restless. This is probably why clothes are so high (and have been the last like three months – I think I’ve replaced running out for ice cream or other food treats with this and it’s maybe not the smartest choice).

I had to cave and buy ear pods for my phone because I kept trying to use adaptors to stubbornly stick to my old earphones, but the adapters kept snapping off when I would put my phone in my back pocket.

Also, I paid health insurance this month? A very random amount. I am still so suspicious of everything going on with my health insurance premiums and I am certain I am going to get walloped somehow at tax time.

So we continue to just bop along, like we have for the last 10 years. This is clearly my highest income month ever. My net worth also made one of the bigger, if not biggest, jumps it’s ever done in one month. I do think the stock market was down last month while I was calculating but still.

Not convinced money is really real. There’s where I’m at in my personal finance journey these days.

My expenses this month:

• Food – $814.52
• Entertainment – $546.91
• Stage Managing – $152.62
• Clothes – $129.28
• Gas – $119.14
• Dog – $116.68
• Gifts – $93.01
• Toiletries – $84.15
• Candles – $51.00
• Phone – $50.09
• brokeGIRLrich – $37.00
• Gym – $28.78
• Health Insurance – $22.74
• School – $21.27

Total Spending in October: $2,267.19

Hustling

This month’s income comes from digital producing, stage managing, brokeGIRLrich, and working as a stagehand.

• Stage Managing – $10,961.52
• Digital Event Producing – $4150.00
• brokeGIRLrich – $1827.22
• Stagehand – $628.86

Income This Month: $17,567.60

Goals

• Max out my Roth IRA. Done. New goal is to have the 2022 contribution fully ready to go on January 1^st.
• Max out my HSA. Done
• Invest $2,000. Done.
• Save up $3,000 for post-pandemic traveling. Done
• Add $1,000 to the emergency savings account. Done
• Add $2,000 to the new car savings account. Done
• Break $300,000 net worth. Updated to break $325,000.  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.