Profile

I am thirty eight years old and I’m a digital event producer and very occasional freelance stage manager. I make $55/hour at the digital production company I work with. I work a variety of small side hustles and am a full time student working on a PhD in Drama.

Spending & Saving

Alright, October. You were ok in many ways.

My schedule was pretty much as insane as September but a few things had been scheduled in months ago, so fun was had.

I also got really flipping sick in the middle of the month for a week which threw a real wrench in the school plans and trapped me in New Jersey for a few extra days.

Overall though, this month was kind of nice.

It started on vacation with the boyfriend and his group of friends to this place called Centre Parks. It reminded me of Kellerman’s from Dirty Dancing. We all stayed in two cabins next to each other and did several of the activities at the resort but he largely treated to most of them. We did a fun ropes course, some geocaching and bowled. They also had a really fun water park there. Kind of lovely after the absolute killer of a month that September was between work and school.

Then October continued the unrelenting pace with an overall increase in digital workshop sessions and a lot of extra work with the relationship management.

I had a small nervous breakdown that I was not balancing things ok and after a lot of stress about it, I spoke with my supervisor about quitting the relationship management role going forward. Everyone was lovely and I’m hopeful this gives me back a little more balance to my life. If the digital workshops remain as relentless as they have been – which is nice for my bank account and rough on my sanity – I will also look at cutting back on ushering going forward.

The pattern of studying in the morning starting between 7-8 am and going till 1:30-2:30 pm and then digital workshopping all evening was working pretty well earlier in the doctorate so I’m hoping to get back to that and then having one to two days a week without the workshops scheduled to catch up on any school stuff and have some semblance of a social life that doesn’t always have to be scheduled out weeks in advance.

I think I fell into the very classic trap of thinking I can do way more than I can. Has anyone else also noticed your ability to deal with a lot is less than it was before the pandemic? I can’t tell whether that timeframe just straddled an aging point where I got slower or if the pandemic did it to me, but I definitely need to put a little less on my plate than I used to.

And I feel like a failure because of that, so that’s cool. Even though I would tell anyone else they are crazy and it’s ok to have limits and not want every second of your life claimed by obligations. You do not have to be productive every second. You don’t have to be productive a lot of the seconds actually.

Sigh. Anyway. Hopefully this will make things a little better.

Speaking of things scheduled well in advance, I spent a week in New Jersey for my cousin’s wedding. Most of the week I still studied and worked but I did cram in family time at dinner every night and I played hooky on Friday to celebrate my dad’s birthday a few weeks late with him and we played pinball down the shore for a few hours and had lunch together. It was really nice.

Then my cousin’s two small children gave me the plague (not a covid plague, a run of the mill child plague) and it knocked me out. I had so much trouble breathing. I wound up bumping my flight back three extra days, which I have never done before and, quite honestly, loved that my life allowed the flexibility to be sick in New Jersey instead of trying to fly while my head explodes. Or maybe my body was just giving up on life after the last two months.

When I got back, I was fairly behind in everything. There was some last minute housekeeping from the June Symposium that popped up and I’m attending a conference in New Orleans in November that had several tasks that had to be done regarding both my own submissions and providing feedback for others. The month was not my most successful overall regarding my own thesis work. I was super stressed at my supervisor meeting but he was very chill about it and we just reset some deadlines for next month instead and I think everything is fine.

Of course everything is fine to some extent – academic research in immersive theatre is not a life or death task and I remind myself of that sometimes.

The month wrapped up by going out to a Halloween party with the boyfriend at the game café where we went on our first date and drinking far too much, which was honestly like 1/3 of the entertainment spending this month.

Another large piece of that expense was a ticket to Beetlejuice with my friend back home for December, which I am super excited about.

Utilities are also already creeping up and I’ve barely had the heat on, so that’s a bit stressful. Can’t wait to see how those numbers balloon over the next few months.

BUT – my net worth has also popped back up from the alarming abyss of last month back to an acceptable number this month. And I got a super random tax refund out of nowhere, which has never happened. I also finally got reimbursed for my expenses from the school symposium in June.

I was able to max out my HSA and I received a small random scholarship for £500 for next year’s tuition. I’m a bit torn between trying to save up to get a head start on my 2023 IRA contributions on January 1st, setting aside some extra for school a little early or actually contributing a little to my SEP 401k this year.

I also know I’m going to have some large expenses for my brother’s wedding coming up. My boyfriend did agree to come with me and the trip we’re looking at is going to be about $2,000 for the week, not including food and entertainment expenses for the three extra days we’re planning to be there. And not including any bridesmaid expenses. Also he has two weddings to attend that are much closer – Ireland and Wales –so we have some hotel and travel expenses coming up on that front too.

Why can’t people just elope anymore? Can we make that really romantic and appealing again?

But they should all be nice events and it is fun to see everyone. My cousin’s wedding this past month was a really nice time. I’m hopeful next month will be a little slower but probably not. Part of my brain is like ooooo Thanksgiving break and then reality sets in and I remember I moved to a country with no Thanksgiving break, making November really a bit grim.

Christmas is coming though.

Here is the expense breakdown for the month:

• Food – $585.59
• Entertainment – $436.23
• NJ Wedding Trip – $390.06
• Blog – $350.36
• Utilities – $222.35
• Transportation – $172.36
• Flat – $154.40
• Clothes – $128.86
• Toiletries – $102.32
• Health – $81.32
• Gym – $43.61
• Charity – $32.13
• Game – $18.64
• School – $15.13

Total Spending in October: $2,733.36 

Hustling

As usual, most of my income comes from digital event producing. The other income is quite the smattering of things this month.

• Digital Event Producing – $5865.00
• brokeGIRLrich – $822.14
• Relationship Managing – $478.18
• University Reimbursement from June Symposium – $380.41
• Ushering – $304.35
• Tax Refund – $173.68
• Murder Mysteries – $57.38
• Dividends – $38.40

Income This Month: $8,119.54

Net Worth: October 2022

Goals 

I think this is a pretty good assessment of what I might be able to achieve this year. If I have some extra, I will aim to make a contribution to my SEP 401k too, but it’s looking unlikely.

• Max out my Roth IRA.
• Max out my HSA.
• Save up $15,000 to pay my tuition for 2022-23 in August without dipping into the school savings account ($9,000 if I manage the scholarship goal).I accidentally saved an extra $800.
• Obtain £5,000 in funding scholarships. So this probably isn’t going to happen but I did get a £500 scholarship this month that went toward my 2023-24 tuition bill.
• Save up $2,000 for traveling.Done
• Balance work and school without losing my mind. This month really wasn’t good.