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

Not such a bad month. Very busy though.

I am still hunting the £2,000 I won in the school competitions last year, so you’ll see a small tuition expense there that was the last bit of outstanding tuition so that my visa wasn’t jeopardized while I hunt this money. Apparently, it can only be issued by a single person at the school (W.T.F.) who was ill and then out on a bereavement leave. Maybe I’ll see it someday. My money is on I won’t though. At least I had the savings to pull it from.

That was my second-highest expense this month. The highest was a plane ticket home for Christmas. I’m waiting for the amount on the statement to clear and once it does, I will use most of my credit card rewards to erase the majority of it. I specifically flew home the Thursday before to try to beat the peak holiday rush starting the next day and I’m not flying back till the second week of January so this feels wildly excessive to me for the most basic economy ticket, United, but here we are.

Entertainment is quite high. This is due to two car rentals and purchasing tickets to activities for next month when one of my best friend’s visits for a long weekend. This month my dad came out to visit for a week, and while I definitely dad-spoiled me, I did rent a car so we could go to Stonehenge while he was here and buy a nice dinner one of the nights we were out. He also impacted the transportation amount a bit too as it turns out you Uber around a lot more with a 70+ American man who is not used to walking all over England.

We had a nice visit though. He’s been saying he would come out for almost two years.

We finished out the month/began November with a weekend trip to Cornwall to see some of my boyfriend’s friends. I had wanted to go to Cornwall for a while, especially since binge watching Poldark last year.

I was unaware Cornwall is so freaking far away from everything. I don’t understand. England is so tiny. But it was an 8 hour train ride. Which we sort of sighed and committed to to see everyone. We even talked about maybe going down a day early to make the most of the trek. And then while he were waiting for details to sort out about the start date for the boyfriend’s new job train tickets like doubled to £180 each and we were like… W.T.F. I found a car rental for £150 that we decided to split instead and I suspect we’ll spend like £100 in gas. We’re also going to stop at an immersive art exhibit thing in Bristol that I’ve been curious about for ages on the way down, so that will be nice.

I’ve decided trains need their own category in the budget tracking, since I want to confirm whether I was right or not at the end of the year that rent + trains in Peterborough is less than rent was in London.

This month I only had to go into school twice. Next month is looking like four times. I will say that I’ve found the sheer hours of the commute (close to 5 round trip) is a little worse than I thought but I’m trying to be positive about various ways to use the commute – like the bit of exercise I get by either riding my bike or walking for the first and last 20 minutes of the commute and the podcase I listen to on the way to school, etc.

Let’s see, other exciting things this month… I voted! Postage for that weirdly sized envelope was surprisingly high. I took my British driving theory test and I’ll tell you what, that hazard perception bit is absolutely wild, nothing at all like actual driving, and a strong motivator to make sure I pass the practical test in the next two years so that I never have to do that again.

My Christmas shopping is well underway with only a few things left to get – mostly books for the absolute plethora of small children in my life these days.

Expenses this month:

• Flight for Christmas – $1458.61
• School – $1345.18
• Rent – $811.68
• Entertainment – $566.33
• Food – $497.50
• Utilities – $142.24
• Transportation – $106.63
• Trains – $102.28
• Council Tax – $85.19
• House – $82.57
• Gifts – $69.92
• Blog – $59.93
• Charity – $41.56
• Driving Test – $30.80
• Postage – $5.59

Total Spending in October: $5,406.01 (or $4,060.83 without tuition)

Hustling

This month’s income:

• Adjuncting – $993.67
• Digital Producing – $660.00
• Blog – $649.34
• BFF Entertainment Reimbursements – $186.67

Income This Month: $2,489.77

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, $4050 to go.
• Stage manage a show.  Done