Accountability: August 2025

Profile

I am forty-one 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

The most exciting thing that happened this month was that around 1 PM on August 27th, I finished my thesis.

To be fair, that thesis now has to be submitted, examined and probably revised (because pass with minor corrections is the most common outcome of a UK viva voce and even a pass with major corrections would still be a pass), but… I am in a strange little bubble of freedom. On September 16, I have a big supervisor meeting and a mock viva, after which my supervisors will sign all my paperwork and finalise the last form I have to submit and we will send the whole thing off to the research degree committee, who will reach out to my examiners and set up an exam date.

But for now that exam date doesn’t exist, so… sweet freedom for a bit. Just the usual part-time work and prepping a bit for the viva. And beginning to look into what jobs I’m going to apply for when I graduate. And writing a book with one of my supervisors during this time too.

So that’s school life. August was also really busy with some visits from friends and a fairly chaotic trip to Egypt in the middle of the month that I have probably talked about too much on the blog. But it happened and we’re glad we did it but it was definitely more of a feat of survival than I like my vacations to be.

Egypt was also, by far, the biggest expense this month. As the person who books everything, I always pay when booking, when I can, but I often forget that some hotels will not take payment until you are there. So almost $400 of that expense was the hotel bookings, which my partner already paid his half ages ago. That number also includes the full refund of our 5-day tour in the middle of the trip. That refund of our trip also went back on my credit card, so I had to do a little shuffling of savings account money to free up the cash to refund my partner his half of our trip, which means that my goal of having everything saved up for my visa took a little step back.

I’m hopeful I’ll be able to start making a dent in some of my 2025 savings goals, probably starting in October. Because I definitely have not saved much this year, but the adventures have been pretty good.

I’m excited to be back to adjuncting two classes starting this month, which should help, and one of my digital producing jobs has quite a few bookings (of course, the one that pays much less) at the end of the month.

My cousin and her son are visiting for a few days at the end of the month, which I do expect to be fairly expensive, but other than that it should be an inexpensive month. Fingers crossed. And fingers crossed for a few more bookings with the better paying gig too.

Expenses this month:

Egypt – $969.90 Rent – $879.38 Food – $335.98 Trains – $279.58 School – $144.10 Utilities – $109.99 Entertainment – $108.76 Credit Card Annual Fee – $95.00 House – $86.25 Gifts – $55.94 Train – $49.79 Charity – $43.29 Blog – $37.00 TfL – $25.16 Ubers – $21.15 Toiletries – $20.32 Clothes – $11.42 Medicine – $7.69

Total Spending in August:  $3,280.71

Hustling

This month’s income:

Digital Producing – $1231.10 Adjuncting – $988.49 BFF July Vacation Reimbursements – $538.28 Cashback Apps – $44.69

Income This Month: $2,802.56

Goals

Onwards to the goals!

Max Out My Roth IRA for 2024:Done. Max Out My Roth IRA for 2025: $7000 to go. Max Out My HSA– $4300 to go. Go to Egypt with My Boyfriend and Family: This is paid for. Vacation is in August. Best Friend Summer Adventures: This is also paid for. Vacation is in July. Sunshine Getaway –This is officially pushed to the fall. We are aiming for some sunshine and cocktails over a long weekend to the cheapest decent all-inclusive we can find in Europe the week after my doctoral defense – whenever that winds up being scheduled. Save $1,200 for my US Car Insurance by June Buy a Used Car in the UK– I currently have $10,000 in a new car account because my Toyota Matrix is on her last legs. I was saving to purchase a new car, but instead I’m looking to buy a used car in the UK after I finish my driving lessons for approximately £5,000 or less. Pay for a Graduate Visa– this is going to cost around £4000 and I have $4500 left in my tuition account, after pinching a bit from it to make it through the summer, so this should be almost good to go but needs a bit of a top up now. And fingers crossed that exchange rates don’t get out of hand. We will see at the end of the year.

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