bills, bills, bills #30
A week in the life and wallet of a PhD student in Sweet Charity rehearsals
Bills, Bills, Bills is a monthly series of anonymous money diaries from theatre workers curated and edited by Jenna Clark Embrey.
The full archive is available here. We accept diarist submissions on a rolling basis.
editor’s note
First, a trigger warning: if you, like me, find it traumatizing to read about a life filled with rehearsals that go until 11pm and also “Heidegger reading,” now is your time to look away.
It would be easy to rant about the injustices of academia (there are many, namely, who the heck can live on that stipend?), but some recent conversations with friends has prompted me to mention one of the reasons that folks often stay in these egregious low-paying academic jobs/programs for years: the benefits.
If you’ve ever worked for a major university, you probably know what I’m talking about. The benefits can be significant, especially the healthcare. (I still regularly dream about mine; I rehabbed a significant knee injury in 2011/2012 thanks to weekly physical therapy which cost me $0.) So while we can all jump to the pay inequity portion of this monthly column, let’s also keep in mind that some folks make this trade-off because their health depends on it.
This diary was kept in the fall of 2022. You can read a two-year update from the columnist at the end of this diary.
Job/Position: Teaching Assistant and second-year Ph.D. student in Theatre and Performance Research
Location: A place that just dealt with hurricanes
Age: 26
Yearly Income: $16,200 as part of my teaching assistant stipend + approximately $15,000 that I make in the summers doing temp, admin, childcare, or theatre production work
Debt: Just paid it all off!
Savings: $20,000
Checking: currently $2,623.48
Monthly Expenses:
Rent (includes water): $721.03. I split a two-bedroom/two-bath with my roommate.
Utilities (electric + wifi): I split down the middle with my roommate. Electric is on average $83.12, wifi is $95.50. We each pay $89.31 monthly for utilities.
Car Insurance: I pay twice a year in larger chunks, but divided out by month it is $52.50.
Healthcare/Insurance: I have (luckily) great insurance through the university and every appointment is a $30 copay. I go to therapy once a week, so my healthcare costs are $120/month.
Gas: I have a Prius so I am lucky to have great gas mileage, I have to fill up my tank about once a week for approximately $30 ($120/month in total)
Car Maintenance: Oil change every three months for approximately $62.50 each time (that’s with a coupon as well)
Groceries: I shop at Aldi and Trader Joe’s and average $70/week, so $280/monthly
Subscriptions: Netflix + HBO Max (share an account with my family that I don’t pay for), Headspace student rate which is $0.83/month, Disney+ that I only keep for two months because I’m cheap and don’t watch enough TV ($8/month)
My parents and I split my undergraduate degree down the middle and any scholarships that I accrued or earned went to my half. I started working in restaurants at 16 and aggressively saved up for college throughout high school. I decided on an in-state university, which I received a lot of scholarships for through my home state’s lottery. I also did dual enrollment classes in high school ($40/semester) that my parents paid for.
My parents made a deal that they would pay for half of five years of college for each of their kids (as both of my siblings did five-year undergraduate programs). I finished my undergraduate degree in 3.5 years. My parents said that I could apply the rollover money from the 1.5 years of unused undergrad tuition and apply it towards my master’s degree. I chose a 10-month program that was in-state and the rollover money covered my very cheap MA degree.
I worked anywhere from 25-40 hours a week during the entirety of my collegiate education and worked 40 hours a week during the summers. I did work study primarily on campus and worked in many restaurants/childcare jobs. The only time I did not work during that time was when I studied abroad, in a program that I was only able to do because the university had money set aside for two years that no one had used for the program, and they gave it all to me (approximately $11,000). My parents stuck to their “paying half” rule for that experience, but they did pay for my plane ticket to get over there.
My parents have never paid for rent, deposits, down payments, or sent me money. All of the paying for college costs they paid directly to financial aid, so I never saw that money. I do not have a trust fund, but I did receive a $3,000 inheritance from my grandfather who passed away two years ago, which I will be putting towards a Roth IRA.
tuesday
Today I am TA-ing a class and I brought my breakfast and lunch from home and ate both meals on campus. I am not a morning person so I’m typically rushing to get there in time, and then I eat during class while the professor gives the lecture. I had a seminar from 1-4 pm and then I went to a friend’s house where she served me dinner (free). We hung out in her pool, talked about classes, and made plans for what our cohort get-togethers should look like for the semester.
I had rehearsal for a musical I’m working on (Sweet Charity) from 7-11 pm and I ate some snacks after that I had previously bought from Trader Joe’s that I had packed with me. We worked on the number “Big Spender” and I spent the rehearsal copiously taking notes and making changes as the choreographer did to best serve the number within the space. I needed a new charger and laptop case, which I ordered on Amazon while I still have my six-month free trial of Amazon Prime as a student. ($38.26)
Total Spent: $38.26 (groceries were purchased a week prior)
wednesday
I brought breakfast and lunch from home again. I had a seminar from 12pm-1:30pm called Methods of Theatre Criticism (basically a theory/philosophy course), and then I had therapy from 3-4 pm ($30 copay per appointment), and then I had another class from 4pm-5:15 pm. I had therapy in my car because it’s the only time I can fit it in with my class schedule this semester. The class I had from 4-5:15 pm was a Performance Lab where we are directing each other in short performance pieces throughout the semester.
After class I ran errands to pick up refills of skincare/makeup from Target ($24.34, $10 of which I paid with a Target giftcard I had received for a pickup order that they had previously messed up) and I got my flu shot from CVS inside Target (completely free with my student health insurance). I ate dinner at home with meals I had prepped earlier in the week. This was my one night off from rehearsal and I was desperate for some alone time, so I just chilled at home after dinner and caught up on the new episodes of Industry on HBO Max.
Total Spent: $44.34
thursday
I brought breakfast and lunch from home again. I TA-ed in the morning and then went to work at a coffee shop with a friend on coursework ($3.75 on coffee). My friend is also TA-ing the same class as me and we were both exhausted, but we worked on our Heidegger reading that we needed to do for class the next day.
Afterwards, I went back to campus for a meeting with a faculty member to review a new play reading that I want to produce and how I can fundraise for the rights/use university spaces. After this meeting, I drove home, heated up some vegetable stir fry, hung out with my roommate to debrief on the start of the semester, and then worked on coursework for the rest of the evening. I surprisingly got the night off from rehearsal so I went to bed early to prepare for the weekend.
Total Spent: $3.75
friday
I brought breakfast and lunch from home again and worked on campus/took meetings with a friend in my cohort. We rented out one of the meeting rooms in the fine arts building because our office is currently under construction and we wanted a central place where we could work together.
I had to update my shots so I went to the campus health center to get those done ($30 copay with student health insurance). I ended up caving and going out to dinner at the end of a long week ($14.70), and I stocked up on cleaning supplies at Target because there was a great sale for Labor Day ($42.16). Afterwards, I went to rehearsal from 7-10pm to work on “If My Friends Could See Me Now” and took notes to make the necessary changes so that the understudy would have everything she needed. I hung out for the rest of rehearsal and watched as they put together the dialogue and the choreography for “Rich Man’s Frug” and talked with the choreographer about her expectations for the rest of the week.
Total Spent: $86.86
saturday
I worked from home all day today on readings and assignments for my Methods of Theatre Criticism and Performing Histories course (approximately six hours, oy). I needed a mental break so I grabbed some groceries for a friend’s party tomorrow ($17.61). (I also sold a wall hanging on Facebook Marketplace (+$18) and met the buyer at the same grocery store.) Around 8pm, I grabbed a drink with my boyfriend but he paid and we hung out at one of our favorite bars until they closed ($0).
Total Spent: $17.61, but made $18 back
sunday
Ran a lot of errands today: got gas for the week ($32.59), picked up a pair of off-brand Birkenstocks with my Kohl’s cash because my current pair are officially unwearable ($26.86), and stocked up on skincare products I will need for the year because of a Labor Day sale ($41.98). During the day, I went over to my friend’s house for brunch and we made plans for Thanksgiving. (We have a lot of international students in our cohort, so we were trying to plan how we wanted to spend our days off to make it feel like a home away from home for them). We hung out, took pictures, and generally had a very merry time. Later that night, I went out to eat with friends ($15.75) and afterwards went over to their house to watch more episodes of The Rehearsal with Nathan Fielder. (A great, wild show if you haven’t seen it.)
Total Spent: $117.18
monday
I ate all of my meals at home today while I worked/cleaned. I worked on readings and planning out my lectures for World Theatre History. (TAs get to teach twice a semester.) I went grocery shopping later in the day at Aldi and Trader Joe’s ($66.46) and I bought some command hooks for our new grad office at Target ($1.72). Construction on the grad office is finished, so I dropped off wall hangings and my office supplies so I wouldn’t have to haul it all first thing the next morning when I was barely feeling alive/not awake. I took a nap and worked out and finished up watching the last few episodes of The Bear.
Total Spent: $68.18
tuesday
I brought my coffee and breakfast with me from home to eat during my first class, and then I moved into the new grad office. Stopped by CVS to buy dry shampoo ($4.56 with coupon). I worked in the grad office for a couple of hours in between and talked to the new graduate students about questions they had about the program and what they were hoping to do that year production-wise.
I attended my three-hour seminar after lunch. We all alternate buying snacks for the group, so this was sort of an in-between lunch and dinner meal for me ($0). I won’t lie, this class is not very well organized so I am always mentally exhausted afterward because it feels like it drags on forever. The concepts are there, but the flow and structure of the class is too loosey-goosey for my taste and I feel like we waste a lot of time. Went back home to rest up a bit and look over the choreography for the rehearsal I had tonight for Sweet Charity, and then had rehearsal until 11pm and headed home!
Total Spent: $4.56
Weekly Spending Total: $380.74
fall 2024 update
I am now a Ph.D. candidate, which is a fancy way of saying I am done with classes and I'm now writing my dissertation. After much advocacy by our Graduate Student Union and individual members of my grad cohort, we now receive a stipend of $22,800/year before taxes. I have also become a Pilates instructor to supplement this income ($25/class) and I teach about four classes a week.
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