bills, bills, bills #35
A week in the life and wallet of a production shop head who left the industry eight years ago
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 from lauren
I gave Jenna an editorial respite since this money diary hit close to home. It’s been almost five years since my last full-time job in theatre. Unlike our columnist, I’m not completely out of the game. I’ve contemplated writing a “How I Get It Done”-style essay about juggling a 40-hour-a-week corporate gig with a full-time volume of freelance work and rehearsals (both in DC and out-of-town)—but why write 2,000 words when Dorinda Medley perfectly captures it in nine?
As I edited this diary, I nodded in recognition at so many details—the initial shock of receiving regular cost-of-living raises, the struggle to retire a scarcity mindset around spending, the devotion to British reality television. (A complicated tax situation also felt very apropos for April!) But what I loved most is how our columnist embodies my go-to advice for young theater workers: give yourself the uncomfortable luxury of changing your mind about the shape of your career, because over time your priorities and desires will shift in ways you cannot anticipate.
This month’s columnist opted to donate their honorarium to The Coffee Trust, a non-profit that helps Indigenous coffee farmers in Guatemala improve their agricultural practices, diversify their incomes, and raise healthy families.
This diary was kept during a week in August 2024. The columnist provides an update at the end.
Background: I spent the first half of my working years as a production shop head / freelance designer for several theaters up and down the eastern seaboard. When I entered my 30s, I realized I was hitting the ceiling of what I could make ($43,000 in 2016) without someone at a slightly larger theater dying or retiring. I also was sick of missing key life events in my and my partner’s life by sitting in my office during tech waiting for notes. I made some adjustments to my resume and started to look outside of the theater. Within weeks, I interviewed and was offered my current position, which (at that time) had a starting salary that was almost double what I was making in theater. I am still working at this organization. They prioritized keeping workers during the pandemic and made huge efforts to continue our annual level step-planned raises and cost of living raises ranging from 3% to 7%.
Job/Position: I work in public affairs for a foreign government
Age: 38
Location: The suburbs of a large city
Household Size: I live with my partner and our three-year-old daughter
Yearly Income: My current salary is $114,647, but if I work over 37.5 hours a week, I am paid time and half. (I regularly work overtime.) According to Quickbooks, I am on track to make somewhere in the neighborhood of $125,000. (Righteous bucks.)
My partner has a director-level position at a non-profit and makes $80,000.
It's worth noting that because I work for a foreign government, I do not pay into unemployment. If I get canned, I'm on my own.
Another quirk: outside of my pension plan and health & life insurances, I don’t get taxes taken out of my bi-weekly paycheck, so I need to pay taxes quarterly. My work does reimburse their share of my social security contribution like a normal domestic employer, but it's rolled into my paycheck and I have to pay tax on it like it was earned income. All this makes for a unique tax situation where I don't receive a W-2 or a 1099, but after receiving guidance from the IRS, I file like a W-2 but also include my quarterly tax receipts.
Debt: We own a house with about $500,000 left of the mortgage. That's it. We have a Chase credit card we share, but I zero it out weekly.
Savings
Pension: I have a pension with my job. The longer I am here the more I will get out of it—currently it’s approximately $1,300 a month when I turn 63 until I die.
Vanguard Roth IRA: $34,159.64. This is an amalgamation of old 401Ks; I make a yearly contribution.
Ally HYSA: $200,701.95. (4% interest a month, baby)
Wells Fargo Savings: $6,914.24
Checking
Joint Wells Fargo Checking: $57,188.09
Personal Ally Checking: $19,461.87
Bill-Paying Ally Checking: $6,876.47
My partner has her own Chase checking account. I know she pays for HBO, Amazon Prime, and Paramount+. (We can’t figure out our login for the latter.)
Both my partner and I direct deposit our paychecks into the joint Wells Fargo checking account, then give ourselves $400 allowance for personal purchases like coffee, books, gifts for each other, etc.
If you can’t tell I am actively working on moving from Wells Fargo to Ally. It's a slow process getting all your bills redirected to a new account. I'm stuck on how to move my water bill over without calling them during work hours, so we are straddling two banks.
Credit Cards: We have one credit card (Chase United) that we share. We try to utilize it and pay it off weekly. We use the points for upgrades for hotel rooms or short domestic trips.
Monthly Bills:
Mortgage: $3,718.85
Car Insurance: $94.33
Electric: $200 (higher in the summer because of AC)
Gas: $30.25 (lower in the summer because no heat)
Cell Phone: $175.23 (this includes our two phones we pay over time for)
Internet: $59.99
Water (every 3 months): $250
Apple+ Storage: $0.99
Peloton app: $13.77
Netflix: $16.24
Peacock: $6.35
Disney+ / Hulu Bundle: $20.14
Quickbooks Self Employed: $20
ITVx: $5.12
Amazon Music: $9.00
SiriusXM: $9.00
Proton VPN (Annual): $95.99 (renews in November just in time for I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here)
Groceries (Weekly): averages $140 - $180
Daycare (Annual): $16,500. This is usually $1,650 per month BUT we paid 10 months upfront in January in exchange for two months free. This is where having money lets you keep your money. We are comfortable enough to pay in one extra-high single payment to save $3,300.
I don’t know if this is pertinent here, but our kid’s college fund is all but taken care of by my parents starting a Vanguard 529 College Savings plan for her and maxing the contribution every year.
My health, dental and vision is covered under my partner’s work benefits, with the obligatory deduction from their paycheck.
Sunday
Sunday morning is always an early one for me. My daughter and I get up, eat breakfast at home and go to the store. Sunday morning is our “big shop” day. My mother-in-law and her boyfriend are visiting this upcoming week so instead of shopping for three, I'm shopping for five. The grocery store is also father-daughter time for me and my kid and it lets my partner (traditionally a night owl and late sleeper) have a chance to live a pre-baby existence for a few hours.
To be honest, I also love the grocery store and frequently make it a tourist attraction wherever we go on vacation. We spend $208.76 (joint credit card) at Wegmans. Higher than normal, but we were low on a few staples and the extra portions for house guests. I can’t believe that a mere ten years ago if our grocery bill topped $70 I would be sweating. Old habits die hard, so I still look for a house brand first before a name brand on most items. (It’s Wegmans so their house brand is still pretty solid.)
Frequently on the way home from the store, I will text my partner to ask if she wants Starbucks, but today we decided to make our first two rounds of coffee at home and plan an outing to the park with my daughter for coffee number three in the afternoon. After some house cleaning (almost impossible with a three-year-old making a couch fort) and a Facetime with my mother who lives far away, we make lunch at home.
One of my daughter’s favorite places to go is the brewery by her daycare. Located in the middle of a demographic of suburban millennials, there are always more kids there than adults, live music, and a significant play structure for her to climb on. My partner and I hatched a plan for her to take my daughter to the library to return and check out some books (their weekly tradition) and I will meet them at the brewery later on. We spend $31.70 (joint credit card) on three beers and a Kind bar. After the brewery, we head to Costco to get a few “take and bake” meals for the impending visit ($44.38 on joint credit card) and go home, make dinner, do bed time and have a quiet Sunday evening. I am in the beginning of fall bike race season, so I have been meal prepping a week's worth of salad ingredients into deli cups for easy decanting into my tupperware in the morning. I am relatively new to the meal prep club but I have noticed a significant impact on my daily spending. Salads still suck.
Total Spent: $284.84
Monday
My area is blessed with three mostly functional transit systems. I choose which one I use based on time of day and need. As I do daycare pick-up most days, I use the slightly more expensive option, but the station is across the street from daycare. This system had discounted fares all summer so I purchased a bunch of tickets a few weeks ago that won’t expire for two years before the summer promotion ends. (Another way that having capital saves you money in the long run.)
On the train I performed my Monday morning ritual: clearing our joint card from the previous week. You won’t catch me with a monthly interest charge. It seems it was a heavier week. ($545.89, joint WF checking).
Even though I pack breakfast, lunch and a snack (what’s up, Nature Bakery fig bars) around 10:30am I go to the deli by my office and get a second iced coffee and a muffin ($8.03, personal Ally checking)
I have a hard out at 4pm to make the train home for daycare pick-up. My end of day chat with my boss ran a little long, so I rented an e-bike to the train station to ensure I made it with enough time to spare. I treat myself to a Pret A Manger harvest cookie and San Pellegrino ($8.78, personal Ally) and pick up my kid.
On our bike commute from daycare to home we pass about four playgrounds (suburban taxes, baby) so we stop for a play session then head home and make dinner.
I had a bike race this weekend and spilled maple syrup on a bag that I unceremoniously dumped in the laundry room and then promptly forgot about. Unfortunately (and obviously), this meant that an active ant colony had formed in my laundry room. One trip to CVS for ant traps later ($8.44, joint CC) and hopefully the issue will resolve itself.
Total Spent: $571.14
Total (Minus Credit Credit Bill): $25.25
Tuesday
Today is a marathon day at work. I am up at 5:30am, packing lunch for me and my daughter and hitting the subway by 6:30am. I am working late so the subway is the most efficient way to get home, unlike the regional rail which shuts down at 7:30pm. I re-load my subway card ($10, joint CC). Necessary items, like my partner's gas for the car and my train fare, are joint funds purchases.
Because I'm working a 16.5 hour day today, I treat myself to a lox bagel and an iced coffee at the deli by work ($14.14, personal Ally). I am overseeing three events at work today, with the last one being a large reception in my work's outdoor venue. This involves a lot of physical labor, which my body—formerly strong from hangs and loads-ins and now atrophied by desk work—will be unhappy with.
Pre-pandemic my work had a full-service cafeteria, but it has been reduced to an automat with sandwiches, treats and chips delivered twice a week. The cafeteria ran as close to cost as possible and was a regular source of my lunches while it was open. Throughout the day I make three trips to the automat for Uncrustables and a Celsius ($1.86, $2.50, $1.86, personal Ally). Have you ever had a frozen Uncrustable? Life changing.
At some point during the day our internet bill is charged to the joint checking account ($59.99). All our bills are on auto-pay, with different stops if the bills go over a certain amount. I have read horror stories of people not knowing they have a water leak behind a wall until they get a $1,000 water bill. It's nice to have a big enough cushion to not only take advantage of the direct debit discounts most bill providers offer, but also countless times in my life I have forgotten to pay a bill because I was waiting for a paycheck to clear.
Work wraps up at 10:30pm, meaning I worked 7.5 hours of overtime at $87.89/hour (time and a half). One of the biggest changes from working in theater to working in a corporate environment is the normalization of fair compensation. If a particular event is not budgeted for paid overtime, I am encouraged to add that time into my vacation leave, or take a day off later in the week. This isn't just to compensate me monetarily, but also to protect my physical and mental health so I am not consistently working 60-hour weeks and burning out. At some point, time off is more valuable than cash. It’s even more shocking that the same conversations about work-life balance are still talked about in the corporate setting, but little do they know that they’re already light years ahead of the arts.
Total Spent: $30.36
Wednesday
Wednesday starts like any other day. I wake up, pack lunches off to the regional rail ($6, joint CC). Typically I eat my bagel and have the first coffee of the day on the train. Between my walk from the central station to work, I notice a cafe that I frequent has had its door smashed in and has been clearly robbed. In a gesture of support, I buy a muffin and a coffee ($10.35, personal Ally) and express sympathies to the owner.
Q3 taxes are due next week, so I fire up my tax program and log on to EFTPS.gov. I schedule a eye-popping $7,751 withdrawal from our joint savings account to be taken out Monday, then head to the coffee machine for my third coffee of the day ($1.89, personal Ally).
If I were a Ken, my job would be bike. It’s the beginning of race season and I plan on doing at least ten regional races this year. They range from about $35 - $65 for this particular genre of riding, though I have dropped over $100 on a single event registration before. I do my best to register early in the season so I can spread out these costs, because while I know I’m good for it, it makes it hurt just a little less. ($45.45, personal Ally).
After leaving the arts, a whole world of free time opens up to you. Suddenly there are nights and weekends that don’t involve sitting in a dark room pretending the tech table dried mango slices aren’t that bad for you.It is also possible to have a social circle that expands outside of your industry. It’s corny, but I feel like a much more multi-faceted person because I can afford to be, both with time and money. Ironically, it would probably make me a better artist.
After yesterday’s long work day, I leave work early and rent an e-scooter ($7.01, joint CC) to a bike shop for a new CO2 inflator ($26.50, cash).
There is a fancy coffee shop next door and someone deserves a little treat for working so hard. So I get an iced black and tan and a chocolate chip scone ($11.55, joint CC). Have you had an iced black and tan before? You would stop too.
I walk pleasurably back to the central station to wait for my train home. Twenty minutes before my train, I realized my keys are still sitting on my desk. Piss and shit. Back out of the station, hop on an e-bike, speed to work, sprint up, grab keys, back to the e-bike and make it to the station just in time to be the last person on the train ($8.09, joint CC).
The rest of the night unfolds as usual: daycare pick-up followed by a park stop and dinner at home.
Total Spent: $83.33
Thursday
It's pay day! $7,057.38 is direct deposited into our joint checking account. This includes a social security rebate from my work of $2,599.26. These happen quarterly and time out with the next quarter’s tax payment. I move $1,200 into my Ally account ($400 for my allowance and $800 into savings for later taxes). Our joint account balance now sits comfortably over $65,000. $60K is my marker for moving money into our joint savings account. I always check with my partner before doing big money moves like this just in case. Not that I wouldn't be aware of a purchase over $30,000, but you know.
I take the regional rail into work ($6, joint CC) and have a pretty normal work day. At some point during the morning, I go to the deli for a coffee and a muffin. Their credit card system is down so I use up the rest of the cash I have on hand ($8).
Due to my unique tax situation, I treat myself as a 1099 employee, so I calculate my taxes with Quickbooks Self Employed. To be honest, it's the only thing that's kept me out of tax jail. It auto-renewed today ($20, joint CC).
After dinner and my child’s bedtime routine, I run to a friend's house who graciously lets me borrow his air compressor to seat a stubborn bike tire for my race Sunday. Two post-art career notes on this:
I perform all bike maintenance I can by myself, which is pretty much everything. It really scratches the mental problem-solving, hands-on work itch that I don’t get from my current job. I respect bike shops and professional bike mechanics but they are always a last resort for me.
I desperately miss having a shop at my disposal.
Total Spent: $34
Friday
Today was another early one. I took the subway to work at 5am ($4, joint CC) for a morning event. It's Friday and early, so I didn’t make breakfast at home and buy a bacon egg and cheese bagel and an iced coffee ($12, joint CC) from the deli. (Am I putting the owner’s kids through college yet?)
I have a bike race this weekend and I have not been happy with my brakes, so I purchased some new brake calipers that I have been eyeing up for a little bit ($179, personal checking). While I know I could have purchased these whenever I like, old habits die hard and as a middle-aged man, I still get anxiety over purchases over $20. Since the pandemic and the decline of Amazon into a rebranded Ali Express full of cheap knock-off items drop-shipped from Taiwan, I have resolved to do my research and bike the right product, even if it is more expensive. It saves money in the long run and I don't feel bad about contributing to the great Pacific Ocean garbage patch.
Later in the afternoon, I returned a cycling jersey that was extremely unflattering via the mail ($9.80, personal checking). This company is small, so no free returns and only store credit instead of the money back. It’s unfortunate because I can't see myself purchasing anything else from them, so the $70 might just be a loss.
My in-laws are still here and the chicken I thought that was in the fridge wasn't, so before daycare pick-up I run to Safeway for a pack of chicken breasts, store-made guacamole, a Red Bull and a Twix bar ($26.54, joint CC). The chicken will double as both taco filling tonight and a baked pasta ingredient on Sunday. Outside of coffee (which admittedly is a lot), my partner and I strive to limit take-out to once a week – usually Saturday when our child doesn't nap and falls asleep by 7:30pm. This is primarily a fiscal decision, though with a three-year-old, a standing “adult time” with food I didn't have to cook and a movie on the couch might as well be Eleven Madison Park.
Total Spent: $231.34
Saturday
Today we are going to the zoo. The nearby zoo has free admission, which makes for a nice taxpayer-funded day out. Before we go into the zoo, we all stop for coffee at Starbucks ($20, joint CC) and spend the mid-day watching my daughter sprint around looking at the animals. My in-laws picked up lunch, but after thinking my daughter wanted applesauce when she actually wanted apple juice, I quickly dropped a cool $4 on a bottle of juice to avoid an under-napped, over-stimulated toddler meltdown. We don’t always cave to all of her demands. Do we like her drinking juice with a shocking 58 grams of sugar? No. Did I take a hard line on not buying the bubble wand that she already has multiple of at home? Yes. We pick and choose our battles and once she's old enough to make her own decisions, I'll retire and take a crack at being a hostage negotiator.
After the zoo, and a twenty-minute car nap on the ride home, I suggest we order pizza and take it to the aforementioned brewery to show my in-laws a good time. I ordered four pizzas and a dish of olives from the nice pizza place in town ($79.16, joint CC) and we went to enjoy a nice evening out. The childless readers will know what happens next: the brewery is slammed and there isn't a table to be had. Clearly I have been out of the Saturday night game too long. I pick up a six-pack to go ($9.80, joint CC) and we all head home for the evening.
Total Spent: $113.36
Total Weekly Spend: $802.48
March 2025 Update
Has your career trajectory shifted in any way since your diary was submitted?
I have left my job. A combination of mental health struggles and personal goals came to a head recently and my family and I are moving. I am going to be unemployed for the first time since 2008 (except for that one month in 2011 when I was between contracts). I am eternally grateful for the cushion that working in the corporate environment has given me, but it's time to go.
How have broader economic conditions affected your financial situation since your diary?
Groceries are more expensive. As of March 22nd, our Wegmans bill was $200 for the week.
Were there any spending habits you became more conscious of after documenting your finances, and have you made any adjustments?
Much to the chagrin of the coffee producers of South America, I don't nearly go out for coffee as much. I'm not sure how one person can drink that much caffeine.
What's one thing about your relationship with money that you wish you had included in your original diary that you're comfortable sharing now?
Money doesn't buy happiness—but it does make it more attainable. I know this column is about money, but getting out of theatre really changed my perspective on things. When I worked in theatre, it consumed my life. All of my time outside of work was spent with the people I worked with, talking about work. This happened at nearly every theatre I ever worked at. I ended up becoming extremely one-dimensional. (I'm not sure how my partner put up with me.) Get a hobby, get some perspective, get a diverse group of friends who you don't spend your free time trauma-dumping with.
What advice would you now give to someone contemplating leaving the theatre industry?
Stop thinking that because you have turned a wrench for your entire career that you are not desirable in another field. I spent (and spend) a lot of time feeling pigeonholed into what I'm doing when my skills are extremely transferable. Managing inventory, budgeting, supervising an overhire crew, clear and concise written and verbal communication, project planning and execution are all skills that can translate into the corporate workforce.
Our columnist has set up an anonymous email address if any production workers have follow-up questions or want to talk specifics about how to transition out of theater and into a new field: sleepbeforedecaf@protonmail.com
 | A guest post by
|