bills, bills, bills #43

a week in the life and wallet of a New Zealand citizen & artistic producer in Melbourne, Australia

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

Happy 2026! In honor of the new year, we are starting with a column from the country where the fireworks pop off first…Australia! There are three different currencies and lots of dollar signs in this diary—our contributor graciously included the conversion rates and after some discussion, Lauren and I decided to keep all amounts in AUD, USD, and NZD where noted. But if you’re like me, the first thing our American readers will notice in this diary is the number of ways, small and large, that our contributor’s country is not generally hostile to the experience of being a human being. Do I wish ambulances were included in Australia’s universal healthcare? You bet. Do I also long for Australia’s retirement finance system? Damn right. On behalf of Lauren and me, we are so honored and thrilled that this column has readers around the world and we’re excited to share this arts worker’s experience and insights.

This month’s columnist requested to donate her honorarium to…Lauren and me. We kvelled, we cried, we are planning on going out for brunch next time we are in the same city. Thank you, dear contributor!

Job/Position: Full-time, salaried producer at a small in-house producing theatre company in Australia.

In addition to producing half of the mainstage shows (the senior producer and I alternate as ‘lead producer’ throughout the year), I also cover smaller projects (like education shows) and manage the building’s venue hire (essentially the equivalent of what would be called ‘space rentals’ in the United States, i.e. making money off of your real estate!) Venue hire wasn’t originally part of my role, but after the company made the commercial operations manager redundant and outsourced our hospitality offerings (café, restaurant, bar), I agreed to take over the venue hire as I had capacity and this also helped align it with our internal programming. (This did not come with a pay rise, though they did remove the income KPIs.)¹ Generally, I work Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, unless we have events or opening nights. I often work from home on Fridays.

Career Context:

I moved from New Zealand to Australia in 2022 due to lack of career opportunities and low pay in the performing arts industry. Being a New Zealand citizen, I have the right to live and work in Australia. My previous career was in stage management, and since relocating I have moved into producing. Within two years, I was already earning $30,000 AUD / $19,802.70 USD more than I was in NZ (not including a 9% increase in employer retirement contributions).

I am also one class away from completing my MBA in Arts and Cultural Management at a top Australian university, which I have been doing slowly, via a cloud campus, over the past four years. I only ever take one class at a time in order to juggle it with full-time work; I pay upfront and each class costs around $4,000 AUD / $2,640.36 USD.

• Editor’s Note: Overall, Australia tends to have a slightly higher cost of living than New Zealand, especially in major cities. Housing and rent are generally more expensive in Australia, while groceries and everyday goods can be pricier in New Zealand due to imports and a smaller market. Wages are typically higher in Australia, across all industries. Utilities and transportation costs are fairly comparable, though this can vary by city and region.

Age: 33

Household Size: Me and one housemate. We live in a two-bedroom, two-bathroom modern apartment in central Melbourne.

Annual Income: $86,700 AUD / $56,869.56 USD (before tax) + 12% superannuation*
Superannuation is government-mandated retirement savings. 12% is the minimum/standard employer contribution in Australia and applies to everyone—full-time, part-time, casual workers (i.e. people that are still paid through payroll but don’t have fixed hours, like ushers), and contractors.

• Editor’s Note: The minimum wage in Australia for their standard 38-hour work week is roughly $25 AUD/hour ($16.57 USD), or $950 AUD/week ($637.21 USD). No official ‘living wage’ metric exists, but the Melbourne-based public policy think tank Grattan Institute has compiled extensive data and analysis on Australian wages.

Debt:

• New Zealand Student Loan: $32,530.31 NZD / $18,870.02 USD

  These loans are interest-free if you stay in New Zealand, but since I’ve left the country I get about $3,000 NZD / $1,740.22 USD interest per year added.

Checking:

• Australian Checking: $657.37AUD / $433.92 USD. This is spread across two accounts: one for daily spending, one for regular bills.

• New Zealand Checking: $880.42 NZD / $510.71 USD. This is leftover from when I moved countries. I now use it primarily to pay my sister back for shared gifts for our parents or paying friends back for shared meals when I’m home during holidays.

Savings:

• KiwiSaver (New Zealand superannuation): $46,409.77 NZD / $26,921.15 USD - Because I’m not currently working in NZ, I do not currently receive it, although it continues to earn a small amount of interest.

• Australian Retirement Trust (Australian superannuation): $24,546.03 AUD / $16,202.59 USD

• Short-Term Savings/Checking Back-Up: $500 AUD / $330.04 USD. I contribute $100 AUD / $66.01 USD to this weekly, but I dip back into it semi-often.

• Long-Term Savings: $13,799.33 AUD / $9,108.80 USD. I contribute $300 AUD / $198.03 USD to this on a weekly basis.

• NZ Savings Account: $4,774.39 NZD / $2,769.50 USD. I have been using these savings to pay for my MBA.

Other:

• Investments: $2,029.41 NZD / $1177.21 USD. I started playing with small investments on a Shares app before I left NZ. I’m no longer contributing, so it’s just sitting and slightly growing.

• Cash: I always carry two $50 AUD notes and one $100 USD note when travelling internationally, just in case I lose my phone or wallet (so those are hiding in my suitcase with my passport), but otherwise I very rarely have cash to use on a daily basis.

Bills:

• Monthly

  • Rent: approximately $1,600 AUD / $1,062.15 USD, although I pay this weekly in installments of $400 AUD (transferred to my housemate who pays our full monthly rent $3,260 AUD / $2,154.66 USD; she pays slightly more as she has the better bedroom)

  • Phone: $30 AUD / $19.90 USD

  • Electricity: $113.50 AUD / $75.02 USD on average (split with my housemate)

• Weekly

  • NZ Student Loan repayment: $100 NZD / $58.01 USD (about 65% of this is paying off interest, so my total loan does go down)

  • Hello Fresh: $86.99 AUD / $57.42 USD. Three meals for two people, i.e. six dinners/lunches for me. I enjoy cooking, but I love not having to think about what to make.

  • NZ bills: $17 AUD / $11.22 USD. I auto-transfer this directly via Wise; I have Australian and New Zealand accounts. On a quarterly basis, I exchange $242.65 NZD / $140.76 USD and send it to my parents to cover my share of Netflix, Apple Music Family, and the health insurance I’m keeping up with as it’s a plan I’ve been on since before I was born and I want to keep the low cost and benefits for when I eventually move back to NZ.

• Bi-Monthly

  • Gas (gas stove + hot water): $113.20 AUD / $74.82 USD (split with my housemate)

• Quarterly

  • Water: $63.41 AUD / $41.91 USD (split with my housemate)

Annual Expenses:

• Tax Return: I usually receive a tax return of around $2,000 AUD / $1231.88 USD as I claim expenses like show tickets and often have slightly adjusted income from small pay rises, etc.

• Contents Insurance: $349.05 AUD / $230.70 USD (This is the US equivalent of renter’s insurance; it covers everything I own in our apartment)

• Ambulance Victoria Membership: $51.94 AUD / $34.33 USD. This ensures free ambulance services in the state I live in should I ever need it. An ambulance trip without a membership costs around $1,400 AUD / $908.47 USD.

Editor’s Note on Australian Healthcare:

Australia’s universal healthcare system (Medicare) provides free or subsidized access to essential medical services for all citizens and permanent residents. It covers visits to general practitioners and specialists, treatment in public hospitals, and many diagnostic tests such as X-rays and blood tests. Medicare also subsidizes prescription medications through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), making many medicines more affordable.

Australia’s universal healthcare system does not usually cover services such as dental care, optical services (like glasses and contact lenses), physiotherapy, and other allied health services. It also does not cover treatment in private hospitals, ambulance services in most states, or cosmetic and elective procedures. Many people choose private health insurance to help pay for these costs.

Other Context:

I’m doing long distance with my boyfriend; he still lives in our hometown in New Zealand. It’s a two-hour time difference (or a four-hour international flight) so it’s not too hard to stay connected. He’s a musician, so it’s easier for him to visit me as he can ‘take leave’ any time, but that means giving up gigs (money) as he doesn’t have annual leave or holiday pay. I receive four paid weeks off a year; I usually use a week in June to go home for my birthday, two weeks back home over Christmas/New Year’s, and then the final week used randomly over the year. For the last few years there’s been so many things to go home for (important birthdays, bachelorette parties, weddings) that I’ve run out of paid leave by the end of the year and had to take unpaid leave over summer (Christmas/New Year’s—southern hemisphere!) This is eating into my savings, and my ability to go on actual holidays (other than just ‘home’). I had a car in New Zealand, but don’t need one here so I sold it to my mum (for no money, but she paid off the remaining loan.)

Tuesday

Woke up to my 7:15am alarm but stayed in bed until 7:45am, as this is my last morning of snuggles with my boyfriend before he heads back to New Zealand. The theatre is only a 7-minute walk from my apartment, so I had time to have a cry whilst we ate cereal, then took my time getting composed and ready, and headed to work for a 9am start.

On my way in, I set up a coffee tab with our on-site café for a project starting tomorrow morning. It’s a remount of an education show we did last year, so we won’t have our usual full company welcome/meet-and-greet with catering, but I have enough in my show budget to at least buy everyone a coffee on the first day.

The morning is busy and varied; I do some regular top-of-day admin—skimming through emails to see what can be knocked out easily and checking sales reports to see how upcoming shows are tracking. I worked through some community engagement planning for the aforementioned remount show. This year we’re doing two public performances, so we’re working with some community engagement consultants on a small amount of wrap-around activities/space activations and bringing in more audience members from the show-specific community. The show was commissioned for a yearly schools’ program run through our Education department (one part-time coordinator who is amazing), but the work covers Afro-Futurism and Afro-Surrealism, so we’re hoping to connect with more of the wider African/African-Australian community.

I then switched focus as some urgent flight rebooking requirements came up for one of our co-productions currently in Sydney. A few cast members and creatives have COVID, so they cancelled some previews and I needed to adjust some of the Melbourne team members’ flights. Another brain switch to a project meeting, which I chair, for our Season 2026 Launch next week. This was our final meeting, so it was mostly just checking that everything was on track—it was!

I then headed home for lunch with my boyfriend (toasted sandwiches) before walking him and his suitcase to the airport bus. After a very sad goodbye, I treated my sorry self to a Brown Sugar Cinnamon Frappe from Starbucks ($7.80 AUD/$5.12 USD) and walked back through the city. I popped into a chocolate store on the way home to pick up an ex-colleague’s favourite treat ($16.90 AUD/$11.90 USD), as he’s been on bereavement leave since his mother’s passing. My housemate works with him, so I’ll get her to pass on the gift for me when he returns to work on Monday.

I jumped back online once home and finished the workday remotely (working overtime to make up for my way too long lunch break), drafting some venue hire contracts and event briefs to send to clients. Post-work, I had a gin & tonic and sat in the sun on the beanbag looking out to the sea (a delight from 35 floors up) and finished reading a book on my Kindle that I started last month. I then made a Hello Fresh meal for dinner (a fancy steak with sauce and salad), watched an episode of The Blacklist (a go-to when I can’t decide on a show), and went to bed.

Spending: $24.70 AUD/$17.02 USD

Wednesday

A slightly sad morning waking up with no one next to me, but also secretly lovely to have the bed to myself again. After eating cereal, I scrounged up a “girl dinner” style lunch from weekend fridge leftovers: some fancy cheese, prosciutto, rock melon, and celery slices. Not my usual lunch but feels like a perfect picky treat to eat at my desk and distract me from the fact that I’ve had lunch brought to me daily for the past three weeks by my boyfriend. I have leftovers from dinner last night but am saving them for tonight.

I headed into work and checked on the café coffee tab I set up yesterday. The café manager is extra lovely and brought in some complimentary pastries for the team too (hopefully they don’t get charged to my show budget!). Between 9am-10am the cast, creatives, and our wider company all started arriving and mingling in the foyer, before a quick informal welcome from our CEO at 10am. The team then headed up to our large rehearsal room to start working on the show, and the rest of the company dispersed back to desks, workshops, etc. I always love these moments when the entire company comes together (approx. 30 of us salaried staff + whomever is around casually or contracted on a specific show); working at a smaller company means everyone gets to know each other and there is a real sense of community and a shared goal of putting on shows together.

Back to my desk to work on admin for venue hire projects: some email follow-ups, whipped up a couple of easy contracts (one-day meeting room hire, etc.), and adjusted a larger theatre-hire contract to remove a Sunday show (casual staff rates are double on Sundays in Australia, so hirers often opt to keep that day dark once they get our staffing cost estimates). Though I brought lunch, I joined some of my team heading to a local sandwich store—just for a walk in the sun and to not miss any gossip. Lunch was snacks at my desk, followed by a difficult phone conversation with a venue hirer—they had planned a one-day music festival using our outdoor courtyard and the large forecourt space next door, but the local council have decided to fast track a “greening” project, so the forecourt area will no longer be available for hire. I then had some follow-up on the flights I changed yesterday—there’s additional baggage requirements I forgot were booked originally and have to make sure they track through to the new flights. Via our company membership with Live Performance Australia, we can request up to three additional bags free of charge on Australian airlines. This is technically supposed to be for “musical” gear, but sometimes we use it to transport costumes or other show items that may have missed the freight or are too delicate to put in a truck.

My weekly pay arrives: $1,310.31 AUD/$859.87 USD deposited into my ‘spending’ checking account. I usually pretend it’s not there for 24 hours as tomorrow morning all my automatic payments will go out. (I’ve set it up to auto-move a week’s portion of all my expected bill amounts into my ‘bills’ checking account, from which external direct debits come out.) After work I walked home via the small grocer near my apartment to pick up some snacks for the trivia evening I’m attending tonight ($9 AUD/$5.94 USD). I eat my leftovers from yesterday for dinner while my housemate and I downloaded our days to each other—she works as a creative producer at a major arts centre where I used to work, so both our job similarities and my knowledge of her workplace and colleagues means our work chats are quite in-depth.

We’re both going to the event tonight as it’s an Industry Trivia Night as part of the Fringe Festival and both of us organised our respective work teams. We take the tram through town; normally I wouldn’t “tap on” as we are only one stop out of the free tram zone, but we spy the transport inspectors at the back of the tram so have to pay the fare ($5.50 AUD/$3.63 USD). At the event there are teams from arts companies across the city, so it’s a busy night catching up with industry peers, as well as the actual trivia. I buy two beers over the course of the evening ($25 AUD/$16.50 USD). Our team comes in a forgettable mid place, but my housemate’s team comes in second! The event runs late (finishing closer to 11pm than the advertised 10pm) and we head home via the tram (not paying this time) and go straight to bed.

Spending: $39.50 AUD/$26.07 USD (+$1,310.31 AUD/$859.87 USD weekly wage)

Thursday

I let myself sleep in a bit after the late night (knowing I need my eight hours!) and grab a salmon bagel on the way to work ($16 AUD/$10.56 USD). This will be “brunch” as it’s quite big and I haven’t packed any lunch. I eat half of it at my desk as I go through emails that have come in since 5pm yesterday. All my auto-bill payments move around internally, and two go out externally: one to Hello Fresh ($86.99 AUD/$57.42 USD) and one to my housemate for rent ($400 AUD/$264.04 USD). There is a school tour happening and I join in with the Q&A session at the end. I love talking to students about my career as I had no idea these jobs existed when I was in high school, so it’s exciting to open up the world of possibilities to these kids.

Back at my desk, I send about 50 email invites for our Community Night to a list curated by our community engagement consultants. I decided it’ll take me less time to send them all individually than work out how to do a mail merge. I ate the second half of my bagel and had a cup of tea (not a daily coffee drinker so this is my caffeine), while coding a bunch of work credit card purchases for the finance department. We then have our weekly schedule/operations meeting, which I chair, to review all the events for the next two weeks (using our master schedule, which is just a locked online excel spreadsheet that only a few of us can edit but everyone in the company can view). This meeting has reps from all departments and makes sure everyone is on the same page. Since taking over venue hire, I create event briefs for every event/show that isn’t part of our own company’s season, so generally we’re across everything—it’s just a good opportunity to estimate numbers for hospitality and double check nothing has fallen through the cracks.

I go for a walk to the local sandwich shop afterwards to pick up a Bahn Mi roll to have for dinner ($11.50 AUD/$7.59 USD). I’m seeing three Fringe Festival shows tonight and the first is at 6pm across town so I know I won’t have time to get food. The afternoon is a little quiet so I take the opportunity to document all the extra information for this diary, including a bunch of NZD/AUD to USD money calculations. (Editor’s Note: This contributor is a verifiable saint.) I head home early to drop off my work laptop and eat my dinner, before heading to our first of three shows on the tram with my housemate. It’s peak travel time, so even though 80% of our trip will be inside the free tram zone, we pay our fares just in case the inspectors are around ($5.50 AUD/$3.63 USD).

The first show we see is a bit of a dud, some good ideas but executed poorly. The second show is fantastic. We bump into an independent producer that we both happen to be working with next year on different projects. That catch-up chat means we’re running late so have to grab an Uber to our next venue instead of walking as planned. I pay the full fare ($10.76 AUD/$7.06 USD) but put the charge on the Splitwise as a 50/50 cost. (We use this app as a household to track shared costs and make sure we’re equally contributing). The third show was also fantastic (thankfully, as the writer and director are friends of mine). I should note at this point that all three shows were free—the perk of being a producer at one of only two mainstage theatre companies in the city is getting invited to everything (and if I’m not, my housemate usually is). It’s a warm night, so we decide to walk all the way home through the city; we meander and chat about the shows so it takes around 40 minutes. I make a quick cup of tea and call my boyfriend briefly, then head to bed.

Spending: $530.75 AUD/$348.33 USD

Friday

I’m working from home today so set my alarm for 8:30am, knowing I have a 9am production meeting which I can join in on via Microsoft Teams. Afterwards, I complete registration for our next two shows for the state performing arts industry awards (the local Tonys). There’s been a bit of back and forth with the panels on these as one only has a short run (I petitioned to be an exception to the eligibility criteria and won!), and the other’s categorization was being debated. All our productions usually fall into the “Theatre Companies” category—the awards separate commercial musicals, funded theatre companies, independent works, etc.—but our final show of the year is a cabaret-style piece, so it’s been moved to that category. (Great news, as it’s now not competing against any of our other shows.) The registration must have gone through immediately as I then suddenly get an influx of ticket requests from judges, so I spend a while processing those.

My housemate and I have a discussion about commissioning, licensing, royalties, and auspicing² companies, as her company is starting to produce its own work—they currently primarily buy existing shows, or act as a venue for tours. I realise midday that I haven’t eaten, so take a break to have lunch. I make bacon and eggs on toast and a cup of tea.

After lunch, I spend most of the afternoon proofing all the webpages for our next season of shows. We have our Season 2026 launch next week, so these pages will go live as we announce. This reminds me I’m waiting on flight information for some of our out-of-state guests presenting at the launch (writers, directors, performers), so I write some follow-up emails. We don’t have a company manager, associate producer, or artistic administrator, so a lot of those duties fall to me.

I get a call from our production coordinator wanting clarification on the size of the empty tin cans she’s ordering for a foyer activation (an extension of a set design)—I find we always have conversations that would be odd outside of a theatre context. My housemate DJs at my work on Fridays so she blasts music while getting ready, which means I don’t really focus on work. I usually go with her and hang out, but since I always end up spending money I don’t need to, I’m going to stay in. I also have a scheduled video call with a core group of girls I’ve been friends with since we took dance classes together as kids. None of us live in New Zealand anymore—one lives in Italy, one in London, one in Sydney, and me in Melbourne. This means our catch-ups have to be scheduled around time differences, which is hard, but manageable once every few months. The catch-up went amazingly and was three hours long…so by 9pm I’m starving! I decide it’s too late to cook properly, so I make some easy ramen and watch an episode of Good Hang with Amy Poehler, then head to bed.

Spending: Nothing!

Saturday

No alarm today so I slept in. Had a chill morning in bed catching up with social media. Succumbed to an Instagram ad and bought a vase that looks like a book for my best friend for Christmas ($55.95 AUD/$36.95 USD). Got up, did laundry, and made some brunch. Spent quite a while reading a book in the sun with the balcony door and windows open. Made my final Hello Fresh dinner of the week, saving half for lunch tomorrow. Got changed and took a tram across the city ($5.50 AUD/$3.57 USD) to a bar to meet a friend before a show. She bought our first round of drinks. After an hour of catching up we went to another friend’s Fringe Festival show. I bought us drinks to take into the performance from the festival bar ($26 AUD/$16.86 USD). Work always catches me at shows; I ended up giving my work email to the person sitting next to me as he was an artist looking for a producer for his work. The show was wonderful and we stuck around to catch up with the performer I knew. Afterwards, I headed home, taking the tram again, but fare evading as I figured inspectors wouldn’t bother trying to manage a Saturday night city crowd. I finished up my laundry, chatted to my boyfriend on the phone (he’d just finished a music gig back home), made a cup of tea and went to bed, reading a few chapters before sleep.

Spending: $87.45 AUD/$56.71 USD

Sunday

Another sleep in. Did a bit of tidying around the house. Popped down to the local grocer to pick up some yoghurt and blueberries for breakfast ($10.72 AUD/$6.95 USD). The yoghurt was on clearance so I bought two. The road outside my apartment is blocked off for the Melbourne marathon, which I forgot was happening this weekend. I make a mental note to not go out today as getting around the city will be a nightmare—50,000 people take part and I live only a 20-minute walk from the start/finish line.

I do a quick check of my work emails as I’m still waiting for some booking information for artists travelling on Monday and Tuesday for our season launch, but nothing has come through yet. Hopefully last-minute flights aren’t too expensive. I read the rehearsal report from yesterday and a health and safety report from an incident on Saturday night. (I’m on the OH&S committee). Neither requires action from me so I log off. I get the notification that my next week’s Hello Fresh box has arrived so I go collect it from the mailroom and unpack it. I use the box as an excuse to take all our glass recycling down to the bins. (Glass is understandably not allowed down the rubbish shoots on each floor.) I have leftovers from last night’s dinner for lunch and read. I end up finishing the book—it’s a novelty to have a full day of quiet! I make dinner from the new Hello Fresh kit, watch the first couple of episodes of Wayward on Netflix, call my boyfriend, then head to bed.

Spending: $10.72 AUD/$6.95 USD

Monday

I have breakfast (Weet-Bix, yoghurt, blueberries) and head to work. Morning of admin and clearing my inbox of easy-response or filing-only emails. I follow up on the OHS report from the weekend, just to make sure some venue-hire clients that were in the building at the time were okay. I (finally) book flights for an artist guest-appearing at our Season Launch tomorrow—they generously offered to take the cheapest option of flights, but I found a middle ground of not-awful timing/not-awful cost.

I meet with our production manager and workshop manager to see how we can, at low cost, make an impressive activation in our foyer—they are so very clever at making cool things on a budget, which I suppose is what theatre people are known for! I check in with marketing and ticketing on some ticket and web builds they’re doing for me (for both programmed shows and venue hire events) and adjust some of our plans to suit capacities.

I have leftover Hello Fresh for lunch at my desk whilst catching up with a colleague who has been away in Greece for a wedding, and another who’s been in Sydney directing a show. I chat on the phone with our education coordinator who is working off-site on community engagement and budgets. One of our set designers brings her five-month-old baby into the office so we are immediately distracted for at least half an hour. A friend of mine working at the other producing house theatre company in the city comes through with some discounted tickets for one of their big shows on right now. My parents are visiting from New Zealand (arriving tomorrow) so I’m taking them to the show on Wednesday. I transfer him the money ($198 AUD/$128.41 USD)—this is the cost of two “staff price” tickets (and one complimentary), which all things considered, is still very expensive. In comparison, staff price tickets at my work are $40 AUD/$25.94 USD, though our company is about a third of the size.

I help some colleagues with prep for our season launch tomorrow; it’s a big industry event so stress levels are a little high. I leave bang on 5pm and head home for a chill afternoon catching up with my housemate about her weekend—she was staying with her girlfriend who had planned a two-day long date (so cute). We cooked dinner (Hello Fresh for me)—she is gluten-free and meal preps, so we don’t often share meals— and I watched her play Fortnite. Phone call with my boyfriend, a cup of tea, and bed.

Spending: $198 AUD/$128.41 USD

Tuesday

I had a quick breakfast at home then took a short train ride ($5.50 AUD/$3.57 USD) to a central station to pick up my parents from the airport bus. I got them sorted with the public transport cards and then brought them back to my apartment via train ($5.50 AUD/$3.57 USD) as they can’t check into their Airbnb until 3pm. Popped out to buy milk to make coffees/cups of tea ($4 AUD/$2.59 USD). I packed my outfit and makeup for tonight’s event and headed to work around 10:30am. Spent the rest of the morning making a balloon arch with my boss and our wardrobe manager.

After a lunch of Hello Fresh leftovers, I drew up an in-kind venue hire agreement for an out-of-state theatre company who need a space to hold auditions next week. Our new artistic director (who doesn’t start until late November) popped in, so we finally got a chance to chat casually after the official announcement. After some boring finance admin (coding invoices), a few of us took a mid-afternoon break and had cups of tea and extra artist catering (someone over-purchased for the event tonight) in the greenroom. We then got glammed up ready for the evening event. I officially logged off at 4:30pm while things like soundcheck were happening to have a drink in the sun with my parents (happy hour at work, drinks paid for by the ‘rents) and then it was time for our big event of the year. We launched our 2026 season to much applause. It was a fantastic night, full of industry, friends and family, top ticket buyers, music, pyros, pizza, polaroids, performances, and appearances from some big names on the stage. Late starts for everyone tomorrow.

Spending: $15 AUD/$9.73 USD

Weekly Total: $906.12 AUD / $604.47 USD

1. Lauren’s Commentary: “Unfortunately, absorbing the duties of your laid off co-workers for no additional compensation is not a uniquely American problem.”

2. Explanatory comma from our contributor: “Auspicing is when an incorporated association applies for and receives funding on behalf of an unincorporated individual, group, or organization, and is responsible for ensuring that the project or activity for which the funds have been granted is completed and the funds accounted for.”