Posting this (barely) still in May still counts as on time! It’s been a busy month, what can I say.

Anyway, April started off with a bang with 19 days of work straight: I worked both Saturday and Sunday shifts the first two weekends of the month.

It was fucking exhausting.

Granted, that resulted in about $800 in extra income (the second half of which hit in May so is not reflected below) for the month. But was it worth it? I’m still torn, considering how busy the rest of the month was.

During that 19 day stint of no days off, Michelle from Frugality and Freedom was in town! I went to dinner with her and a bunch of other money nerds her first night in town (which overlapped with one of the last days of Military Dollar being in town thanks to a work trip). Michelle and my boyfriend then came to hang out at work that weekend, which sorta counted for me being able to spend time with them. Working on weekends kinda suuuuuuuuucks.

Easter weekend I went with my partner to his parents’ house. I naively assumed that that would be a relaxing weekend for me (much-needed after 19 days of work!) but oh how wrong I was. I sometimes forget that very little of my traveling is actual vacation. I enjoy spending time with his family though, so I didn’t mind the lack of sleep too much. Especially since I wasn’t the one doing much of the driving over the weekend.

My chorus concert happened at the end of the month, so my mom came up for that weekend. We went for a stroll around the neighborhood—that urban “hiking” was sadly the only sort of hiking I did in April—but I didn’t have my phone on me. I don’t have pictures, so I guess it didn’t happen!

Job updates

Title change

As I wrote in my goals update post, it finally happened!!! I got a new title that kicked in at the beginning of April, combined with a raise of $2000/4%. No, I was not given any input into negotiating what that raise would be. I was told it would be $2k and that was it. So I guess I’ll try negotiating at some other point in the future ?

Luckily my raise already happening means I’ll get my COL adjustment on top of the new, very slightly higher salary instead of my old one.

Status change

In addition to my new title, I’m also no longer a 1099 employee! At the end of March my second job told us it was going to be cheaper for them if they converted us all into part-time hourly employees instead of contractors. After an obnoxiously tedious hiring process replete with all the paperwork that you have to fill out when you become a new employee (even if you’ve already been one. At least I didn’t have to interview/actually apply for my job again!), it was official in time for me to work four shifts over two weekends. Hooray for a second W-2 job and not needing to pay self-employment taxes on my side hustle now!!!!

My withholding is potentially low (because the IRS is just looking at my second job income when they take out taxes, not my overall income. Gotta go find some tax calculators quick), but I can always adjust that by filling out another W-4. I’m making way more now than I was before since I took out 1/3 of every paycheck for taxes and that’s certainly not what’s happening here!

Because I bumped up my withholding at my full-time job after the tax surprise of March, I’m banking on that covering the self-employment taxes I’ll owe for the three months of 1099 work I had this year. And because of that I decided to give myself a raise of $500, which was what was sitting in my “taxes” savings account that I’d taken out from my paychecks. I spent some of that raise, but some of it also went right back into savings, this time in my emergency fund (yes, it matters to me that that money went to my actual savings fund, not my taxes savings fund. Gotta get that compound interest, yo!).

The numbers (I hardly remember any of this)

Rent	$1050.00	My half of rent
Internet and utilities	$54.72	Back to paying for half of the utilities because Gwen was here for a full month
Groceries	$166.23	This included a new bottle of our rye from work. Does booze count as groceries or should I be subtracting this bottle from my side hustle income since I wouldn’t be buying it if I didn’t work there? Hmmmm…
Gas	$28.15
Transportation	$13.63	Needed to top off my metro card a lot in April
Barre membership	$104.94
Stupid tax	$15.90	Forgot to cancel a barre class again ?
Restaurants/bars	$125.00	So spendy!!!! This included a celebration dinner since my boyfriend and I both got raises and covering two dinners out with people who were visiting from out of town
Vacation	$125.59	Bus tickets to see my friend in NYC on a whim and an Airbnb for a trip in August
Misc household goods	$28.67
Entertainment	$15.00	I bribed paid for my mom, cousin, and boyfriend to come to my chorus concert
Charitable giving	$25.00
Misc dues/subscriptions	$138.99	Patreon, etc dues plus my annual CSP fee
Clothes	$379.41	Two sweaters, a few work shirts, and a light coat that also is water-resistant. I wasn’t expecting to wear this light coat so soon (read: until the fall) but we had some 50 degree days right after I got it, so I can now confirm it’s like wearing a puffy, comfy cloud. 10/10
Other shopping	$175.11
Total spending:	$2446.34
Paychecks and other income	$2067.84	Hooray for my raise hitting partway through the month! My paychecks were also slightly higher until the end of the month because I gave myself two weeks of extra income before I bumped up my retirement contributions a corresponding 4% to match my raise
Retirement contributions	$1435.15
Side hustle income	$340.48	One half of the two weekends in a row I worked two shifts back-to-back. The other half came in a May paycheck
Side hustle “tax” money	$516.23	Since I’m now a W-2 employee, I’m living dangerously and figuring my tax withholding will cover the 3 months of taxes I owe as a 1099 employee. Thus I appropriated the 1/3 of my paychecks in my taxes savings account as my own. Thanks for the raise, me!
Total income:	$4359.70
Total:	$1913.36
Savings rate:	44%

OMG SO SPENDY.

Just kidding. Yeah I spent quite a bit of money, but do you see that savings rate? No regrets. Except for the working 19 days straight and being so exhausted. I did work one double weekend in May, but at least I haven’t repeated the 19 days straight!