Dreadful Penny

After a few busy months, I’m feeling the urge to write again.  How convenient that I already have a blog!

Since July, I’ve worked as PA on one short film and an extra on five feature films, a TV series pilot, and a national commercial.  I posed for an artistic picture by a talented photographer (and by artistic, I mean artistic; that’s not a euphemism for unclothed).  I got professional headshots, registered with more talent agencies, took an audition seminar, and started classes in improv comedy.  I’ve been cast in a supporting role in an independent film that starts shooting in 2009.  I’ve also met a lot of interesting, creative people.

Things are slow right now.  There are two movies currently shooting here that I haven’t been called for yet, but I hope to get at least one day of extra work on each.   On the other hand, it’s nice to have free time around the holidays, not being on edge wondering if I’ll have a 6:30 am call the next day.

I’ve been battling a bad cold for the past week and a half, but I’ve also been fighting some emotional conflicts.  It’s the damned economy.  I’m angry and frustrated about the mortage industry bailout, I’m worried about the ramifications for this area if there is no automotive industry bailout (though I don’t believe that Chrysler, GM, or Ford should get one red cent), and I’m even stressing about the possibility of tax increases a year down the road.  Everytime I read the news or an opinionated blog, my stomach twists and I feel the muscles in my shoulders clench.  I know it’s not a productive reaction to have, yet I can’t seem to shake it.

I’ve been trying to take some actions to make myself feel more secure.  I cancelled HD service that we had from AT&T U-verse; we have an older HD-ready TV and we have occasionally watched those channels, but the quality isn’t great.  Waste of $10/month, so it’s gone.  I’ve been investigating Once-A-Month-Cooking techniques, to save money, to provide healthier, easy side dishes, and to stock the freezer with quick, tasty dinner options for evenings when I’m on set.  I’ve stopped looking at our 401k and IRA balances.

And, maybe I’ll start writing here again, to vent some of that frustration without piling it on my husband, who would only be frustrated that he can’t fix the situation.

Whew!  Friday night I spent over thirteen hours on the “Whip It” set; yesterday I had a fifteen hour shift there.  My ass is — quite literally — bruised from sitting on plank benches filled with splinters and open staples.  My ankles ache from hours of standing.  But, it was still loads of fun.  I really enjoyed watching the actors work and it was fascinating to see how the whole crew brings a scene together.

I’ve put in about 43 hours of paid work this month.  That doesn’t count the constant search for new opportunities, so I’ve decided to try to find representation to help.  I’ve started running into more and more people with agents and if I want a shot at speaking roles, I need to do the same.

This is all so new to me, but I guess I’ll learn as I go.  Now, over to Photoshop to clean up the background on my amateur photos so they look more like professional headshots!

It’s going to be an exciting few days.  I’ll be spending this afternoon/evening as an extra on Whip It.  There’s an open casting call and I have an audition on Sunday.  Monday, I’ll either have another day as an extra or another audition, to be determined over the weekend.

This is fun.  It’s a lot of work, too.  The instructions for today’s wardrobe were “punk/rockabilly/concert wear”.  Well, I love that style — I’m thinking SuicideGirls — but I can’t say it describes my very limited collection of clothes that fit.  I spent hours trying on pieces in different configurations until I put together something that works.  At the same time, I pulled outfits for my upcoming auditions, which I’ll describe as “professional/slightly tacky/dramatic” and “approachable/inexpensive/slightly flirtatious”.  And of course, it’s more than just matching the wardrobe (and makeup/accessories/hairstyle) to the role; I also have to think about voice, mannerisms, movement, etc.  I figure that I need to be five different people in the next three days: real me, public amiable me, punk chick, professional bitch, and friendly local gal.  Easy enough.  The hard part is doing them all well.

There hasn’t been much to write about, but I thought I’d check in with my weekly shopping post.  Busy day today.

Rite Aid - Great day at Rite Aid.  Got Olay cleanser, nail polish, shampoo, conditioner, a power razor, two disposable razors, and a can of shaving cream.  Paid $26.34 including tax after coupons, earned $25.45 in rebates, for a net of $.89.

CVS - Decent day at CVS, at least for me to stock up on cosmetics.  Bought aspirin, PowerAde, two Cadbury bars, two tubes of toothpaste, a toothbrush, two Revlon lipsticks, and CoverGirl foundation and blush.  Paid $4.58 in cash plus $12.99 in ExtraCare Bucks, earned $5 in ECB, for a net cost of $12.57.  (That’s several dollars less than the cost of the two lipsticks alone, without sale or coupons.)

Walgreens - Pens, pencils, leave-in conditioner, lots and lots of chocolate, and three jars of peanut butter.  Paid $12.64 in cash after a $7 register reward I had earned last week.  Earned $10.99 in rebates for a net of $8.65.

Kmart - I stumbled across some good meat deals — bratwurst and ground beef with $2 off stickers.  Yippee.  Bought seasoning, eggs, cream, cheese, bacon, bratwurst, chicken breasts, ground beef, green beans, zucchini, and spinach.  Paid $29.40.

Meijer - Used a couple of free item coupons and took advantage of the “buy 10/$10, get 11th item free” promotion.  Bought blueberries, mushrooms, bananas, salad mix, frozen veggies, stuffing mix, milk, rice, salsa, hamburger rolls, two bottles of shampoo, dishwasher detergent, and a can of dogfood.  Paid $26.79, earned $5 rebate, for net of $21.79.

Hollywood - I completely forgot to buy tortillas at Meijer, so I made a stop at Hollywood for those and also some no-sugar-added ice cream.  $8.88 because nothing was on sale.

The wrap-up: I paid $128.62; $108.63 in new spending and the rest using ECBs or RR.  Earned $46.44 in rebates.  Net cost for the week: $82.18.  My estimate was about $10 less because I didn’t plan on the bratwurst or ice cream, but this isn’t bad.

Things are actually calm here for a few days.  I have to run a couple of errands and I may turn it into a field trip: browsing the library and taking my laptop along to Starbucks for a latte (prepaid) and wifi (free with my card).  I’ll be making one stop at a drugstore today, too.  Mercedes at Common Sense with Money has a post detailing how to get free Hershey’s Bliss chocolate at Walgreens and since I’m married to a chocoholic, I’m picking some up.  I don’t have the B1G1 coupons, but I should be able to buy three bags and still come out ahead.

Which leads to my point: because of carefully matching coupons and sales in the past couple months, we’ve gotten to spoil ourselves a little.  I have Almay mascara and L’Oreal lip gloss that I wouldn’t have splurged on otherwise.  Our linen closet overflows not only with Pert, Fructis, and Pantene, but also premium hair care products.  We’ve had chocolate and snack food in the house — not my thing, but the guys like it and don’t overindulge.  They also got an infusion of quality clothes into their wardrobes at a very low price.  We’ve been able to have guests without it costing us an arm and a leg.  We’ve gone to movies that we wanted to see at a much lower cost.  I have loads of free magazine subscriptions that will entertain us for months. I was able to give extra free items to my parents and grandma and I have leftovers to donate.

There are times when I get frustrated with keeping to a tight budget (and then I tighten it even more!).  I get tired of clipping coupons and reading sales circulars.  My eyes glaze over from scanning money-saving blogs.  I hate shopping and wish I could just go to one store instead of four or five each week.

That’s when I need to remember this: if I didn’t put in the time for careful planning but kept to the same budget, we would have to make do with a lot less. Treats would be very infrequent. Luxuries?  Never.  Having a comfortable lifestyle is worth the 12 hours or so that I devote to saving throughout the week, especially since most of those hours are multitasking and low-effort.

This morning, I looked outside and saw a small black squirrel climbing around on our (as yet unsealed) cedar deck.  No big deal; while the squirrels haven’t seized the deck as their own, I see them there occasionally.

I watched to see where he would go next and was surprised to see him remain in place, clinging to the rail.  Then, he began to lick it!  He crawled up and down, licking the cedar from top to bottom.  He wasn’t nibbling; he didn’t spend much time on the corners but instead licked the flat sides.

Huh? He kept this up for a few minutes before noticing me and running for the oak tree.  When he returned a little later, he carefully sniffed several rails before climbing up another and proceeding to give it the same treatment.

The cedar wasn’t wet.  It’s not new; it’s been in place for a couple months.  I checked and there are no squirrel bite marks or anything obvious that distinguishes his chosen rails from the others.  What the heck?

In the past month or so that I’ve been getting back into acting, I’ve pursued all sorts of audition possibilities.  Auditions for the show that inspired my return are coming up this week and yesterday I made a tough decision: I’m not going.

I love performing in musical theatre.  I enjoy theatre people, I like the instant feedback of an audience, I love singing, and the broad physical acting of musical comedy is a lot of fun.  Why on earth wouldn’t I audition?

First and foremost, I don’t like the show they’re putting on.  I’ve read the libretto, I’ve listened to recordings, and even though it’s a long-running show held in high regard, it’s simply not to my taste.  I wouldn’t pay to see it.

Second, I’m not suited for any speaking roles and if I do the math correctly, that leaves five white female roles in the ensemble… and I believe they all have to be dancers (showgirls).  I can dance well enough for the back row of a chorus or the less challenging steps of a singing lead, but certainly not for a featured dance part.  Not to mention that my figure is not yet of showgirl proportions.  If this was a show I loved, though, I’d still be there giving it my best shot.

Third, I don’t know anything about this company yet.  It’s a non-profit community theatre with a nice location, but I don’t know anything about their reputation or what sort of budget they put into wardrobe and sets.  I’m guessing they use recorded music because I haven’t found any mention of an orchestra.  My last onstage gig was a dinner theatre in a strip mall - I’m not picky - but this lack of information figures into my decision.

Fourth, the time commitment is awfully high considering the items above.  Rehearsals three or four evenings a week for a couple of months, then performances Friday, Saturday, and Sunday until the end of November.  That would mean missing some of Kid Dreadful’s band performances and not being around to help with homework evenings at the start of another tough year of high school.  There would be very little time available for other projects.

Fifth, when all of that was added together, I made the decision that I would not accept a role if offered.  The question then became: considering the audition as an event in itself, should I participate?

I lost a lot of sleep over that, but in the end, I decided “no”.  While I’d gain audition experience and learn more about the company, I’d also waste time in prep and add unnecessarily to the work of the auditioners.

However, that gives me a few hours this week that I had already expected to spend practicing.  I’ll put those to good use.

This was our weekend harvest from the garden: delicious cherry tomatoes and the second batch of sugar snap peas.  Today I’ll pick a bunch of sage to roast a chicken and some basil for freezing.  We’ll have more cherry tomatoes soon, too.

Lessons learned so far:

- Next year I’m not planting pole beans.  They got gigantic and took over the garden, but so far the entire harvest has been four beans.  Four.  I’d rather have more tomatoes that I can freeze.

- I think I’m going to skip spinach, too.  And, forget fancy mixes of lettuce; I’m planting romaine.  The spinach got unruly and some of the lettuce was too bitter for my family’s tastes.

- Aggressively pruning tomato plants may be overrated.  Our cherry tomato plant is dripping with bunches of fruit and I did very little pruning.  However, the beefsteak plant is being overgrown by some beans and so far, I only have five or six good-sized tomatoes (though there are more flowers and buds).  I’m going to cut the bean plant back and give the tomatoes more support, but maybe it would have done better if I had removed more.

- We think rabbits stole a low-hanging peach and a groundhog living under our front porch is the main suspect for snatching a large, green Empire apple from a low branch.  There are still a couple peaches high in one tree; those should be safe.  However, our overabundance of wildlife and their apparent preference for sweet fruit is making me rethink planting berries next year.

Still to come: carrots, beefsteak tomatoes, and more herbs. This was an experimental year and I’m not unhappy with the results.  There’s room for improvement but heck, I’m somewhwat amazed that I managed to get anything to grow.

Last week’s total was nice and low.  Now, I’m feeling dissatisfied with my prior attempts to keep our weekly spending on groceries and household items around $100.  Lower!  Lower!  The meat for our meals this week is coming straight out of the freezer, so I could get by with picking up nothing but a few vegetables, some fruit, and some dairy products.  However, there are good prices on convenience and stockpile items.  Here are my estimates.  Updates after I shop tomorrow  will be in orange.

Rite Aid - After coupons, I’ll spend about $4 out of pocket on deodorant, shampoo and conditioner, and I’ll earn $5.98 in rebates.  Net: $2 profit. [Actual: Spent $3.97, will get $5.98 in rebates.  $2.01 profit.]

CVS - I never stopped at CVS last week, but this time I’m picking up 2 greeting cards, 2 packs of gum, some makeup and Band-Aids.  That’ll cost about $10.50 in cash plus $6 in ECBs after coupons, and I’ll earn $13 in new ECBs.  Net: $3.50. [Actual: Couldn’t find 2 cards that I liked, so I skipped that part of the purchase.  I love the Revlon limited edition lip gloss that was free after ECBs, though.  Paid $4.03 in cash and $4.99 in ECBs for a total of $9.02; earned $12.99 in new ECBs.  $3.97 profit.  The cashier looked at my receipt in surprise and said, “I just paid you!”]

Walgreens - Dish detergent, scouring powder, shampoo, and six bottles of body wash.  I’ll pay about $17.00 (after coupons) using my gift card and I’ll earn $7 in register rewards and $4.30 in rebates.  Net $5.70.  [Actual: They were out of Ajax but I found everything else.  Lots of tax and I must have made a math error.  Paid $20.14 ($16.25 on a gift card and $3.89 cash).  Earned $7 on my next purchase and will get $3.79 rebate.  Net: $9.35.]

Kmart - I’ll spend about $37 for vegetables, fruit, canned tomatoes, a few convenience side dishes and entrees, chicken breasts, pork chops, bacon, eggs, and dairy products.  [Actual: I shopped at Kmart first and noticed that a lot of items I planned to buy at Meijer were actually cheaper there, so I bought them.  Also, the packages of pork chops were too big; the price was good, but I didn’t have $10 to budget toward meat stockpile this week.  Total: $49.38.]

Meijer - Around $33 for fruit, veggies, cheese, bread, tomato sauce, ravioli, cocoa, and sausages. [Actual: Only bought a few items, thanks to sales at Kmart.  Also picked up some blueberry mini-bagels from the sale/surplus rack and used a coupon for free cream cheese.  Total spent: $14.45.]

That’s about $108 out of pocket ($84.50 in new spending and the rest from ECBs and gift cards).  The net cost should be around $77.20.  If my estimates are decent, that really isn’t bad.  [Actual net: $67.20.  Woo!  I could have bought those pork chops, after all.]

Hmm.  The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently featured an article about coupon usage by region that made me think about my upbringing (via Common Sense with Money).  Check out this list:

I grew up near Buffalo.  Not far from Rochester or Syracuse.  Only a couple hours from Pittsburgh.  Those are four of the ten most coupon-using cities!  I wonder how much of my willingness to cramp my arthritic fingers clipping coupons every Sunday comes from the simple fact that I grew up in an area where couponing was socially acceptable.