Bad with Money by Gaby Dunn

Author:Gaby Dunn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria Books

What I consider “not a lot of money” has changed big time since I got a lump sum of about $50,000 for that TV show Allison and I sold in 2016. When that happened, I managed to put $19,000 into my savings account and told myself I wouldn’t touch that money.

I’ve touched that money. My savings account now fluctuates between $5,000 and $10,000 depending on how closely I’m paying attention to my finances that month or what unexpected or emergency expenses have emerged. If it falls below that range, I stop and consider what I’ve been overspending on. Then I despair.

In the past, a $50,000 check would have made me feel like one of the Jenners. But now the responsibility of it makes me anxious and confused. I wasn’t prepared. So much went to taxes. How did I spend nearly $5,000 in less than six months? Is it only because I had it that I suddenly felt okay to spend it? When I added another $5,000 of it into my retirement fund, I started worrying that it was too soon to start saving so much for retirement. What if I need that money?

You: For what, Gaby?

Me: I don’t know. For things.

For almost thirty years, I never even had $5,000 in my bank account collectively, and now I’ve blown through that?! What has changed?

I haven’t been buying myself jewels and furs, so what have I been buying? For the first time in my life, in 2017, I clicked on the “Budgeting” tab on my Bank of America account and voilà! There’s an actual visual breakdown of my spending! Who knew!?

In the span of a random month in 2017, here were my expenditures:

° $1,239.61 for rent, which isn’t bad for a one bedroom in Silverlake. I’ve lived here alone for 3½ years, something I never thought I’d be able to afford to do and was doing technically before I could actually afford to do it. In fact, I’ve paid my rent late enough times that my landlord doesn’t accept checks from me. I have to pay each month’s rent in a money order or cashier’s check. (Sorry, Maria!)

° $276 for groceries. Investopedia.com said $500 per month per household on food in LA is average. Even adding random snacks, my total groceries cost me much less than that. My spending on restaurants varies wildly. Some months it’s $100; this month it was $12 (a rare low for me).

° $223 for car insurance. When I first looked at it in 2017, Geico was charging me $559.85 a month for my car insurance. During the process of writing this book, I’ve been kicked off Geico for having three fender benders in one year (I’m the best) and now have Access for my car, which costs me $223 a month.

° $284.75 a month for health insurance.

° $400 on meds and therapy.

° $50 to Southern California Gas Company.

° $194 to Time Warner/Spectrum.

° $556 on student loans. In 2017, I was paying my three student loans: to Navient for $338 and two through Nelnet for $113 and $105 a month.

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