It's Pay Day! The ABC's column where we ask Australians the money questions we don't like to talk about. We aim to demystify personal finance and normalise conversations about what we earn and how we save it — or spend it.

Yve Blake is an Australian writer for the stage and the screen, whose musical FANGIRLS recently premiered in London after multiple sold-out shows in Australia. But before selling out venues Yve would spend thousands of dollars producing her own projects then working night shifts for months to make the money back.

For Pay Day, Yve Blake talks about how she spreads pay cheques out between projects, her "creative bullying" side hustle and the priceless memories she made at arts festivals.

How would you describe your financial situation right now?

Kooky Looky! I'm writing this from London where I've just spent nine weeks in rehearsals/previews for FANGIRLS, so I'm living off my savings until I get paid an unknown chunk of the ticket sales once the show closes. (Theatre writers don't get paid to attend rehearsals in the UK.)

It's both scary and normal to me, but I feel grateful to have healthy savings to live off — and so lucky to have made all those coins purely from writing. My friends call me "Yve from finance" because I'm really obsessed with saving money — so times like these are my time to shine.

How was money spoken about in your house growing up?

My mum has a double degree in maths and physics, so she is a real numbers girly. She's taught me a lot about budgeting and saving — and I grumbled about it as a kid, but now I'm so grateful for it. Conversely, my wonderful dad is more of a cowboy about money.

When he met my mum at age 45, he had not done a single tax return in his life (bless) and only had a few hundred bucks in the bank. But, because of that — he's been a great person to talk to about the hard parts of being a freelancer. Whenever I'm stressed about my financial futures he always says, "money is a renewable resource, you'll make some".

About how much of your income goes towards your rent or mortgage each week?

HAHAHA imagine having a weekly income.

What has been your biggest financial disaster?

In my late teens and early 20s I used to write and perform shows at fringe festivals, which I would entirely self produce. Every single one of those shows lost money (like, thousands) and then I'd have to spend months after working bar shifts til 3am and 4am to make the cash back. That said, those little shows got me the career I have now — and priceless memories of performing mouldy Edinburgh basements — so I regret nothing.

What's your guilty splurge?

Cafe food! My favourite place to write is in a NOISY cafe with BIG headphones on. But then, when an idea isn't working, sometimes I think, "Well maybe a Bircher muesli will help?" — and to be fair, sometimes it does!

Have you ever kept a secret about money? 

I was way too much of a goody two shoes to ever shoplift because as a kid someone told me that if you get caught shoplifting then you're never allowed to go to America? I never questioned it.

How much was the last loaf of bread you bought?

Bread is not in my weekly shop and that's because I'm obsessed with oats. I'm like a horse, I can't get enough of them!

How many bank accounts do you have? How do you organise your money?

I know this is gunna sound Loco™️, but the truth is that I have 19 bank accounts across four banks. They all have little labels and purposes, but I will cop to the fact that this is objectively unhinged behaviour.

About 10 years ago made myself a spreadsheet which I use to forecast all my payments and expenses for the upcoming 18 months. I am pathologically obsessed with it, because it allows me to calculate what each month of the year will cost me — but I also have it set up so that when I enter my upcoming payments, it automatically tells me how much I'll need to put aside for tax/agent commission/GST— and crucially — how long each pay cheque will last me!

This spreadsheet brings me so much peace because it helps me understand when I need to tighten the purse strings — or when I have a bit of extra cash to stash in an investment or a high interest savings account.

What's your biggest source of money anxiety? 

The truth is most of the money you make as a writer in film/TV/theatre only comes IF your thing actually gets made. For example, you might get a small commission to write a play — but you earn HEAPS more if the play goes on and you get a chunk of the ticket sales.

Thing is, things like films and musicals and tv shows take ✨Years✨ to develop — and you never know if the thing you're working on will actually get made — so you have to be able to really spread those pay cheques out. Still, I always think — if half my things don't get made — at least I got paid to have a go ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What are you saving for right now and how are you doing it?

A long distance relationship!!! Imagine falling in love with a Brit! In THIS economy?!! 

My plan is to find cheaper ways to socialise and to sell my "creative bullying" service to more folks.

It started as something I did for six different mates for free — I saw that a friend was struggling to finish a novel, so I scheduled weekly check-ins with him to hold him accountable, and built a spreadsheet where I tracked his word count/progress. I'd also make him read me sections and then yell pure encouragement at him.

I've helped other people finish musicals, plays, and screenplays — and it literally feels like drugs to me. Two years ago I started charging people affordable rates, so I think I'll do more of that.

What's your biggest financial achievement?

Being able to keep my lights on purely from writing. Once a week I have a moment where I think, "What do you mean I get paid to make stuff up?!" or "What do you mean I'm getting paid to sit here and ask myself what rhymes with tampon?!"