Occupation: Computer Science PhD Student
Industry: Academia
Age: 22
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Salary: $36,000 (the stipend given to PhD students in my department) Paycheck Amount (2x/month): $1,383 after taxes
Gender Identity: Woman
Monthly Expenses
Rent: $700/month (for my room in a four-bedroom house that I share with three other grad students. I like living with a lot of people!)
Loans: $0 (thanks to my parents and generous financial aid from my undergrad)
Utilities: ~$120
Cell Phone: $30
Renter's Insurance: $7
Health and Dental Insurance: $318 (I only pay this for nine months of the year even though I am covered for all 12 months of the year)
Misfits Market (2x/month): $24.50
Roth IRA Contributions: $500 (I also maintain a $3,000 emergency fund, and if I ever have to use it, I divert payments from the Roth IRA until it's back up to $3,000.)
6:50 a.m. - Alarm goes off. I lay in bed for 20 minutes (oops) before getting up. The weather has finally turned chilly after several 80-degree days in October, yay! I pick out a pair of jeans, a light long-sleeved top, my Rothy's flats, and a grey cardigan. I head downstairs and make breakfast - granola, homemade yogurt, and an apple. I'm trying hard to cut down on my plastic consumption, especially since Pittsburgh doesn't accept many kinds of "recyclable" plastic, so I make yogurt from milk bought in returnable glass bottles from my local co-op. I also brew coffee to take to-go on the bus.
8:50 a.m. - Catch the bus to campus (usually $2.75, but free with my university ID). I'm heading to the DMV to convert my license since I recently moved from Boston to Pittsburgh. I meant to go straight there, but I realize I forgot to print off one of my proofs of residence so I swing by my office to use the printer there.
11 a.m. - Back to the office - so thankful the bus is free for me! It's been a very light week work-wise since I just submitted my choices for my PhD advisor and I'm waiting to hear back, so I only have my one class to work on in the meantime. I make a half-hearted attempt to start next week's homework, but mostly I just browse Reddit and food blogs.
12:15 p.m. - Lunchtime! I head to the large balcony on the 6th floor of my building. I packed a lunch today - a salad with chickpeas, burrata, quick-pickled radishes and cucumbers, and a cilantro dressing.
12:45 p.m. - Back to my desk. I usually take longer for lunch, but none of my friends are around today, so I finished quickly. I open up the homework assignment again and get back to work, then head to class at 1:30.
3 p.m. - Class gets out and I take the bus home. My delivery from Misfits Market, a company that rescues "ugly" organic produce and sells it for a reduced price, has arrived! I take out the produce and use it to write a meal plan and shopping list for the week.
7:45 a.m. - Alarm goes off. I shower and make breakfast-sautéed pears with oatmeal and a spoonful of yogurt mixed in. I prepped all three pears that I got in my Misfits box, so I put extras into a container for breakfasts later in the week. I spend the rest of the morning doing chores like laundry and cleaning the bathroom I share with one roommate.
10:30 a.m. - Catch the bus to campus to attend a yoga class at the university gym (gym membership and group exercise classes are free with student ID). Being a PhD student is great because you get all the student perks while earning a reasonable stipend!
12:30 p.m. - Back home, I want to make myself a nice meal, so I whip up some latkes with smoked salmon and a dollop of plain yogurt. Then, I meal prep my lunches for the week - rice noodles with roasted eggplant and a miso-sesame sauce. They're yummy, but it was a lot of prep, so I remind myself to plan something simpler next weekend.
3 p.m. - More chores and some TV. I work on an Amazon order, but I feel like I'm not finished adding stuff yet, so I don't check out. I feel kind of bad about ordering so much stuff on Amazon because of all the individual packing, but it does make life a lot more convenient. I might try giving up my Amazon Prime after my subscription expires next year.
9:15 a.m. - Alarm goes off. We cuddle in bed for so long that we need to take an Uber to make our brunch reservations at 11:30 ($29.90 - oof, but boyfriend pays). We're meeting another couple for a double date. We're doing brunch and then visiting the National Aviary to see all the adorable birds.
1 p.m. - Turns out, today is a free admission day to the aviary, so it's pretty crowded. We three grad students would have been free with our IDs anyway, but C. wouldn't have been (regular admission is $17). The aviary is so pretty!
5 p.m. - I get home and do my weekly house chore: cleaning the kitchen. Then I throw together another salad with various toppings from the fridge: romaine, cooked beets, chickpeas, hard-boiled eggs, sunflower seeds, cotija cheese, and a simple vinaigrette.
7:10 a.m. - I had meant to wake up at 6:30, but I had a pretty restless night so I pushed my alarm back a bit. I make oatmeal with sautéed pears and yogurt again and brew some coffee to take in my thermos.
8:45 a.m. - I catch the bus to campus. Since our office fridge isn't ever very full, I bring in four packed lunches on Monday so that I never forget my lunch (the fifth lunch I'll either eat out one day or go to a free seminar lunch). I settle in at my desk and read the weekly Smitten Kitchen newsletter, earmarking a cream of mushroom soup as something to try making for lunch next week. I also try to write my goals for the day at the beginning of every day. Today's are simple: read one paper in the morning, work on homework after class in the afternoon.
12 p.m. - Reasonably productive morning. I head to the balcony for lunch (the miso eggplant noodles I prepped earlier) with several friends who are also first-year PhD students. We have a funny conversation about fashion where I explain to them that you aren't supposed to wear two different shades of the same color (with the exception of blue, I think!). I head back to my desk at 12:45.
1:30 p.m. - Time for lecture for my one class. We get last week's homework back and I'm disappointed to see that I didn't do as well on it as I thought. This sends me off on a spiral of self-doubt where I worry that my technical skills aren't strong enough to do good research in a computer science program and that maybe I want to do a different kind of work, anyway -maybe something that's broader and involves lots of different skills, while research can feel like a fairly narrow deep-dive into one subject. I try to silence that voice by reminding myself that I have lots of time to figure this out, and I'm not closing any doors by starting the PhD even if I end up leaving with just a masters.
3 p.m. - Back at my desk, I make myself a coffee with half-and-half (both bought myself and kept at the office - there's free coffee at the office, but I don't like it). I also got some Taza dark chocolate as a prize for answering questions in class, so I munch on a few squares of that as well. I would usually have something more substantial, but I'm holding out for our department-wide teatime at 4:30.
7 p.m. - I take the bus home. That was a really fun evening and it feels good that I'm making a lot of friends among the other students. I head home and find that my Rothy's sneakers have arrived! I ordered them about a week ago after being so impressed with the Rothy's flats that I got two years ago. I have a whole list of durable products, many with lifetime guarantees, that I eventually want to buy, and I'm slowly working my way through it. Next month I'll be buying a backpack with a lifetime warranty from Duluth to replace my current one, which is starting to get some tears.
6:35 a.m. - Alarm goes off. I lay in bed for a while and then get up for breakfast (oatmeal with pears and yogurt again and coffee for my thermos). I wear my new shoes around the house in the morning. I haven't completely committed to keeping them yet, so I swap them for my flats before heading out the door.
8:10 a.m. - Yay, I made it on the early bus! When I get to my office, I settle in to read a few articles about carbon offsets before really getting to work, since I'm considering purchasing carbon offsets for some of my upcoming flights. I have to fly a lot both due to the norms of academia and the fact that most of my family, including my parents and siblings, live in Europe. Reducing the amount that I fly doesn't seem like a viable option since most of my flying is not for vacations, but I do feel concerned about the impact on the environment. I don't end up really making up my mind about it, so I resolve to ask one of my housemates who I know does research related to carbon offsetting.
11:30 a.m. - Early lunch so that I can catch the 12:30 yoga class at the university gym. I have another of my packed lunches of miso and eggplant noodles. Friends arrive around 12, so we talk a little bit before I run off.
12:30 p.m. - Yoga class time! It's with my favorite instructor and she makes us work HARD. I always feel so good afterward and it's so gratifying to watch myself able to do more and more every week.
7:30 p.m. - C. and I leave the bar and walk back to my place. We spend some time catching up about his job search - he had a final-round interview today that went well and another one scheduled tomorrow, so it should be just a matter of time until he gets an offer now. I just got an email that my first choice for a PhD supervisor has worked out, so we also celebrate that! He leaves and I head to bed around 10.
6:55 a.m. - Alarm goes off. I hit the shower and then prepare an apple with granola and yogurt and brew coffee for my thermos.
8:45 a.m. - Oof, a later bus than I wanted to end up on, but it's all good. I hit my desk and work on homework again. This week's assignment is a monster.
12 p.m. - I head to seminar lunch. It's pizza every week, so I usually bring my own lunch. I accidentally packed too little food in one of my lunches for the week, so I heat that up and then grab a piece of pizza to supplement it.
12:30 p.m. - The talk is really hard to follow and I can't see the board the speaker is writing on, so I leave early.
5:30 p.m. - I started to feel a bit sick around 4, but I push through so I can attend an office hour and catch the bus home at 5:30. Once home, I make some more latkes with potatoes and onions from my Misfits box - this time a large batch so that I can have leftovers for a while. I also roast the Brussels sprouts I got at the store. I eat the latkes with smoked salmon, a dab of yogurt, and Brussels sprouts on the side.
7:10 a.m. - Alarm goes off. I feel like I'm definitely a bit sick, so I sleep for another two hours before finally getting up. I have some plums from my Misfits box that I feel a little skeptical about, so I give them my usual treatment of sautéing them with a pat of butter, warm spices, and a pinch of sugar before having them with oatmeal. I also make coffee and drink it with my breakfast since I'm planning on staying home at least for the morning.
11:30 a.m. - I finally settle in to try to finish this homework assignment. I had wanted to go to another office hour at 4 today, but in my current sick state I'm not sure it's going to happen.
1 p.m. - Lunchtime - another round of latkes with smoked salmon, yogurt, and Brussels sprouts on the side. I also make myself a cup of herbal tea to help stay hydrated with this cold.
2 p.m. - Just one problem left on this assignment! Sadly, I left the hardest one for last. I get through it and head to my bedroom to watch TV. I've been looking for volunteer opportunities in Pittsburgh and I find a tutoring center not far from my place that's looking for volunteers to help with tutoring and college preparation for low-income high schoolers. I shoot the program coordinator an email expressing interest and we set up a meeting for next week.
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