Every month, at the beginning, I do a monthly budget where I look at what is going out and needs paying for, and what is coming in.

I have been a self-employed creative for years now and my income is always changing as I wait for payments and then have some odd regular work.

I have been doing such a budget for over decade:
It gives me peace
It allows me to plan where there may be gaps
It has helped me support and fund my own creativity.

Lots of my recent podcast episodes are about the mental health aspects, motivation and ways to keep creating ‘the work’ but for me financing your creative dreams and career is a very important part of the puzzle.
Whether you are a painter, photographer, novelist, musician, script writer or actor, you need to be able to fund your life and if you want to be able to turn a creative hobby into a money earner.
Whatever your creative passion, you have to find a way to make it pay (unless it’s a hobby on the side and that’s OK too). I have been a full time creative, a hobbyist and also that doing both a ‘real job’ and then struggled to find time to be creative around that.

The one thing that always grounds me is to do it at the end, say the 30/31st of each month, or if I have not done it then, by say the 3rd of each month or I get restless. I always do it on paper with budget templates, I could do it on excel or on accounting software as I am great at using that stuff, but I like doing it with pen and paper and the ability to scribble things out and change, write notes and reminders.

Think of:
All the money that is coming in and there can be a few month gaps between the work you did or ticket sales actually being paid.
The money that is going out that’s standard – rent, phone bill. mortagage, utilities
I also am looking forward to what coming up creative wise etc such as annual subscriptions.
What do I want to pay for this month? eg annual car insurance rather than monthly,
as I hate paying overdraft fees etc

But creatively if I am looking to do a festival in 6 months time, there are always amounts I need to spend, from venue hire, marketing, brochure fees are often paid out months before I get the money recouped through ticket sales. The most extreme version was paying the up front fees including flights to Australia 6 months before I was doing my first gigs there as I had to apply my work visa showing the flights I had booked already . After paying to live in Australia for 6 weeks whilst gigging there (and also keeping all my bills up and running back in London) I was then paid for my ticket sales approx 2 months after my return. That’s a large amount of money to pre-fund.

I am always aware on my budget what is coming up to pay. I need much more savings as a creative as I know I will be pre-paying out many £1000s in advance.

Savings pots I will talk about in the next episode.

If you are freelance then they all pay on different time periods, sometimes late yet the bills are going out very regularly such as rent and phone bills.

It can be incredibly scary to look at your finances but facing the facts of where you are can help your mental state because at least you can start making a plan and you feel a little but more in control.

A year ago if I could see that I would be short one month, then I would just go out and pick up an extra couple gigs in the week , I MC, am a comic, sing, host, even quiz nights as well as my acting work and voice over work plus my own The Singing Psychic and Queen gigs. I had the ability to pick up easily extra work, that has gone at present.
Just the fact I can see if there is a budget hole helps as at least you can make a plan, “oh I guess no takeaways this week/month/forever”. This monthly budget process has massively helped me support my creativity and gives me peace.

When you earn loads you can put money away and remember to put money away for tax, when you don’t earn much you get extra focused on what you can spend or even need to sell or earn more.
There are loads monthly budgets forms online, have a go, let me know how it went.

We will get through this. Just however scared you are financially right night especially due to covid, there are people around you to chat to and support you, help you make a plan or even offset payment plans. Facing the obstacles, facing what is difficult including budgeting when no money is coming is, calling people to say sorry I cant pay this month, will give you a feeling of control back.
If you feel more in control your brain works better and you will sleep better. Your mental health is so important right now. Facing the details of where you spend and where you can save will probably change your life , I stopped going out to dinner massively when I started this process of facing my own financial reality from being an ex City banker to being an artiste.

The song at the beginning is a remix of my LondonTown tune by Andrew Hyde
At the end is my Vampire For Yor Love tune from my album ‘If you can’t make love make coffee’ available online, and also actual CDs if you want to contact me

Aims of this podcast - Love Your Creativity & Make Money
This podcast is about being a working creative from thoughts on marketing, budget to what techniques we can all use to get the work done and out there, no matter where you work full time as an actor, a choreographer or have a yearning to paint more over the weekends.
The book on mental, practical and financial tips on ‘getting your art in gear’ is being launched soon.

About me, Marysia Trembecka

I am at heart a storyteller and this has translated from the initial creation of work to being a performer, including film and theatre acting, writing and performing international touring comedy shows to MCing.

Highlights include sell-out Adelaide and Edinburgh Fringe shows, singing at the Royal Festival Hall in 23 different languages, as well as doing TEDx talks and corporate gigs, such as the Brit Awards Afterparty at the 02 as my ‘The Singing Psychic’ bio queen character.

My ‘THE SINGING PSYCHIC’ who ‘reads the songs in your heart’ also has a GAME SHOW version, and was a finalist in Best Show, Funny Women in 2016, and I have toured internationally since then.
I have also produced five webseries as the character including my 23 episode SONGS OF BREXIT webseries I made for the June 2016 EU Referendum, on the pros and cons of the EU, I started the web series singing The Clash’s ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go Now’. It was very wll received due to the blend of education and entertainment, and I ended up on London Live and even a BBC2 Live Debate on the National Living Wage amongst other press of the back of that.


I also was awarded Arts Council funding for research on a solo show on how we are all judged by our sexuality, so as part of that, I interviewed people on the cutting edge of sexual politics. From this I then created another character ‘Queen Of The F*cking World’ which has also toured internationally from Glasgow WOFF film festival in the female perspective strand to sell-out London, Edinburgh and Adelaide runs. I sing and play the bass guitar and guitar in this show.

My film acting credits can be found on IMDB and indeed my projects are on my media gallery http://marysiatrembecka.com/media-gallery/
Marysia Trembecka
@MarysiaT