/
1x
Advertisement
Proudly Canadian, obsessively Toronto. Subscribe to Toronto Life!
Life

“It would be nice to make substantial money in theatre”: A 24-year-old waits tables to subsidize her arts career

By Jennifer Cheng| Photography by Brittany Carmichael
Copy link
"It would be nice to make substantial money in theatre": A 24-year-old waits tables to subsidize her arts career

Who: Jennifer Farr, 24

What she does: Jennifer is the co-artistic director of Gambler Productions, a theatre collective she founded with a friend from university. She also works at Beerbistro as a server.

What she makes: She nets between $25,000 to $35,000 a year from her restaurant gig, plus a few hundred dollars from acting. (“It would be nice to make substantial money in theatre. One can dream.”)

Some of how she spends it: Her half of the rent on a one-bedroom-plus-den condo she shares with her boyfriend in South Riverdale: $875 monthly. (“Our den is a decent size. Before this, we were living together in a very, very small one-bedroom apartment above a store in Chinatown.”) Her share of water and hydro: $40 monthly. Cellphone service: $50.85 monthly. Home Internet: $50.10 monthly. OSAP payments: $100 monthly. (“Every few months, I put down $1,000 if I had a really good month at work. I owed $17,000 when I graduated in 2014 and now I have $5,000 left.”) Transportation: $141.50 monthly. (“If I have lines to memorize, I walk to work and pretend I’m on the phone.”) Savings for travel: $2,000 to $3,000 annually. (“This year, we went to Vancouver for a week, which cost me only $1,000. Last year, it was France. My share was $3,000. But it was worth every penny.”)

Some of what she bought in one week: Groceries at Metro: $98.45. (“One of our cats, Marco, has a sensitive stomach, so we have to buy him super-expensive special cat food. It’s $35.”) Tim Hortons: $14.38. Dinner with a friend at Thai House: $59.42. External hard drive on Amazon: $91.24. (“My MacBook of seven years is dying. I’ve used it every single day since Grade 12.”) Friend’s birthday dinner at Mildred’s Temple Kitchen: $60.71.

Advertisement

Want to tell us about your Cost of Living? Email us at costofliving@torontolife.com.

NEVER MISS A TORONTO LIFE STORY

Sign up for This City, our free newsletter about everything that matters right now in Toronto politics, sports, business, culture, society and more.

By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.
You may unsubscribe at any time.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Advertisement
Advertisement

More Cost of Living

This piano teacher and wedding musician makes $170,000 a year. How does she spend it?
City News

This piano teacher and wedding musician makes $170,000 a year. How does she spend it?

Inside the Latest Issue

The June issue of Toronto Life features our annual ranking of the best new restaurants. Plus, our obsessive coverage of everything that matters now in the city.