April Spending covered with unemployment funds:

--Some charitable contributions came up 

--College expenses ($300 for various orientations)

--Dining Out $200+ this month ~ this included a marvelous lunch out of town (our first restaurant meal in over a year and it was actually very good, some place a little different).  Also, MH is working on a film project and I ran out to get dinner two weeks in a row, in addition to feeding other people.   Just a lot of extra splurging.

--Vacation spending $600

This last splurge feels very redundant because...  MM(17) chose a college!  He's going to school 300 miles south along the coast (in paradise).  Lucky him!   So though we may go back several times this year for orientation, to get him moved in, etc.  This is my happy place and it's the only place I want to go.  I tried to come up with anything else but I just don't want to go anywhere else.  MH and I are going away for a couple of nights, to celebrate our full vaccination.  

Hotel is booked and paid for already.  Fuel will cost basically nothing (electric car).  Will splurge on some nice meals out while we enjoy the coast.

May Spending:

--I need to come up with a $1,500 housing (college dorm) deposit.  I am just going to use MH's unemployment money because it's less I will have to pull from savings later.  (I do have Year 1 costs set aside for college already, in cash).  

Edited to add:  Ended up paying this last weekend.

--Will also be booking Florida airfare (MH and the kids) for this summer.  Can probably cover 2-3 tickets with unemployment money.

MH should get two more unemployment checks, and then we are done.  If they automatically extend him again, he will stop certifying for benefits.  He will still be looking for work.  But, mostly we don't want to deal with the red tape and issues any more.  If he wants to take a month off from the job search to work on his movie or whatever, just wants to get back to things on his terms.  We kind of felt this way in January, but then everything has been smooth with unemployment since then.  Knock on wood.  With the extra $300 per week boost, sure whatever, was worth dealing with the hassles that came up.  But at this point we are both very over it.  He usually is off work during the summer months, so it seems a natural breaking point.  

So I am trying to fund as much as I can without touching savings.  Before we get back into one-income mode.   

Oh yeah, and in other random money spending, we picked out a tuxedo rental for MM(17).  His friends are doing a mini-prom, which is absolutely perfect.  He never would have been interested in regular prom.  He is a very casual dude and so I joked early on that he needed to do a full tux.  I think some because it would be so unexpected and us probably being more willing to fund that after a year of not much exciting going on.  Even MH (most definitely not a tux guy) liked the idea.  But at that point it was just talk.  Yesterday MM(17) committed and picked out a fancy tux.  Most of his friends are girls so they are all going to freak.  They are probably expecting him to show up in shorts.