MH made it into a San Francisco film festival!  & he was the headliner!  It was such a hodge podge of genres, that it's not fair to say that it was the "best" movie, but was definitely the most entertaining.  The downside of being last is that most the crowd had left (the event was long).  But it was received very well and it will be neat to see it in a fuller theater some day.  Fingers crossed.  The acceptances and rejections are rolling in slowly. 

MH also randomly received a 10% raise Friday.   Retroactive, so his check will be bigger than expected.  Of course, he usually gets a raise in the fall.  I presume it's just a little early this year.  (He will get one or two paychecks at the new rate, but then will be off work for the summer).

MM(18) accepted a summer job offer in his field of study.  It sounds like this company is doing some work at his school and can translate into some work during the school year.  But the summer job is part time and then he has secured the TA job for the fall.  It was dependent on his class schedule but it sounds like he got it worked out.  He made out pretty well with the part time high paying summer job (will have both $$$ and time).  It's at home, so he won't have any expenses.  Heck, this company is randomly in the same parking lot as my job, so we will be able to mostly carpool.  

DL(16) is starting to apply for jobs.  He just thinks he is going to be bored out of his mind this summer.  He's ready for his own money and some more independence.  (He still has a couple weeks left of school).

In other randomness, unfortunately the last set of dishes we bought have not held up well at all.  They crack/chip and then get too hot in the microwave.  The set before that were just too plain and I didn't care for them.  I have those set aside for the kids and MM(18) will be using them next school year.  (It's also nice to have extra dishes for entertaining).  

It took a while for us to agree on anything, but I ended up liking the new set of dishes even better in person.   Phew!  We spent less money this time around.  Will see if these hold up for more than 10 years.  

I did also order a couple of school branded gifts for my niece (she's going to the same college as MM).  I just ordered online for MM(18) to pick up.  Will have to remember to get from him when he gets home.  Wanted to pick up a couple of small things but didn't want to pay for shipping.  I will also send her $100 this week.  Is what I recalled, but I looked it up and confirmed that is how much money SIL gave MM(18) for his graduation.  

There's been several virsuses going around and has hit our house hard.  It figures.  I was just getting medical issues resolved and then ended up sick.  This one knocked me down hard.  Was sicker than I've been in a few years.  & even that was not too terrible, but I have been tired for weeks afterward.  Even yesterday, I laid down and crashed for 3 hours. 

We haven't personally been dealing with price increases.  But...  The hotels by MM(18)'s college?  Holy cow!  People have money to burn.  It's just absurd all of a sudden.  The hotel we have often gotten the nicest room for $200-$250 per night?  It's now $700 (for the most basic rooms) some nights!   I had a staycation a couple of weeks ago but the one fun/splurgey thing we had planned was to visit MM(18).  Maybe would have also stayed by the beach if it wasn't a bajillion dollars.  We probably booked the most expensive hotel we had ever booked, to stay nowhere near the beach.  Everything was just ridiculous.

I ended up changing the reservation a couple of times and wasn't interested in pre-paying a $350 hotel room.   (Crap happens). We lucked out because the last one I booked we could cancel up until check-in the day of.  We made it about 80% down to the college and DL(16) even came with us.  But DL had a bit of a mental breakdown and we turned around.  He had a fever by the time we got home.  Some parts mental and some parts physical.  I at least had the presence of mine to cancel the hotel, with a few minutes to spare.  

We had already decided to not book a hotel at all when we pick up MM(18) after finals.   Even mid week prices (if we could swing mid week) were already crazy.  It's kind of moot because he has a late Friday final and so we can't pick him up until Saturday.  Move out and graduation.  Ugh.  Of course it's the one quarter he can't get out by Wednesday or Thursday.

In the end, I did see someone praising hotel prices about 30 miles south (along the coast).  I am okay with one crazy expensive hotel.  (It's probably going to be $350, but at least it won't be more than that).  I just didn't want to do more than once this school year.  So I am starting to think we may just book a hotel that Friday, because we canceled the last one.  I thought at least we could get out super early Saturday, but I guess the first graduation is 8:30 am.  So much for "beating the crowd".  But I suppose we might beat some of the move out crowd.  Well, after spending many hours scouring hotels, I have to start all over again.  Hoping that MH and I at least get a more leisurely drive out of it and maybe a nice dinner out and some nice views.  I may give up.  At least we can stay with our parents to break up the drive a little bit. 

Edited to add:  I guess it was a good money week.  Spoke to MM(18) and he told us that we have a $175 refund in the mail from his college.  Woohoo!  The one State middle class grant we received, they gave us an extra $175 (when it all sorted out).  MM(18)'s freshman year is already paid for, so sounds like I will get a check any day.  

I did also book a hotel (before we found the extra $175).  I did find a beachfront hotel with a car charger and was about the best/cheapest thing I could find.  They only had one room left and I snagged it.  But I didn't have to scour the internet for hours because mostly everything is ridiculously expensive and sold out.  (I looked a little longer after I snagged this first room but quickly gave up).  Ended up being about $400 but even the Motel 6 at college town was $350-$400.  I am so glad I got a tip to check this one town because it wasn't coming up when I was looking +/- 30 miles before.  It's 35 miles out of the way but it's beachfront (highly rated) and we can afford it.  We will have a nice coastal drive down Highway 1 Saturday morning when we pick up MM(18).  

Other going ons...

Strangely, we had a no spend week.  I was just surprised there was nothing on any of the credit cards.  The exception was groceries.  3 stops at the grocery store, which isn't too unusual.  But now that I think about it, MH asked me to pick up orange juice when he was sick and then MH ran to the store in the middle of cooking dinner because we were missing something.

Today I balanced out June.  I've paid all the small credit cards ($40 Target, $100 dining out card, and $18 I put on MM's credit card for my niece's gifts) and will pay off the bigger balances after pay day.  I suppose we've got 3 more days this month but nothing is pending, I allocated $100 for groceries (any overage can be paid next month) and the credit card cycles have closed anyway.  Will probably bump anything else to figure out in July.  I was pleased everything balanced because we spent a lot of money this month.  Still not used to the extra breathing room.  But also still in general err on the side of over-saving, which is why I have nothing left for the next 3 days.  

I do have a return to take care of today, so I guess that buys me a little wiggle room if something pops up.  We have no plans, MH is recovering from this virus, and I just have chores to do this weekend.  I don't foresee any spending.  We've been on the road the last four weekends and so it's nice to have a peaceful weekend at home.