I asked MM to get me an accounting of what I owe him for groceries.  & for Christmas, we wanted to pay for his round trip train ticket for New Year's.  He sent it to me late last night.  $42 for 30 days of groceries.  🙄  This is my kid who is $350/month to feed at home.  ??? (If anything, he's living in a more expensive region now.) Roundtrip train ticket was $88.  Was about what he paid one-way last time.  Different prices on different days, but he also found the student discount (15% off).  

To be fair, I think he charged $20 to the Target card (grocery run), he was home for Thanksgiving week, and he has spent most weekends in So Cal.

I also offered to send him ~$100 for food from mid-December through mid-January.  I didn't realize they would have so many meals covered in So Cal.  He told me he ended up only eating out 4 times?  But I just sent him the $100 anyway.  I had budgeted substantially more for his groceries.  (I had thought $100 would just be a small dent in 2 weeks of eating out.)

While I do like the idea of just sending him a flat monthly grocery dollar amount (for him to figure out and budget), I was concerned that he would spend as little as possible so that he could hoard money.  He seems to be doing this regardless, even with the flat reimbursements.  

I am looking at MM(19)'s financial records.  He made $1,100 with his campus job and saved $1,200.  This school year, to-date.  How is that possible?  He made $73 interest (includes 1 month of mega I Bond interest) and earned a $200 credit card reward.  His spending was less than the credit card reward.  While there is no lack of free things to do at his college campus, I believe his lack of spending was mostly driven by being busy and having no time.  I am just surprised that he didn't spend more.  His expenses should include a lot of meals in LA, and a lot of gas for the weekly trips.  Don't ask me.  As he gets more independent, I see less of the details.  

I did not end up getting any of MM's behind-the-scene photos, but this was the night the parade float was transported to Pasadena.  In Pasadena they spent 2 days mostly painting, I believe.  The 20th and 21st. The kids all go home for Christmas but then there's a deco week (26th - 31st) where anyone can volunteer.  This is when they add all the plants and flowers.  This is for the New Year's rose parade.   

M(19) told us that they have to be able to lower the back mushroom/snail in 60 seconds, without power.  This is for the bridges (one or two) along the parade route.  But that when the mushroom is raised up the float is 25 feet tall.  

He skipped deco week but we both want to go next year.  I thought I heard that the kids were couch surfing (last year) but that probably was for the deco week in Pasadena.  For design 'week' (the 2 weeks before Christmas) they were fed and stayed at a (free) hotel on a college campus.  Free because the hotel is owned by the So Cal college.  In Pasadena, he may need to couch surf for the deco week next year.  I'd just go for the weekend.

This year, he's going back for the parade.  I dropped him off at the train station early this a.m.  He's taking the red eye train home on Monday night.  The parade is not done on Sundays, so it will be Monday.  But he's meeting up with the girfriend (who is working on campus) and then they have a 3-hour drive from there to Pasadena.  I expect he will have some interesting photos to share.   MM thought that today was when they started adding all the flowers.  They try to do all the more dry material (e.g. seeds) first.  But they have 2-3 dumpsters full of tiny vials that they fill with water and fresh flowers.  It's hard to imagine the scale of it all. 

Edited to add:  Some pictures ended up popping up online today.