The parking garage ticket is still in my purse. Twenty-five dollars for one afternoon near campus, printed on thermal paper that is already starting to fade. I keep it because it was the first number of the weekend I had not planned for, and certainly not the last.
Josh graduated from the University of Cincinnati two weeks ago with a degree in mechanical engineering. Greg cried during the procession and told everybody it was allergies. I did not cry until the car, which I think is fair.
We are proud and happy and very glad that is done. We are also a little surprised at what one weekend cost, and since this blog is about the numbers, here they are.
The hotel
We live about 40 minutes north of campus, so in theory we did not need a hotel. In practice, the ceremony started at 9:00 a.m. on a Saturday, we were bringing my mother, who is 79, and the family dinner was Friday night downtown. Driving home after dinner and back again at 7:00 a.m. with Mom did not appeal to anybody.
I looked at hotels in early March. The same chain hotel we have used on Reds game nights at $129 was listing at $289 for graduation weekend. Every hotel within two miles of campus had roughly doubled. I booked two rooms, one for Greg and me and one for Mom, at $289 each plus taxes, $661 for the night. Emily and Nate stayed with friends from nursing school in Cincinnati, which saved us from a third room.
If I did it again, I would have booked in January. A friend whose son graduated the year before said the rates jump once the university announces the date, and by March the good deals are gone.
The dinner for nine
Friday night we had dinner at a restaurant downtown for nine: Greg and me, Emily and Nate, Josh, my mother, and Josh's roommate Marcus with his parents, who drove in from Toledo. We had agreed with Marcus's parents to split it down the middle, but that was before I knew the restaurant added an automatic 20 percent gratuity for parties of eight or more. Then Greg ordered the bottle of wine. The bill was $612, our half $306.
Nobody mentioned the automatic gratuity until the check came. I would have been fine with it if I had known.
Everything else
- Parking: $25 Friday night downtown and $25 Saturday on campus, $50.
- Gas for two cars down and back, about $30.
- Breakfast Saturday for six at the hotel restaurant, because the free breakfast was a line out the door, $84.
- Gift to Josh: a toolbox and a set of wrenches for his new apartment, $165, bought in February.
- Flowers and a frame for his diploma, $62.
- The cap, gown and graduation fee, which Josh paid himself, $0 from us. Greg thought this was very funny.
The total
Hotel $661, dinner $306, parking $50, gas $30, breakfast $84, gift $165, flowers and frame $62. That is $1,358 for one weekend.
I had budgeted $800. I was wrong by $558, mostly on the hotel. It is not a disaster. We made our last mortgage payment in March, so we had a cushion we would not have had a year ago. But I want to be honest that a college graduation is not just the four years of tuition. The weekend itself is a real bill.
What I would tell another parent
Book the hotel the day the date is announced, and pick a place with free cancellation. Ask the restaurant about large-party gratuity before you reserve. Talk about splitting the bill before you sit down, not after the wine arrives.
And bring cash for parking. One of the lots near campus did not take cards. Greg found that out the hard way, holding up a line of minivans while I dug through my purse for a twenty and a five.
Josh starts his job in Indianapolis in June. He is home until then, sleeping late and eating everything in the refrigerator. I thought I would mind. I don't, not one bit, for five more weeks.
