Military Wife Confessions

I have never lived more than 10 miles from the nearest family member, so Im anxious/nervous about moving. I have no idea where we will be going because my husband doesn't graduate basics until November. I know I shouldn't listen to all the gossip, but a girl I know said most military houses should be condemned. I'm very concerned about this because I have 2 small children, and I only want the best for them. I've tried calling my husband's recruiter, but he doesn't help. She also said her BNL has to pay utilities/rent  for on base housing , and that there are tons of rules to living on the base. I thought you only received BAH for being off the base? Could anyone please tell me the pros and cons of living on or off base?

When you go off poste you get the BAH directly and its you responsibility to cover your housing expenses with it. If you are on poste you get it, but it gets deducted again right away...so basically it is not really showing up on your account.

I am pretty sure that every single post has its good houses and old, not so nice ones....but to be honest I doubt that even the old ones on whatever post would not be good enough to have you kids live in.

And the way it worked here is....you get offered houses and you say 'yes' or 'no'. They don't force you into a house. And when it comes to rules I am pretty sure that every base has different rules when it comes to housing considering local aspects like wildlife, climate and stuff. (i.e. here in FLW you are supposed to empty your pools every night)

Overall it is really not bad living on post!

ok thanks. She was telling me that they take it out of his actual monthly income, which would end up leaving us with enough money to buy a pack of gum lol!

i am not doing our finances....but when we first got married the hubby explained it like that to me. you don't really get money but you are also not loosing money (unless of course you exceed the BAH amount) ..... by the way I just left the screen on like this and my son kept on looking at your signature picture and he just had the biggest smily face! every time he looked your hubbies picture he got all happy ....that was to cute...I thought I share that with you

aaww how cute. That is my favorite picture of CJ. You actually have to surprise him with the camera. If it's a planned photo op. he won't smile lol

yea base housing varies from place to place, almost all the airforce bases seem to be tearing down old housing and building new ones. one we are in now was built a little over a year ago and we were the first people to live in it. the only utilities we pay are thing like tv, phone, internet.  we don't get BAH though. 

alot of places are switching to privatized housing. you'll still live on base but you receive BAH  (which you then pay to the housing company) and you pay a percentage of your utilities.

This is a subject where you are goingto hear a lot of good, and a lot of bad. It just depends on how picky you are and what you expecting.  I think the tearing down and rebuilding is happening everywhere, but you have to remember that they do this on a tight budget. Just because a house is new, doesn't mean it's going to be as nice as a redone older house. (I've seen a lot of this here in hawaii) I live in OLD nasty housing, I'm not exactly sure when it was built - it used to be barracks or single bachelors quarters, but they have redone the insides and it really isn't all SO bad, I have carpet and hardwood in the kitchen as opposed to the newer stuff being mostly only linoleum flooring. BUT, the outside looks like we live in the freakin ghetto, paint peeling, wood trim around some windows missing etc. And we pay the same amount for this crap as people of lower rank who wormed their way into nicer housing....with yards, and air conditioning...

Since this is going to be your first duty station, I think you should go with the on post housing. You can say no if you don't like the place, and you can move out to a new one or off post in a year. It's very helpful to be on base, and close to other wives who can help you out while you get used to the military life and your new surroundings.