We Have A House!

Well,after much deliberating,Erik decided that we should live off post. There are some benefits to this. One,we have a stand alone house. That's never happened,most of military housing is shared,as in a duplex or condo. Also,we have a nice garage and fenced in yard. The house backs up to woods,so there's no one directly behind us. Also,even though it's a bit farther in miles than post housing,it takes Erik less time to get there because there is so much construction on post that it takes twice the time to get around post. With our neighborhood location,Erik can zip right in the back gate,and get to his work quickly. He is pretty excited about it!

The movers dropped off our furniture on Thursday,and nothing huge was broken. A-ma-zing!! We have to file a claim on one thing,but so far so good. Erik's been busy getting all the utilities turned on,which is something new to us. Um. Why does every single place have to have a deposit??

I have to say,this move has been very costly. VERY. It's been tough for me to watch the money flying out of our account at an alarming rate. :/ We've always lived in post housing,and you don't have to pay a deposit,pet deposit,utilities or anything like that. A lot of this is new to us,and we're just trying to adjust our budget accordingly.

To clarify,in case you're unsure of how the housing process goes...(because my previous statement makes it seem like living on post is free). Each base has a set cost of living. So,when you go to your base,you get something called BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing). For instance,your BAH might be 1,000 dollars. So,if you live on post,then you don't ever see that money because it just comes right out of your pay and goes to housing. However,if you live off post,you get that 1,000 dollars to do with what you want. You can rent a room for 300 dollars and bank the rest,or you can trying to find a house for around 80% of your cost,and then save 20% for utilities. That's basically what we've done this time. We are having to make some financial sacrifices to be in a great neighborhood that's safe for our kids,but we're going to give it a go for a year,and then if we don't like it,we can get on the housing list and move on post.