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Home > Archive: October, 2018

Archive for October, 2018

$3,500 In Debt

October 30th, 2018 at 07:09 pm

Moving is expensive!

We didn't have to put a deposit down on this townhome on base and rent is paid in arrears, but despite those positives, we have $3,498.26 in expenses charged on our credit cards! Hotels, fuel, restaurants, and extra needs to purchase after move (such as toilet brushes, cleaners, ect) add up fast!

Some of those charges are for our regular bills, such as Verizon, Hulu, Netflix and things we just needed because you know life has expenses, too.

I'm looking forward to payday on Thursday and eventually receiving our deposit from the rental home, and all of our moving entitlements. I'm not sure exactly when we will receive the latter payments, but likely in the next three weeks.

Technically, I do have the funds in our accounts that I could pay those credit cards in full and likely will pay many of them on pay day. I will float some of the money until we receive our reimbursements.

We've Moved

October 29th, 2018 at 02:28 pm

We have arrived at our new duty station. My husband is reporting for the first time this morning. He is thankful that this move the job is something he knows how to do, as it is the same as what he has been doing. So we are finding our new normal. Moving to a new town is very stressful because EVERYTHING is new. It's very disorientating. And I'm honestly struggling a bit with it this time more than ever. Some of that may be because I don't have the distraction of my kids, who this time are away at college.

I am determined to keep moving forward and finding my new normal in this place. I already got out to do a walk after my husband left for work, which is what I usually do. The difference is it is a new route, new people and sounds around. But soon, it will feel normal. Smile

My big goal for today is to get all our finances in order. So many receipts from the trip to record. We had quite a few days of living in a hotel and eating out. We will get travel reimbursement at some point to cover all the costs, but I need to make sure credit cards are paid on time. I also need to update our address in many places.

I hope to be back regularly soon!

FAFSA Time

October 21st, 2018 at 09:34 pm

It's that time again if you have a college student or even a high school senior...to submit your Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The official website is

Text is here and Link is https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/fafsa
here. I'm not sure exactly why I fill this out each year because we are not likely to qualify for grants, nor are we planning to take out student loans. However, one never knows what will happen in between the time of the application and the time to make a payment. We and our daughter's have always been offered loans.

I also think we did get a small grant ($1,200) from my youngest daughter's college this year. I think it is possible that the FAFSA was helpful for obtaining those funds. Makes it worth submitting again.

It seems to take awhile to complete...an hour or more, and that's with using the IRS data retriever tool. I'm now waiting on both my daughter's to get back to me with some of their personal financial data. I hope I can wrap it up today and have it as one less thing on my mind.

Have you filled out the FAFSA before? Do you take out student loans for your college student?

Spendy Weekend

October 9th, 2018 at 12:15 am

We drove one of our cars to our new location this weekend. I'm a good driver, but get massive anxiety driving on the interstate. I can do it, but it's mentally exhausting. So for a two day trip, I just can't do it!

Costs for gas were nearly $200 (according to my husband), which seems high, so will need to double check. Two hotel nights were nearly $230, food spent was easily $200 and we flew one way back to our current home for $660. Yep, nearly $1300!

We made the decision last minute, thus the reason the airline tickets were high. We weren't tracking that this weekend was a four day weekend for my husband with Columbus Day, so when we realized that we decided it was best to get the truck to our new place first rather than after the actual move.

We will get mileage for both of our vehicles, which my husband says is likely $400 each. We don't get specifically reimbursed for food, hotel or airlines for this trip. However, the military provides a dislocation allowance to cover general moving expenses that are not covered. No receipts needed. We expect to get just under $3,700. So our expenses incurred this weekend will not come out of our own pocket. We will get compensated.

I noticed our auto insurance is going down effective in December by nearly $400. Our oldest daughter is on our policy, so it has been high for this first year. I suppose this could change once I change our insurance to our new location.