living on base. ..

[candis06]

ok so i have another question lol. when living on base, what all do you have to pay for out of pocket?? do you get the food allowance or no??

[model4u]

bump

[Mother_To_4]

When we lived on base we paid nothing out of pocket except for telephone, internet and cable. Some bases though you pay utilities and some of your BAH is given back to you for that I hear. I have never lived on a base like that so I can't say how it is done. The food allowance has nothing to do with living on or off base unless your a single airman in the dorms. 

[candis06]

Quoting Mother_To_4:

When we lived on base we paid nothing out of pocket except for telephone, internet and cable. Some bases though you pay utilities and some of your BAH is given back to you for that I hear. I have never lived on a base like that so I can't say how it is done. The food allowance has nothing to do with living on or off base unless your a single airman in the dorms. 

oooh ok. so married arimen with dependents can get the food allowance no matter what?  ok so, now i have a question, if you really don't pay for much when living on base what do you do with your money? lol. sorry, but DH andi are used to every cent going to bills and not having enough left over to do ANYTHING with. so, what do you do with all that money you have left?! it just seems too unreal to have that much money to be able to save up, i guess i just feel like there has to be a catch where that money goes.

[Mother_To_4]

Well if you live on base you do not get the housing allowance. We just pay our car payments and other bills. I do understand what your saying though. Depending on where you are depends if off or on base is better. For example in Phoenix we lived off base. Our housing allowance was 1316. Our rent was 1000 and bills were 250 so we made 66 dollars. Now though our BAH is 921 and our house rent alone is 1300 and bills 400 so 800 dollars would be out of pocket. So sometimes it is worth living on base and not worrying about housing allowance.

[sdwyer]

Everyone gets BAS (basic allowance for subsistence)which is $323/month for enlisted. I'm not sure how much it is for officers, but I know it's less. We are stationed at Mtn Home AFB, ID and live on base and we only pay for our phone, satellite and internet. You would be surprised where the money goes.  It is nice not having the extra expense of housing, but we still have other bills. After we pay our car payments, credit cards, cable, phone, etc we put some away in savings and the rest is our spending money.

[airforewifenmom]

If we lived on base we would still not have any money left over. You still have to pay cable/internet/phone. Car payments, insurance, grocerys, ect, ect. We make money by living off base so on base would be BAD for us. Our bah is 1204 and our rent is 925 for a HUGE furnished 3br 2ba house with a 6 person hot tub, and a fenced in yard with a privacy fence.......and the houses on base are tiny and out dated.