My Life As A Military Spouse: February 2011

2011/02/28

Money Monday

DoD Urged to Establish Flexible Spending Accounts for Military

Once A Month Financial Check-Up

Understanding SGLI

Top 5 Ways To Extend The Life Of Household Items

What Folks With Great Credit Scores Do Right

The 10 Cheapest Cars to Own

The Best Razors

Nintendo 3DS to launch with 18 games

Report: Apple to unveil iPad 2 on March 2

As-Seen-on-TV Products Test

Airfares Are Chasing Oil Prices Higher

Red Flags: How to Spoil a Home Description

No shutdown during a 'government shutdown'

How to Buy a Home

More Education, More Problems? The Myth of Grad School

Best Careers for Family Caregivers

Your Parents and Their Money: Seven Issues You Need to Address

ScoreBig.com Aims to do for Event Tickets What Priceline Did for Hotels

Looking for the IRS Site? It's Not IRS.com

Growing List of Financial Problems Plagues Military Members

Debt Collectors Warned After Companies Target Military Personnel

Smart Parking Meters and an App to Find Open Spots

Creative Way to Keep Money at Home

Bank of America Customers Hit With Yet Another New Fee

Grocery Chain Wegmans Freezing Prices on Food

Motorola's Xoom vs. Apple's iPad: Which Tablet Should You Buy?

How to Pay Off Your Home Faster in Five Steps

The CARD Act One Year Later: Is It Any Better for Consumers?

Claiming Tax Deductions for Weather Damage

Taxpayer Rights: What You Need to Know If You Get Audited

Oil Heads for Biggest Weekly Gain Since 2009 on Libya, Economy

U.S. Consumers Feel the Pinch of Surging Oil Prices

Insurance Tricks That Cost You Money

How safe are online financial sites like Mint.com?

A microscopic look at hotel hygiene

Here's your iPhone. Want service with that?

Save on Air to Europe and Hawaii

Credit Monitoring Services: Pros, Cons and How to Pick One

What to do When a Family Member Steals a Minor's Identity

Step-by-step guide to checking your minor child's credit

$5-a-Gallon Gas? Where Are Airfare Prices Headed?

Internships are Important, But How Do you Land One?

Nine easy ways to increase your gas mileage

Why 2011 May Be the End of the Housing Crash

In Recession’s Wake, Frugal Ways Make a Comeback

F.H.A. to Raise Insurance Premiums

When a Vacation Package Can Save You Money (and When It Can’t)

Your Résumé, for All to See

Get Through to a Human

The 3 Most Important Financial Numbers You Need to Know

Verizon iPhone 4: Mind the gap, our tests show

Will Stockpiling Save You Money?

Where Checking Is Still Free

The Best Fitness Gear and Gadgets

Five Pet Websites to Avoid from SiteJabber

Experian Tool Adds Rental Info to Some Credit Reports

Divorce and Debt: What You Owe and What You Don't

How to Save on Gas as Prices at the Pump Climb

10 Bargain Retirement Spots

The Best Pillows

Should You Pay Off the House?

Labels: budget friendly

2011/02/25

PCS Chronicles

Next installment post of our PCS process....

We were finally able to speak to our local transpo office. Apparently if you are doing a partial PPM the transpo office still handles everything for you. All of the effort I put into move.mil was interesting, but apparently not needed.

It would have been nice for information regarding PPMs to have been put in a section of it's own within the move.mil website. Or better yet, in huge font on the front page. If I had not taken the initiative to weed through the available slides before receiving our login information, I never would have known that we even needed to contact our local transpo office. Not knowing those things up front have resulted in wasted time.

On the brighter side of local transpo - the folks were nice and helpful. We have filled out initial paperwork and have an appointment set up to do more paperwork and secure dates. We were told that they cannot set up an appointment right away because carrier rates change in April and May??? We cannot set up our pack/load dates until 30 days out. I understand the timing issues (sort of), but it does not help those of us (me) that have OCD when it coming to planning and want information and things taken care of (now) asap! I also find it interesting that when the largest PCS season of the year (can you say BRAC on top of heavy summer moving season?) is coming, that they would not want to schedule as many things as possible - ahead of time! Yes, my planning OCD consumes me.

I have spent a huge amount of time trying to figure out which route will be the best for us to take from one installation to the next. Why? Because we have pets. There are several routes that we could take, but the issues remain: Can we find a hotel in our stop over city/town that allows pets, allows pets over 25lbs, won't charge us an arm and a leg for having pets, isn't disgusting and so on?? I give props to privatized lodging on installations that now allow pets (charges and all) it will sure make our lives easier upon arrival. But, figuring out the issue of between here and there is still proving to be time consuming and stressful. Our pets are family members, we love them and we will work it out. This is an issue every time that we move though and drives me insane, but it is what it is.

I have been able to research sports and activities for the children at our new location and within the community at large. The kids should be very happy about most of the opportunities available. Some would require me driving an hour in one direction. Mom is not so happy about that. On the other hand I am wondering if this short move would be a good time for us to all take a 'time out' from so many sports and activities and concentrate more on spending real time together as a family. There are pros and cons on both sides of this topic.

I have price quoted all truck rental companies. I was truly surprised at the price difference from each of the companies. Uhaul does not have any advertised military discount and will be the most expensive, but they have the smallest truck available that will also allow tow behind of our second vehicle. I am now kicking myself for selling our trailer. My husband will be driving the truck and prefers the smallest one possible. Penske was the next highest rate, but will offer a military discount upon pick up. This will result in a much larger truck for tow behind. Budget was by far the cheapest and also offers a military discount. Again, larger truck. PODS wouldn't give me a quote without giving them a great deal of information up front, so I have tabled that possibility for the moment. I also need a motorcycle hauler and it appears that each of the companies have comparable rates on this. Ah, decisions.

I am trying to go through all of our material stuff slowly and in organized order. I am still overwhelmed and need to get a grip on myself. When I look at all of the stuff - I always wish that the military would offer a allowance weight for spouse professional goods (like they do for the servicemember) and all of our teaching materials. All of those things add major weight to our move, but are not things that we can just throw out. Not only are they needed, they cost a lot of money to purchase.

I find myself in a sad state of mind to be leaving our doctors and dentists. We never know what doctors or dentists we will get on the other side of a PCS move and that disturbs me. Another thing that I cannot do anything about and I need to just let go of.

Our current location has allowed us to be semi close to both of our families - within decent driving distance. There are major health/medical issues going on within both of our families. This location has allowed me to help, to be there. Our new location will put us much further from family and for the first time in my military spouse life, I feel really, truly horrible about being so far away. Somewhere in my mind I knew that this would happen eventually. I knew that our parents would age, health problems would come. I was not prepared for cancer to surface and then have to be so far away. I have guilt. I will deal with it and move on eventually - because I have to. But it still makes me feel horrible about moving.

Labels: PCS