Military Living...............?

Question

Can someone tell me exactly how people do it? Lets use an E-3 as an example, less than 2 years of service, so thats $1534.20 a month.

Alright so your 18, an E-3 in the Navy (Yes, there are ways to gain E-1 to E-3 pretty fast if you do it before you leave for BT) You have to support you and your fiance living with you. Shes going to college, but her parents are paying for that so you dont have to worry about school costs. Now BAH will pay enough for a small starter home or a townhouse and all the utilities so no worry there. And BAS gives you $220 a month for food, but that obviously wont cover two people.

So you have 1-2 car payments, food, and anything else that you have to pay for with the $1534.20 a month. It would be great if someone would break that money down and make a VERY SIMPLE spending guide to what you would need to buy. (ie $300 car payment, $400 food, ect..)(Those are just random numbers)

This would be a HUGE help, thanks for your time.

Answer 1

I thought you had to be at least an E-4 to get BAH...being single. Maybe the navy is different.
ok lets go for it:
starting out with: 1534.20
-$200.00 for income tax
-30.00 for state tax
-$300.00 car payment
-$75.00 (im guessing your age on this one) car insurance
-$100.00 gas

there are lots of different expenses..do you have any debts that are due every month...cell phone?, star card?, credit cards

Answer 2

There is a reason why, in the old days, military men were not normally allowed to marry until they attained the rank of sergeant (E5). I'm not sure exactly when the regulations loosened but I know this was the norm throughout the 1800's. Exceptions were sometimes made for E4's. It sounds harsh I know but the reason was the level of pay for lower ranked enlisted soldiers.

Second, your fiance doesn't qualify you for housing/spousal support until you two are married. Now assuming that she's entitled to dependant benefits, if there is on post housing, take advantage! Scale back your expectations of needing two cars. You use on post transport to get to where you work, she uses the car for her work/college.
There are stores where you can purchase food extremely cheap. Flip through a phone book where you'll be stationed and look for discount grocery stores and/or a national chain called Aldi. If either or both of these exist and you take advantage of their prices, yes, you can reasonably expect to feed two people on just over $200 a month.
Next, AVOID CREDIT CARD DEBT! ANY amount of credit card debt.You will probably hear this a lot from your NCO's. My husband (Army invalid discharge in 2005 after twenty plus years) heard it plenty as a young soldier and told his own soldiers the same thing many many times. The less debt you have, the easier your budget will be to manage.
Now for the numbers. I assumed the $220 for groceries you mentioned was your primary food budget (i.e. not coming out of your check). I assumed no credit card debt or school/other loans. I assumed that yours would be the only income. I also assumed that you want to start building a savings account. As you can see, this is a monkish existance but can be done.

Auto Insurance: $100
Cable TV/Satellite Fees: $100
Laundry/Dry Cleaning: $100
Clothing Purchase: $100
Food (Restaurants/Delivery): $100
Household Items: $100
Internet Access: $50
Insurance: $75
Personal Grooming: $75
Perscriptions: $150 (might be unnecessary)
Subscriptions: $30
Telephone: $90

Auto Loan/Lease: $150

Savings: $200

If you add this up, you see that you have a little extra left over per month to play with. Now if you want to play with a budget like this, I used the worksheet found at the link below. It's got good instructions and is very easy to use. Best of luck to you!

Answer 3

I hear ya here. My spouse is an E-3 in the Army and we have 3 kids so you tell me the BAH is paid of course we live on post in Hawaii (off post is way more expensive) we have $100 for cable phone and internet, the car payment is alloted so we don't fool with that, food for all of us is about $300, we don't get the whole $1501.00 at pay day, it's about $700 give or take a few dollors.
We have it rough just like a few others here I suppose.

Good luck and Take care.

Answer 4

ok for one an e-3 cant get bah if he has no dependents and a fiancee is not a dependent. bah is basic allotment for housing and since you have no dependents wife or kids you dont qualify so you would live in barracks or on the ship. since you live on board theres no household bills and most likely no car note. its very easy. now if you chose to live in an apartment at your own expense thats different,

added hubby is active duty navy near ly 6 years service. i know a thing or two about bah and the way they pay all branches do bah the same way

Answer 5

Will first off you had to get it approved by the commander to live off post. That means you get paid more. then you learn to figure out you car insurance by month, car payment, clip coupons and by on sale stuff for groceries. But if you are not married You should be living on post and saving money up so when you do get married. Why don't the girls family help pay for half the rent.

Car and insurance is about: $450.00 month,
groceries: $300.00
utilities: around $200.00
rent: $500.00 or more a month depends on where at.
If you need help email me and we can talk more about it I am great at figuring a budget.
Good Luck

Answer 6

For God's sake, what fantasy world are you living on? You describe the lifestyle of a 35 year old productive adult and ask how an E-3 can live on it.

You can't. It's impossible. It was never intended for an E-3 to live like that.

If you're an E-3 shacking up with your non-working girlfriend get used to driving an old clunker, eating macaroni and cheese and living in the type of places your mother always told you to avoid, especially after dark.

Answer 7

Why do you have to take care of a girl friend and why do you need a car????You are in the military.