Sometimes I just want to punch someone.

One of those times would be now.

This is the way the military works. If you are married and live off post, you receive a thing called BAH. It stands for 'Basic Allowance for Housing', it is based on geographic duty location, pay grade and dependency status.

If you live on post, you don't receive BAH because everything is paid for (too a certain extent). Our rent, water and trash are paid for and our electricity as long as we don't go over a certain amount. 

Well, we were receiving BAH while Tim was in training. I was using it to bring down a lot of the debt that was acquired last year from Madison's hospital bills and the debt we had to put on credit cards when Tim's work slowed down last spring. I was using the BAH to lower our bills enough that we would be able to live comfortably off the military pay and my plan has been working wonderfully until Tim got to his duty station.

Tim in processed which changed our duty location and dropped our BAH down $200. Then we were put on a housing list and received a house faster than we expected and then we had car issues and had to drop $100+ into a new battery for our car. So basically we were thrown for a loop financially.

Not only that but Tim has been driving the hour plus drive to and from post every day, which takes a quarter tank of gas a day, which is adding up quickly. Last week when we signed our contract for our house on post, they charged us a prorated amount for our house since we had already received BAH for the month of July. That took another huge chunk of change that we hadn't expected for the month of July.

So we have this house that the Army won't allow us to move into yet, because they didn't arrange my husband's moving brief til tomorrow morning. So Tim is still driving back and forth but now we aren't receiving the BAH to pay for his gas.

I could just scream with how dumb the military can be at times. Why would you set up a house for a soldier to move into, charge him for it and then not allow him to move into the house which he is paying for?!

As of tomorrow our storage lease is up and we have to have everything moved out or they will charge us another months rent(which we can't afford because the storage bill was also coming out of his BAH). But the Army not approving our move *yet* and not willing to pay for a moving truck til it's approved is putting quite the damper on my mood and on our budget. 

Someone please send up a prayer for me that this is taken care of and quickly. I knew it was too good too be true. :(

My financial issue

In September my younger daughter Madison got very sick, they think now that it was Swine Flu. She was running temps in excess of 105 and had a seizure at her daycare. We took her to the hospital on 9/18. They weren't able to tell us what was wrong with her. We took her again on 9/20 when her fever was at 106 and she was blue and barely breathing. Both times they did chest xrays to check for Pneumonia, blood work, urine cultures..and they couldn't tell us what was wrong with her. The second trip (9/20) they gave her a round of antibiotics after I requested them.

Then on 10/3 I had to take my older daughter Mackenzie back to the emergency rooms because she was bleeding from her eyes when she cried.

The following Monday, (10/5) I took both my girls to the pediatrician because they were both ill.

I received bills in the mail and kept all of them, they totaled up to $2,918. I kept them because I was applying for CHIP (Texas medicaid for children) in hopes that they would help pay the bills. We weren't accepted so it turned to paying it ourselves.

I had five different places I was sending checks too and so I only sent $20 to each location.

I got a letter in the mail last week stating we were turned over to collections for unpaid medical bills. I ignored if, stupidly, because we had sent money. Then yesterday I received a phone call from a woman at Dell Children's Hospital asking if we had paid any money to our bills. I informed her that I had. The woman asked how much I paid to each bill every month and I told her $20 and she told me 'thats not enough to keep you out of collections." So I asked her how much I'd have to pay each month to stay out of collections and she told me "380 every month for 12 months". I asked her how much the entire bill was for the minimum payment to be that high, she responded back with $4,936.

I hung up with her very pissed off because I knew it wasn't that high, I had all of my bills. I found every bill they ever sent us and added them up. I owe the hopsital $1,152 and the girl's pediatrician is owed $532 and I owe the X-Ray place $82.

So today I called collections to find out how much was owed to them. I was told that I wasn't in the system but would show up soon if I had been told to call them, that I should call back in a few days. I called Dell's to get an itemized list of what I owed and to find out the exact numbers. The 'lovely' woman on the phone informed me that I owe $1,783 for Madison's appointment on 9/18 and another $2,881 for her appointment on 9/20. She told me Mackenzie's appointment on 10/3 was $272. I asked her why the bills I had here at home weren't adding up with the ones she was telling me and she told me "Oh, we never sent you these bills."

Well why the hell not!? How are you going to turn me over to collections for something that you never sent me a bill for? How are you going to turn me over to collections when you never even called me to find out why I wasn't paying? Why are you going to turn me into collections for something that happened 3.5 months ago when you didn't even let me know that I owed it?!

I'm not refusing to pay the bills, I never refused to pay them. I would gladly send checks to them, had they sent me a bill. What upsets me is that I was never sent a bill, never sent a letter saying 'hey, pay this bill or we're turning you into collections'. It's like they made no effort whatsoever and just threw me to collections.

So the $4,936 that the woman quoted me, doesn't even include the $1,766 from the bills that I have in my room. This whole sum turns out to be $6,702...I am sick, sick. I wasn't excited that I was having to pay towards hospital bills...when the hospital couldn't tell me what was wrong with my child. I wasn't thrilled with the amount..I'm really upset about this whole thing.


So tomorrow I get to call the Hospital and get them to once again admit they never sent me a bill for those numbers. Watch, I bet they don't admit it tomorrow, I bet you. After I get off the phone with them I have to call the JAG office and let them know that we have been turned into collections for a bill I was never sent. I have to ask them what they think I should do, and most of all..let them know I wasn't refusing to pay it. Tim is currently going through a background check..where they also check his credit. It's very important for his MOS. I want them to be aware that us being in collections isn't because we refused to pay a bill, it was because we were never sent the bill.

Someone send up some prayers for me. Tim and I were suppose to be able to completely pay off our debt while he was in BCT and AIT...now...that won't be happening. I can't tell Tim this though..because it's not what he needs to be worried about while he has much more important things on his plate. So like I said..please send up a prayer for me..because I am emotionally drained and feel a break down coming on.

I need to pout.

So I need to pout, because things aren't going as we had thought they would.

For some reason...we are broke. Tim is making money..and we don't have a rent to pay but we are still struggling to pay our bills. I had expected to save some money prior to Tim's basic and AIT to be a cushion during the transition from his plumbing job, to his military job. (We are struggling because some how..Tim's $90 credit card bill..is now a $264 bill..even though we haven't touched the card in months and have been making all our payments on time.)

We've been told to expect that first check to come anywhere from 30-60 days after he leaves for basic. Which means that for the month of November and possibly December..we won't have any money to pay our bills.

So what it boils down to is.. it doesn't look like Tim will be able to put in his two weeks come October. I was hoping he could make his last day October 23rd..then be home with us until he leaves November 3rd. It's not looking like it will work out that way because we won't have any money saved up to pay the bills for November if he doesn't work right up until the last day he is here.

I'm pretty upset about this because...well..it sucks. I was really hoping that he'd be able to spend those last two weeks home with the girls. It sucks. It really really really sucks. But hey...I can't complain too much if at all. At least we have money for our bills..there are a lot of people in this country right now that are hurting, so I am thankful that he is still making money, even if it's not as much as we had hoped.

Sorry if this didn't make any sense...my mind tends to wander at night.

(All you military people..if I am wrong about any of this..please correct me and put my mind at ease..or send me into a state of panic)

Military

Tim is currently looking into joining the military, the air force. He had originally planned to join the marines straight out of high school, but since we ended up getting pregnant with Mackenzie, he decided it wasn't what he wanted to do anymore. Plus the marines aren't known to be very 'family friendly'. So he is now looking into the air force, which has been suggested as the most family oriented military branch, which is his biggest concern with joining.

He took his plumbing exam again and last week got the results that he failed again. He has to wait another 60 days before even applying to take it again. He isn't very confident that he will pass it if he takes it a third time, because he studied extremely hard this past time.

He currently isn't making any money, and we are falling behind on our bills. We have moved in with my mother to help the financial issue, that way we don't have a rent to pay each month.

He is looking into joining the military because it's job security for the next four years, paid housing, discounted food and health insurance and paid college for Tim, then he also has job security when he gets out. It will help us in the long run and in our current situation.

The downfall is all the time away from myself and the girls and the highly likely deployments in the future. I'm stressed out because I can't begin to imagine how hard it will be, to be a single mom while he is away. I have been told by people IN the air force and by the recruiters, that unless you join special forces that deployments within the air force are short, 4-6 months. So that is a plus compared to the long deployments with the other branches.

Yesterday Tim's mother bought him the ASVAB book, so we could both study. Since we have two kids and our income to debt ratio is currently higher than 40% we have to have a waver. In order to get this waver Tim has to make over a 65 on the ASVAB. Seeing as he has never taken the ASVAB before, we got the book to study, that way he will be prepared.

Right now this is all up in the air, but it's something we are seriously considering. It's not so much something we want, but it's currently the best option right now in the long run. Please pray for our family as we deal with this.