Friday, April 8, 2011

Govt Shutdown

With an upcoming PCS and a baby on the way the thought of a govt shutdown stresses me out. To think that the military will not be getting paid is insane. I'm thankful my husband just came home this week because at least he is safe where he belongs. For all those currently in a war zone I can't even imagine. I think it's a huge slap in the face to those that serve our country, put their lives on the line and spend months even years apart from their families to be going unpaid.

What I find even worse is how nasty people are being on social media sites. Fellow mil spouses are on twitter bashing others who don't have money saved in case of emergencies and so forth. Who are you to know some one elses financial situation. A few months ago my hubs and I had an amazing emergency cash fund. Last spring when he was deployed I paid off a ton of debt and saved a lot of money. Although we as a couple don't put anything on credit I was still paying off my debt from when I was an 18 year old college student who thought I could make it on my own while paying for my own tuition and books. Rent, gas and food went on credit cards and I racked up debt. Now I've gotten better with my money habits but 8 years ago I didn't think about the consequences. So last spring I paid a chunk off. When the hubs came back we went on vacation and dipped a little bit into our savings but we still had a great fund saved for emergencies. Then the army screwed up his paycheck and we went from October to February of this year without getting a pay check some months or half of a paycheck others.When they fixed his pay there was no back pay to compensate. So needless to say our savings had to go to bills and what not. And doesn't it always figure that when you need money the most cars seem to break down or some other things breaks that needs to be fixed right away. Now again we have another little nest egg but with the shut down I'm scared.

We have a baby due in 4 months. We are supposed to PCS in a month. We just paid a down payment on a house and our nest egg is for the move and baby. I am only working 10 hours a week. Originally I put in my notice for April 1st but luckily I have an amazing company that I work for that allowed me to stay on until we officially move. Some of my client's got new therapists which I understand but some I was able to keep although my hours were cut. So on ten hours a week and the hubs not getting paid we will be seriously hurting. And people can live frugally all they want but if you have student loan payments and car payments that you have to pay each month, sometimes that affects your savings.If no money is coming in, yet needs to go out it doesn't matter how frugal you live. Eventually you will run out

So why are people bashing each other instead of sticking up for one another. Again no one knows any one elses financial situation. I can see their point however, we as a culture are more inclined to spend rather than save and we are more motivated by having nice cars than having money in savings. Will I def make it more of a priority to save. Of course but that still doesn't make up for the fact that our men and women serving our country, who risk their lives should ever be asked to go unpaid when reality stars, celebrities, sports players and etc are making millions for acting drunk and stupid on tv. And I will admit it angers me when I see people driving around in Escalade's while parking in front of the WIC office or applying for food stamps. But again who am I to judge. ALl I know is that I'm terrified that the govt will really shut down and the hubs won't be getting paid. Will we be able then to collect welfare, or WIC. no we won't. It's a scary thought for everyone in this situation that a once steady income will be yanked away, with no warning or chance to even allow people to stock up on their savings.

So I am trying to avoid CNN but am anxiously awaiting to hear what is going to happen with this shutdown. Please pray for everyone this affects and pray that if this happen's it doesn't last long

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6 comments:

  1. I agree! We had savings and had to spend it when we stopped getting paid last year. Then we had another financial blunder on the part of finance and again, we're going to go through our savings. We weren't going to get paid these next two checks anyway, but it doesn't matter because it does affect everyone and there's no way of knowing how long it will continue. I really hope everyone makes it through this without too many scratches and bruises. *sigh*

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  2. The *only* reason we have an emergency savings is because I married OccDoc, he's way more responsible than I am. Even though I protested at the time I am glad we sacrificed a few years worth of nice vacations to build some extra cushion. I'm thinking of everyone who isn't so lucky.

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  3. Welcome home to the MR!!! I'm so sick over this shutdown thing .. I'm sorry you're stressed out .. Hoping something positive comes out of today!

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  4. I totally agree with you! No one knows anything about another's financial situation, and it's easy to sit back and judge if you've got a nest egg or if you're not in the military. I volunteer for a relief organization where I counsel service members all the time on how to better their finances so I know a lot of military families support a big family on very little, yet the sacrifice quite a lot for everyone else to live how they want to. It's sad to me that so many people can turn their noses up at the situation or be completely apathetic about it.

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  5. I totally agree. I am not even a military wife, but i heard about the shutdown on the radio this morning & about our military not being paid (though congress WILL BE, of course!) & i was furious!! What a slap in the face! How can they even do that?! It blows my mind & makes me angry!

    I had no idea ppl were bashing each other though! WOW! That's just terrible. You never know someone's financial situation. But even if someone never saves their money, that is besides the point!!!! Military should still be paid!!!!!

    UGH... i'm so sorry. Will be praying for y'all.

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  6. Thank you for posting this. I was so sick over the bashing that I had to stop looking at blogs and twitter for a bit. It made me so angry that spouses were bashing one another like that. Then I saw people that weren't even milspouses bashing milspouses who hadn't saved or that were in a tight spot... It was ridiculous. I agree with everything you wrote and again, thank you for writing it.

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