Does anyone else feel like we are not living in california but merely surviving? How sad so many of us have to be on WIC and making jusy enough to get by... We just pcs'ed here in july.. We were soo stoked about getting here but it has been nothing but a let down. I have no problem living amongst rich people.. But there is no middle class here... And i am sorry... I didnt goto college for 4 years to just be above the poverty line. I had a decent enough job in yuma running youth sports for mccs before the birth of our first son, then my position was cut due to budgeting.. And hubs deployed so i stayed home with baby. Shortly after he got back, we left to mclb albany in georgia and any job available in that lil town wouldve been hourly and not even to cover the cost of daycare.. We werent even there 2 years. Here we are in a place where i could possibly find a likeable job but i am 8 months pregnant.. On a cdc waitlist 2 years long and even if it was available tomorrow, would this job cover the cost of daycare for 2 kids or even be worth the trouble?! Ugh.. Who knows. We have had to rearrange the way our savings accounts were funded just to cover extra cost of groceries and extra cost of gas for this new inflated califoria life we have to adapt to which really suck because now our vacation savings and household items savings is frozen :( there goes the fun money...
I suppose this place is a little overated but naturally and georgraphical makeup is more exciting than either of our other duty stations. We've done the beach, i am constantly looking for free or affordable things to do but what's up with this nasty heat? Isnt san diego supposed to be mild? How does the base seriously think its worth their time to start this new mock billing system and then charge us if we "use more than we're supposed to" considering 99% of us do not even have the option for air conditioning, what else can they take away from us? We have no choice but to keep our windows open and run our fans, but neighbors do have a choice not to smoke. Why should my house be subjected to reak of cigarettes, and my family be subjected to 2nd hand smoke because housing's priorities are all sorts of screwed up! I understand this system if we had a/c... I understand this system if they did not insist on taking our entire bah, i understand this system if living here wasnt so damn expensive... But we dont and it is!! This is a rant, i am pregnant and bored... Just saw some people on here were bored so i thought i would throw a topic out there lol! Sorry if i come off sounding stuck up but i am sure i am not the only one who feels this way.

I kno i posted this previously but forgot a discussion topic title. Sorry! Thanks :) 

Really? We lived for the past 18 years in San Clemente. And, we've got 5 kids. I loved it there and miss it terribly. We weren't on WIC or struggling in the least. I stayed home. Are you shopping at the commissary? 

Yes, with coupons :/ 

I think it's a combination of the economy and lack of jobs and personal finances.

We live based solely off my husbands income and our only debt is our mortgage. I don't know about a "California Dream" since I'm from here but I do feel like the "American Dream" is still within our reach.

When the economy is down in the dumps, you have to reorganize your lifestyle to adjust to the lack of money coming in.

Sorry you feel down about CA though. 

We have lived in Cali most of our lives (we had a short stint in Wash State for 8 years). It is what it is. I doubt it will ever change. For it to change, we would need a governor who knows what he is doing and doesn't steal from school funds, or any other fund available. But that change requires people to become active and demand it. We also need much LESS liberalism in our Legislature. How can we "cover" as many people as we do without the tax revunue to keep it going? It's pathetic. And you want to know the worst part? It is widely known "come to California, they'll support you no matter what and you won't have to work at all".

Once you have been here awhile you will get settled in with your finances. It can be done, but it requires TWO paychecks. Flat out. When hubby was stationed at CP I couldn't find a job within a school system to save my life. So I helped out other families with babysitting, housecleaning, errands, organizing...whatever they needed. It wasn't much, but it sure helped. I think it sucks too that they take our entire BAH. It's actually quite laughable. We lived in WM3 and NO WAY was that run-down housing worth all of our BAH. But the alternative was to move off base which we def did not want to do. Best advice: Bide your time until you can get the helll out lol !!! 

We're on our 3rd contract and getting out when it runs up... I know this sounds selfish but i, the wife, want a career, not just a job.. Hubs wants to finish school and we just want our own home so we can run our a/c, paint our walls, plant flowers, not be living on top of neighbors who chimney smoke and neighbors who neglect their poor pets and never pick up their poop. I was so looking forward to that "ocean breeze" we were promised. Um.. Some might get it but certainly not in this housing area. 

BAH was originally designed to cover approximately 80% of your housing costs. Camp Pendleton is the last base to charge/meter their electricity usage. Most of the other bases have been doing it for years. Turn off lights, put your stuff on power strips, don't be wasteful and you should be good. And, the weather IS mild, year-round. There may be a few hot days here and there, but it's a really great place to live. You've got to change your mindset, be positive, otherwise you're going to make yourself miserable, no matter where you are :) 

*** You can live on one paycheck, but I do not believe you can cover expenses, have fun money, save for college, and still have money left over for "emergencies". 

*** You can live on one paycheck, but I do not believe you can cover expenses, have fun money, save for college, and still have money left over for "emergencies". 

It can be done, but with extreme discipline. We have enough to cover our bills, each of us get our allotted budgeted fun money and our emergency fund is halfway funded right now to the recommended 6 months. I pay my student fees cash too. But yes, it takes serious dedication and you have to have the mentality of letting your money work for you instead of letting trips to Starbucks, fast food, quick runs to the store etc... waste money away dollar by dollar. (Not speaking of anyone specific in that example, it was a personal lesson I had to learn. lol) 

Well, we manage to put $132 a paycheck away for each babys college.. Our emergency saving isnt getting as much love as it has before but still a little something. Thats one thing we wont give in is college. We do have cable/internet and 2 cars.. My hubs is a financial wiz, our budget it his hobby but i guess i was expecting something different in regards to california. Im from mi and he's from tx so cost of living is significantly less in both places.. If youre from cali, its familiar to you. I am a florida girl at heart.. I guess life will start when we eventually get there. I am happy to stay at home for the time being, i know ill never get this chance again. 

Okay it's a give and take, gas and housing is expensive, but to be honest not that much more than the rest of the east or west coast. Gas is out of control too but everything else is cheaper, there are a million and one things to do for free, from museums, to fairs, to the beach, state parks, bazillions. There are outlet stores galore, you can clothe and equip a family very cheaply quite easily. Cheaper here new at outlet and discount stores than anywhere else used (like one upon a child or other second hand stores) groceries again, a lot of options makes for great competition and great sales. You can be outside 99% of the year so there are much more free options regularly. As far as housing and the smokers, the military is the bottom of the barrel and despite the fact that the secnav clearly states they're not allowed to smoke anywhere expect in their house and they're not allowed to both you they do it anyway. Call pmo, ice base housing and bring a copy of the secnav and the base orders because the rules are clearly stated in there. If you stay here long enough it will be banned. My husband is working tirelessly to make it happen, ie get them to follow the rules. He's gotten several big projects done in housing and like I said the smoking days are numbered. Call pmo, housing give them a copy of the secnav, the base orders and if they don't enforce it ice them, ice them every day they don't. 

Sorry you guys are struggling. I am from Ca, so maybe I am used of it. We are E-5 on 4th baby. On recruiting duty paying out of pocket for electricity, pay school loans and kids are able to be in Jiu Jitsu and pay for suburban gas and we live very well. I don't use coupons,I am not sure if I am used of it? I am not sure how people ( not you) but maybe when people say they struggle its loans, credit cards that put people in debt? All I can say is hang in there and hope things work out for you. I am stay at home mom, even with education it works best for us. I do get the career thing, which is why I won't work until kids are older, because its hard. 

Lol eating out at restaurant funds came from the entertainment/fun money account.. Which is currently at $0.. And i have never been to a starbucks in my time here... But the cost of a portable a/c unit, big boy bed for our toddler and few one time baby expenses have come up since arriving. Aside from that tmo has pretty much thrown our damaged goods claim out the window and is giving us hell about giving us any money they owe us, even though they messed up pretty bad :( dps system is a joke... Hate tmo. 

there is plenty of middle class....I think your just not looking =P

Anyways what do your bills look like? Ive lived in CA my whole life and we live on one income and I have a 1 year old, not on WIC and we do have fun money and savings. But we hardly have bills and we save a lot monthly. Its really just up to you not to go crazy spending and eating healthy and being resourceful 

Owning a home sucks! And sorry to break your heart but we don't get careers, we get jobs, if we're lucky. We signed up to follow our husbands all over with no stability with the crap of the earth. It sucks, it's lame but if there are no other better options we are in the best position possible. D not buy a home! If you think you have money trouble now just wait. Houses are expensive when we bought a house we had no bills 60k in the bank and I hadn't worked since I had our first child. It drains not only all your money but all your time. Something always needs to be fixed, sealed, replaced, redone, whatever. It's more expensive than you would ever imagine. Never buy a house when you have little kids and a military husband. They're just to home enough to make it worth it. My time is precious and I don't want to spend all of it up keeping a house. Think about that before you buy. Everyone I know will tell you run don't walk away from that idea. It will make you poor in more ways than one. 

Yes, i do suppose you have a thick skin to the lifestyle here. We have $0 credit card debt and both cars are paid off, all we have is my student loans which is at $100/month. Maybe its just our budget, maybe we need to loosen up how much we are saving to have more money for expenses and maybe its in my head.. Eventually we will get used to it i suppose, we just have to adjust accordingly. We arent technically "struggling" and even tho we qualify for wic, i dont take it. We just signed up our toddler for soccer school. Maybe im just crabby because im so tired of being pregnant and just wanna get out there, be able to do more, be less restricted from fun and just live lol! 

About buying a house, i am totally aware its a huge risk because if you have to pcs and cant sell, then what rent it out? I meant we will buy when we get out :) thats when i can have a career too. Sorry i may have not typed my thought clearly there. 

I feel ya! I am 35 weeks. Trust me, we have struggled, for us we had to finally NOT touch savings because we used to tap in it. We only do fun things a couple times a month, not so much eating out and lots of free out door activities, we have been married 8 years and the last 3 have been really nice financially. A least you are trying and able to keep your toddler active in a sport,that used to take up Saturdays which meant not spending money being bored, lol. It will all work out. 

LOL, yes, if you have that little of debt you should look over your finances better and monitor where things are going so you have a better idea. I understand pregnant and crabby, been there before. Just remember, no matter where you are in life, it's always only as good as you make it. Try to pursue more of the positive and see if it helps. Maybe once baby comes and your hormones are straightened out things will get better. ;)

Nicole, you can't let your one bad home owning situation speak for how everyone should look at owning. There are plenty of people with great stories. :) 

Shortly after he got back, we left to mclb albany in georgia and any job available in that lil town wouldve been hourly and not even to cover the cost of daycare.. We werent even there 2 years. Here we are in a place where i could possibly find a likeable job but i am 8 months pregnant..

So let me get this straight, you were ALREADY struggling in Albany, but when you decided to move to California, you got pregnant again? Maybe you should have figured out your finances before you had another kid. 

Theres always gotta be one like you california760... Try reading the entire post before going off on me.

Correction: we were doing very well in albany, cost of living was 35% lower than it is here! We found out we were pregnant 8 days after getting orders to here!! We pcs'd here when i was 25 weeks along... We hadnt even been in albany for 2 years, ppl get stuck there, we were expecting to be there at least another 2 years!

Jeez!! Get off your soap box! Theres never a perfect time to have a baby! I didnt want my kids to be more than 3 years apart... Not that i need to justify my family choices to you but just thought i would. California is expensive, everybody knows this... We just werent expecting it to be this expensive is all i am trying to say! 

I have to admit, I interpreted it the same way as California760.

now our vacation savings and household items savings is frozen :( there goes the fun money...

I've never lived any place other than California. I was a stay at home mom for a lot of years, and sometimes you have to sacrifice. There were times when I had NO money for household items OR "fun money", but it didn't matter to me because I wanted to be home with my kids. I think, perhaps, your expectations may have been a little unrealistic. 

Try reading the entire post before going off on me.

I did, and you didn't mention any of the things you replied with in your original post. So...don't get snooty.

BUT there are PLENTLY of people on Camp Pendleton who have children and aren't living "just above the poverty line." I'm just trying to point out that maybe you should have thought about your financial situation before you had more children. The Marine Corps is ALWAYS changing, and I definitely don't plan my financial situation around the now, you can get moved anywhere! Hawaii is more expensive than California, you better hope you don't get that base in the future! 

Hawaii has cola and we are getting out after leaving camp pendleton. 

Do you think that California is so expensive that we should get COLA? 

We have college savings for our kids.. We have no debt.. Never miss a bill payment.. Are very organized financially... Dont live beyond our means.. How much more could you really think about a financial situation?! We are having another boy, so baby costs are just diapers... When would you recommend we have another kid?! Never? Theres families amongst us up to their ears in debts of all kind with 2+ kids... Sooo what makes it okay for them and not my family?

I think its ridiculous to put anybody down for their choice to have another kid... He was planned, i was and will still be a firm believer in birth control.

Yes, i do feel we should get cola in cali!! 

Im having a hard time understanding how you are struggling so much financially yet only have $100 going towards bills a month. My husband and I live off his salary alone, have about $2000 in bills a month, and still have over $1000 a month to do whatever we want with. No we dont have kids but thats cuz we are young and dont want to ruin the fun yet. 

We lived in San Clemente from 1995 to 2012. We just moved to Hawaii last month. lol Things here are very similarly priced to things in California. Groceries at the commissary are very close, some things ARE more (milk, tortillas, fruit/veggies), but not a whole heck of a lot more, gas is $4.20, eating out is a little pricier, but people had me so worried and we aren't even touching the COLA. 

Jill- If you have only $100/mo in "debt", no car payments and live on base, I would check your finances to see where your money is going. That's why I was trying to suggest earlier.

You say your husband is on his 3rd contract? That means he's been his 8-12 year mark, generally... assuming a 4 year contract. I would guess he's an E-5 or above which means your take home pay would be around $2800, if not more. I can see why others are concerned, because it doesn't add up. Your finances are in no way any of our business, but if you are struggling you should speak with a financial person or take a budgeting class to use your money a bit wiser.