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New with a ?

Mrs S 08Mrs S 08 member
in Military Families

Do you prefer to live on or off base with children?

DH and I are expecting our first and we keep going back and forth with what we think would be best or the easiest. He is currently deployed and I am living 2 hrs away from Pendleton (where he is stationed). I plan on moving back Feb/March but we just keep going over pros and cons of both and haven't come up with a decision. i know we need to decide soon because I will have to put in for housing within the next couple months.

We have lived off and on base before, but adding a baby into the mix we are seeing things differently. We are the first out of all our friends to have a baby so I don't have anyone to go to for some advice right now. What do you prefer and why?

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Re: New with a ?

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    k24alicek24alice
    I personally don't have children yet (we are TTC) but we are planning to live on base. I lived on base as a child and I absolutely loved it! There were always kids my age nearby so I was never bored. The neighborhoods are really safe and you are surrounded by families! We knew all of our neighbors and it came in really handy when my Mom went into labor and she was able to take me to a friend's place so that she could go to the hospital and not have to worry about me. I think it will be great to have children and live on base because I will be surrounded by people who understand my situation most of the time.
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    DuckLoverDuckLover

    We lived off base and I hated it.  I hated that we paid so much for a 1BR apt and an extra $50 for a garage when at that time we could spend $100 more and get a house that was 3-4 miles from his work. We moved on base and I LOVED it. 

    I moved home with my mom when he deployed since I was 37 weeks and I moved back on about a week before he came home.  Our house is smaller then the last but I still like it better then living off base.  I know base isn't a bubble but I feel safer here then I did out in town.  My favorite part is that DH works in del mar and we live across vandergrift so he's super close. 

    DH likes that he doesn't have to wait in a ton of traffic to get on base in the moring or wait in a ton of traffic to get home after work.

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    Pumpkin701Pumpkin701
    imageDuckLover:

    We lived off base and I hated it.  I hated that we paid so much for a 1BR apt and an extra $50 for a garage when at that time we could spend $100 more and get a house that was 3-4 miles from his work. We moved on base and I LOVED it. 

    I moved home with my mom when he deployed since I was 37 weeks and I moved back on about a week before he came home.  Our house is smaller then the last but I still like it better then living off base.  I know base isn't a bubble but I feel safer here then I did out in town.  My favorite part is that DH works in del mar and we live across vandergrift so he's super close. 

    DH likes that he doesn't have to wait in a ton of traffic to get on base in the moring or wait in a ton of traffic to get home after work.

    It definitely depends on base. We live off base and even after a normal electricity bill of $100, we make $400 living off base in a 3 bed/1 bath house with a huge lawn. It just depends on the base.

    Even with our little one, I prefer to live off base. 

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    NSLNSL member
    We've always lived off-base, and I really enjoy it.  The schools  and childcare centers near (or on) base where we've been aren't the best, which has been a major deciding factor for us when deciding where to live at a new duty station.  We could be saving quite a bit of money by living on post, but here we have easy access to both a great neighborhood school and the top daycares in the city. 
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    vlewis84vlewis84
    We live off base right now but are moving on base in December. We are getting a much larger place then we could afford off base and don't have to worry about paying rent and utility bills.
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    DuckLoverDuckLover

    Yes, I should have said it does depend on the base. :)

    Also, it depends on the apartments IMO.  Yeah you can find dumps around oceanside for $1000 a month but even without DS I wouldn't want to live in a place like that.  I'd much rather give up our BAH and live in a nice place. :)

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    Mrs S 08Mrs S 08 member
    Thanks! I think I have decided for the area we are in, it would be better for us to live on base. Living out in town, in a nice apartment where I would feel comfortable, probably wont save us any money. I think I will be doing the paperwork soon to get on the list. Thanks!
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    Marines*Angel08Marines*Angel08

    WOW!

    I didn't think about a lot of what you ladies brought up... Child care, meeting people, all of it.
    I live off base in a TINY 1 bed and we pay $1,000 a month... But we are stuck until March. But now that I see the flip side of it all I am talking about this with the hubby.

    Mrs S 08: You don't save ANYTHING live off base... Half the time all the bills have put in a hole or scrounging around for spare change to get gas...
    Not fun.

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    DuckLoverDuckLover

    imageMrs S 08:
    Thanks! I think I have decided for the area we are in, it would be better for us to live on base. Living out in town, in a nice apartment where I would feel comfortable, probably wont save us any money. I think I will be doing the paperwork soon to get on the list. Thanks!

    What housing area are you looking to get into? I know a few of them have hardly any wait.

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    IlumineIlumine member

    It really depends on the base and surrounding areas.  Things you need to think about:

    • traffic - this is subjective though, I grew up in NoVA and the traffic in the Hampton Roads/Norfolk area was nothing to me
    • housing on base vs off base - you could not PAY me enough to live on base at Eglin
    • the schools
    • the weather - Eglin had hurricanes and Ft Drum has snow/ice/cold.  I would rather live off base to start my hurricane escape but live on base at Drum to not have to drive in snow
    • day care options.  It seems that you can find more daycare on base, but just because there are a lot of SAHMs, that does nto mean that they want to take on sitting either long term or emergencies.
    • shopping - one cannot live on the commissary and bx alone. 
    • the sights - again, one cannot stay on the base.  So are the extras close enough to make it worth the travel.  Again, Eglin was a good 20 min drive from the beaches, but Leonard Wood is not near anything, so its a drive no matter what.

    Now, if my kids were of the bike ages, I would seriously be more apt to live on base.  I think the safety of letting them roam and not be able to leave a confined area is great. 

    BUT, I have never felt the need to live on base due to the other points. 

    And if you are looking for someplace to stay, please try militarybyowner.com.  Its a listing of houses/condos that other servicemembers are selling or renting (you can even talk a seller into renting).   You can get a good property.

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    jlewis121186jlewis121186

    it does depend on housing around the base...get online, look at the price of electricty and water (per kwh and gallon, etc) then look at the price of renting around base...see what the base is offering as your housing...

    here at ft sam, our BAH is about 1200...our house is 895 a month...our water is about 20 and our electricity is only $0.09 a kwh, so our electric bill is only about $100 a month...so we make money- have a MUCH bigger house that is brand new...husbands friend says living on post sucks for him cuz he feels like he never leaves work! 

    i belong to a playgroup that i found on meetup.com that i LOVE the ladies and their kiddos...to each their own, but research the area before you make a decision...some bases offer only apts, so if you want a house, off post is best at those posts...what about your pets?  do you have any?  a lot of posts make you rent your yard fence monthy, and that comes out of your reg pay...lots to consider

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    ARMYmarriedNAVYARMYmarriedNAVY

    We have 3 small kids and DH is gone all the time... so we live on base.

    I like the fact that I know exactly who to call if there is a problem with the house, and that they will be here in an hour not a week.

    We also live ON an installation so you have to get through the gate to be near housing - some bases/posts are not like that. I enjoy that one little extra security when my H is gone.

    We also live in some of the best military housing available. We are very blessed this time around. Our last post wasn't as nice.

    Good luck with your choice.

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    TanyaKMTanyaKM
    I think it depends on the base... I'm not too familiar with the area around Pendleton so I don't have much advice about that. Personally, living on base feels a little too claustrophobic for me. I only did it for two months at one base and I couldn't take it. I like to live off base so I feel like I have an area of my life that is separate from the military... if that makes sense! 
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