Paying to Live in the Barracks

[MD8724]

I live in base housing. For something equal out on the town would be about $1,500 per month plus paying for electricity, phone, cable, water, trash pick-up, yard maintenance, parking space. So if uncle sam gives you $1,200 a month to pay your rent then another $400 for groceries you come up short. Your oven goes to hell in base housing you make a call and it is fixed. Your oven goes to hell out in town and you are heating pizzas in a toaster oven. You can rob peter to pay paul and act like a millionaire for a few months but in the end you are getting a better deal by not living out in town.

If it was up to me you would have to be at least a Cpl to get a credit card and at least a Sgt to get married and live out in town. So many boots complain about our Marine Corps holding their hand but have seen too many go out and buy that new car at 19.2% interest and complain they are not being paid enough. Well no shiit ... If someone has to be force fed how to live within their means and whines that they are not being paid enough and treated like children. Proove you don't need either or.

You can find good deals living out in town...

On base you still pay for cable and phone....

Needing to be a rank to get a credit card / car is a stupid idea. It's all about knowledge/maturity, and you can't look at someone to determine that. I've had a credit card since I first joined, and I have great credit. I bought my car at 5.74% interest. I am also married.

Also, your BAS DOES show you losing money for living in the barracks / eating at the chow hall. It doesn't come from your base pay however, which in most cases is all you rate, being single in the barracks.

[Kegler300]

What you don't receive as an entitlement to live off base based on your rank (BAH COMRATS, etc.), could be considered what it's costing you to live in the barracks. For instance, if a sergeant's entitlements equalled $1,000 to live off base, this is what a sergeant is giving up to live in the barracks and subsist in the chow hall.

[BR34]

Paying appx. $3.00 per all-you-can eat meal. I can't believe anyone would complain about such a thing.

[Integrity57]

When I was stationed in P-Cola I lived on Corry Station, my LES showed $7.50 in BAH because I lived in Staff Barracks and I got $250-something in BAS because I couldn't eat at the galley, which was nice since the chow there was god-aweful. I think the other Sailors I worked with who had depenents got maybe $1300 in BAH which Housing took out of their checks automatically. But Sgt. Thrasher hit the nail on the head.

[BR34]

Yall call it a galley? I never knew that.

[Integrity57]

You're kidding right?

[Kegler300]

I've got several cases of MRE's...free food - YUMMY!

[MontezumaCpl]

Haha, MREs are yummy, but dam, I really liked C-Rats! Ham & Eggs! And that chocolate cookie looking thing!

[ghost3000]

You all have it ass backards. You are not paying to live in the barracks or for your chow. That is on the house. Additional monies paid as supplements means that you can't eat in the chow hall without paying and you can't live out in town without paying. If you live in the barracks the chow hall is free as well as electricity, water, toilet paper and yada yada. They are not taking money away from you because you live in the barracks. They are just helping you out with rent and food if you live in town. Next thing you know someone will dream up a scenario where living in base housing causes you to lose money. It is just not so.

Actually, if you live in base housing that could very well be possible. Since on base housing is privatized now we actually pay rent. They actually deduct it from my paycheck. I was a Corporal when I moved into my house on base. I got promoted to Sergeant, therefore my BAH rate went up. Since my rent is based upon my BAH, it is fair to say that my rent went up because I got promoted. Think about that for a minute. Oh, and don't say if you live out in town you do get rental increases. I have lived out in town for about 6 years and I have never received a rental increase of about $140 per month. Just saying.

Marines that live in the barracks do technically pay for living in the barracks and also for food.

I can't believe another Marine is saying you get anything free in the Marine Corps. I work too f***ing hard everyday for someone to tell me I get something for free. From the day I stepped on the yellow footprints I have been paying for shyt. We even had to pay for our uniforms out of our first checks.

[Quinbo]

Gorrilla cookies...
It was this chocolate covered grahm cracker type cookie. Two of them actually... seperated by a piece of wax paper. Only a gorrilla could get them sum*****es apart. You had a couple options. You could let it sit in the sun long enough to soften the chocolate and maybe get them to slide apart. You could take your K-bar and attempt to pry them apart usually resulting in a pile of crumbs at your feet. You could just eat the dang thing and spit out the pieces of wax paper.

[ghost3000]

I would like to say that I'm not complaining about BAH or base housing. I feel that I got more bang for my buck compared to the housing out in Oceanside.

[Quinbo]

How could you possibly say that free housing is costing you more money because you were promoted? I mean it is free. You aren't paying anything out of pocket for it. Try doing that in the civilian sector. Seriously ... go be a wal-mart greeter or something and pay the note on your house and cover all your bills strictly out of your paycheck. Ohh because I'm a sergeant I rate an additional 120 square feet of living space so I'm being robbed. You might be able to find a single wide trailer for the same amount of money you are supposedly losing by living on base.

More and more being a Marine is becoming a job and everybody has their hand out. You lose all bragging rights when you start whining like you want the same treatment as the AF .... you aint in the Air Force ... if you want to be treated like the Air Force then go join the Air Force. I'm not saying crappy treatment or shoddy living conditions makes Marines but Marines are a tight cohesive unit because we don't treat it like a job and we have mutual comraderie gained through hardship.

[AaronJM1984]

Go to mypay and read your LES. Every Marine that lives in the barracks pays something like $600 a month to live in their room, except the money is taken out before you ever see it, so it seems like the room is free. Food in the chow hall is also no free, we all pay around $330 a month (BAS) unless you forfeit your meal card.

[MD8724]

How could you possibly say that free housing is costing you more money because you were promoted? I mean it is free. You aren't paying anything out of pocket for it. Try doing that in the civilian sector. Seriously ... go be a wal-mart greeter or something and pay the note on your house and cover all your bills strictly out of your paycheck. Ohh because I'm a sergeant I rate an additional 120 square feet of living space so I'm being robbed. You might be able to find a single wide trailer for the same amount of money you are supposedly losing by living on base.

More and more being a Marine is becoming a job and everybody has their hand out. You lose all bragging rights when you start whining like you want the same treatment as the AF .... you aint in the Air Force ... if you want to be treated like the Air Force then go join the Air Force. I'm not saying crappy treatment or shoddy living conditions makes Marines but Marines are a tight cohesive unit because we don't treat it like a job and we have mutual comraderie gained through hardship.

WHy do you act like it's a bad thing to care about money ? If you rate more BAH being a Sgt than a Cpl, you lose more money living on base. It's simple. I rate 1600 a month being married in Pendleton. I lose that money by living on base. Now, don't get me wrong, I like living on base, and I do think it is saving me some money at the moment, but I still lose that 1600. I understand that I lose it either way, but the point is, I lose it. It isn't free.

It's really simple. Pvt whoever loses x amount for living on base. PFC rates more money that Pvt, but still loses all of it by living on base. Therefore, a promotion means more money lost, provided that promotion came with a BAH increase.

Oh, and so you know, you only rate so much "free electricity/water" If you go over a certain monetary amount, you have to pay the rest. You do pay for all of it out of pocket, it just comes out before it makes it to your actual pocket.

[Integrity57]

NAS Pensacola had surplus quarters on base and a few at Mariner's Village, the off-base housing area and Corry Station was housing many of the single Staff members of both commands but was anticipating somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 or more students to arrive this year at Corry for A School so they offered all us single Staffers housing either on NAS or in Mariner's Village which is owned by NASP. The units available were 2 and 3 bedroom models with full kitchen, 1 bathroom, some had garages, etc. and I believe the rent was like $1200 a month and you signed a 6-month lease. The idea being that with at least 2 people to a unit you could save some of your BAH and have more then enough for beer and pizza on the weekend. The disadvantage to the offer was that if your roommate left before the lease was up you had to find a new roommate or go back to the barracks, also that Mariner's Village was pretty far from town and many of the Staffers didn't have vehicles so cab fair would have been rediculous just to go out on the weekends if you or your roommate didn't have a car. Luckily I got to stay in the barracks, which was basically a 2 bedroom apartment w/ a small kitchen and decent sized bathroom, because I was seperating not long after they proposed the housing deal to us.