Basic Training pay.

When Martin had enlisted into the Air Force, one of the questions we were concerned about was if he was going to be paid during Basic Training. We had thought of freezing his accounts, but with such short notice (under a month before he had to leave) we didnt know if we should even bother trying. So we figured if he was paid during Basic, everything should be fine. And the recruiter assured us that he would be getting paid during Basic.

Typically they get paid every two weeks, so I figure that would work out as far as getting the bills paid and being able to save up for the wedding.

Well, the day he was suppose to get his first pay, he didnt get it. It landed on the weekend and after Googling it, they said that if the pay date should fall on a weekend or holiday it would be paid the following weekday. So I wait for Monday to roll by and still no pay. So I turn to yahoo answers which probably wasnt the best idea I've ever had since we all know, no one on yahoo answers is actually helpful.

Anyway, I find out that his first actual pay could take 4-8 weeks to arrive, which puts me in a panic because of the wedding. I need to pay a down payment to both the chapel and the reception obviously at least two or so weeks before the wedding. Not to mention get everyone else to book their rooms with our promo code and people usually need a few weeks to request it off work. So, with the time frame I have and not knowing when his pay will arrive (I'm getting a lot of the beginning of next month, which eases me slightly), I dont know how this will work out. And as always its up to me to make it work out.

Not to mention how impossible it is to get into contact with him considering he's in Basic and the only card that he has that I would be able to charge everything to, is not under my name. Now I regret arguing with him about not wanting to be on that card.

It just sucks, everything happened in the span of 3 months. Him considering, him leaving, the engagement, the wedding, everything. Is just crammed into 3 months. I would assume I'd be more stressed out than I am at the moment, but I've felt a lot better since I found my dress. Everything will work out, it has to.

Now you could say well why dont you pay for it and I can pay for his bills if I absolutely need to, but again they are his bills. With his debt, I have my own debt to worry about and the recruiter told us this wouldnt be a problem. But as far as the wedding goes, I dont have enough to pay for that. The bills I can cover, the wedding, I can not.

And keep in mind, I dont mind if we have to wait until his R&R to get married. Its him who wants to get married as soon as possible so I can go with him to Tech School. I mean I would like to get married as soon as possible as well, but if we have to wait, I wont mind.

3 comments:

Stefanie November 3, 2009 at 7:55 PM  

Don't worry. Everything will work out. When you fiance gets paid by the AF, it's after he's already "worked". And, he doesn't get paid every 2 weeks - it's the 1st and the 15th of every month. So, yes, in theory it's every 2 weeks, but in reality, it's twice a month. That first paycheck always takes a little longer to arrive than any of the others.

Unfortunately, he's the one that will have to take care of any discrpancies in when or if he got paid. Sorry... Hopefully that will be different once you are married. Did you get Power of Attorney over his financials before he left for basic?

zel November 4, 2009 at 11:32 PM  

@Stefanie - I know its the 1st and 15th I just try to keep things vague hehe.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! No I did not!!! We had asked the recruiter about this multiple times and she didnt mention the Power of Attorney... I dont really know who they are but from what I've gathered, they're pretty important lol. We do have a joined bank account that we've had together for years so we figured everything would be fine... *sigh*. He left so fast that there wasnt much time to get things done =(

Stefanie November 5, 2009 at 1:10 PM  

That's terrible! Yeah, now you know - GET POWERS OF ATTORNEY when he is gone for extended periods of time! Even when you are married! There are offices on base that won't deal with you without it (even if you are married!). Finance office is one of them. Even credit companies now won't deal with you if you aren't the account holder... Yeah, things are getting harder and harder now.

So, even after you are married, and he leaves for extended periods of time (deployments, extended TDY's/Trainings, etc) you will need POA's...

Don't worry, though, things that are meant to be always have a way of working themselves out! :)

About

foolishxlady A blog about my experience as a military girlfriend. My boyfriend of 5 1/2 years recently decided to join the United States Air Force. I have a more private journal about this (since I dont want to violate OPSEC) here.

This was originally suppose to be a blog about my experience as a military girlfriend & fiancée. But two weeks before my finance's BMT graduation, he was discharged for medical reasons. So, yeah, that sucks! But he still has the option to re-enlist after two years. They want to make sure he's fully recovered before coming back.

This blog, however will still be where I write about being a newlywed. We got married on December 28th, 2009 in Las Vegas, NV!

With that said, we're not married and since the military thing didnt work out, we're still on a struggle as to what we're going to do from here on out. So if you're interested in hearing about peoples struggles, you've came to the right place!