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Good News, Bad News

August 18th, 2007 at 02:51 pm

Ok, I'll start with the good news. I had orientation for pharmacy school yesterday. It was nice to meet some more of the people in my class and get to know the campus a little better. On Tuesday I have to go to Gainesville where all of the pharmacy students are meeting and we'll learn even more about the program. It was a long and stressful road to get here, but now that it's finally starting I'm excited and looking forward to it. The lectures are all taped in Gainesville and then put online for the satellite campuses. While I still have class requirements on my campus, a great deal of my time is flexible.

Now for the bad news, while we were on our lunch break DH called with his new orders. We were hoping to have him stay in Florida (so we could live together), but it turns out he'll be moving to Maine this November. The worst part of that is that we'll have to live apart for about 18 months, six of which he'll be deployed. The silver lining is that he'll only have to be in Maine for 18 months and not the entire 36 months of his tour since the squadron will be moving to Florida after deployment.

As far as our relationship goes, we're getting pretty good about living apart from one another...this will be our third time. It's never easy, but at least this time we'll be on the same coast and not across the country or across the world for most of it. Also, I'm planning on moving up to Maine during the summer so that's 3 more months we'll get to spend together. Since my classes are flexible, there will be some times where I won't have to be on campus for about a week...guess where I'll be!!

Financially, this makes things very difficult. First of all it means that by the end of the year we will have to be supporting two households! Two rents, two electricity bills, two food bills, two of everything! We were "making" (after expenses) about 1000 a month that was being used to pay off our cars and save. However a second rent will quickly eat through that. So I think it means that we won't be saving as much as we have been and I'll have to take out more student loans that I was expecting. Not fun.

We'll get through it, we have quite a bit in savings and with the deployment, we'll probably only have a year of dual households. In the meantime, we either need to find DH a roommate with a fully stocked kitchen and a TV, or we need to go shopping for a TV, microwave and dishes! Smile

3 Responses to “Good News, Bad News”

  1. terri77 Says:
    1187482489

    So sorry that you'll have to be apart from DH for so long, but hopefully you'll be able to put your full focus on school and do really well.

  2. LuckyRobin Says:
    1187490797

    Do you have freecycle in your area? You can probably get a TV, microwave and dishes for free through them.

  3. threebeansalad Says:
    1187577953

    Hi there,
    Thanks for the comment on my blog. Living apart isn't easy, but at least it isn't a totally new experience for you. As a student myself, the upside is that the situation allows me to be a very productive student. My husband and I are both living with roommates. His roommate had the place fully furnished, so he only needed some things for his bedroom. Groceries are much cheaper where I live, so before I drive to too see him, I always ask if there are things I can bring. I also clip coupons for the the things I know he eats. When we lived together, we had Netflix. I don't really have time for movies, so he has the Netflix now and I just watch the movies for free through their streaming service with his account. I've also picked up more babysitting jobs since aside from when I go to see him, my weekends are relatively free. Also, instead of buying new stuff, try to just divvy up what you have. For example, you probably have 8 plates, so rather than buy new, just each make do with 4 for the next 18 months. What you can't divvy up, find at Garage sales or Goodwill. It's been an adjustment for me. Sometimes I do feel resentful, but I hope that in the long run, we'll be better off financially when we're together again.

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