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Oh my goodness, I think this particular forum has scared me off more than any other but I understand the purpose so I guess I'll start my own thread....ok, well - we might be moving to Hawaii, but for "practical" purposes rather than to take advantage of paradise. My husband is in the Coast Guard and has a daughter whose crazy mom (only call her this because she doesn't want her children's dads to be in their children's lives - her words, not mine) moved all the kids to the Big Island back in '06 (w/o either dad's permission) so the opportunity has come for us to move there for our next PCS to a CG unit in Honolulu. We have two young children who will be starting school while we're there - one in a year and a half, one in 2-1/2 years. I'm working on graduate degree so the only thing I could realistically do to contribute income is substitute teach part time. We're looking at having about $2000-$3000 income left after paying bills/housing/etc., not counting food/entertainment/gasoline/visitation with step-daughter (which we're hoping will be more frequent if we're there). My questions are these:
1. What are the areas like around the Shoffield area?
2. How bad really is the discrimination toward military/non-Hawaiian?
3. How are the schools between K and 2nd grade? Any advice on the ones in that particular area?
4. We'd probably shop at the exchange/commissary most often - is this likely to make up for the high cost of living? Would $2000-$3000 suffice in that area for a family of 4, sometimes 5?
5. What do utilities generally run for a 3 bedroom home/apartment?
I actually have a lot more but we aren't sure we're going yet so I don't want to get too deep into this right away. I've lived all over the world and know that there are pluses and minuses to every location, but I've found quite a bit of negativity and heard some horror stories from other personnel - I tend to ignore most pessimistic stories but my concern now is for my daughters and our ability to afford to fly home if something happens to our families (they're aging and we've had to fly/drive back from all over the country over the last 7 years for major health situations with my parents). We're very laid back and just love people (my degree is in Anthropology so this could potentially be a wonderful place for me to learn about a different culture) so I'm not terribly worried about the human to human type discrimination, but I am concerned about the stories I've heard about the anti-military sentiment (is CG considered military...wow...my husband would be mortified if he heard me say that). I was in the Navy for 10 years and heard a lot of negative stories from the Marines and Sailors I've known who have been stationed there. I'm not trying to offend, I really just want to make sure we make an informed decision.
I hope I haven't upset anyone, and please don't take this as being negativity but I'm trying to ignore a lot of the negative lifestyle comments - the positive ones mostly relate to the weather and beaches (we love our seasons but having lived in Seattle for the last 18 mos. we're all ok with having a little more sunshine for a while) and the positive ones about the people tend to often have a qualification that you aren't military. I've stopped reading the forum because it had me telling my husband it might be a bad idea sooooo.......I thought maybe if I focused my search it might give me a better perspective.
My old neighborhood had many Army officers and their families. I found that between the military discounts, commissary, and the support network for military families, many open minded military on Oahu, loved it there. The public schools are not very good in that area but your kids are very young so you can always hire tutors. We home schooled our oldest, and now on the Mainland again, she is reading at a higher level than her grade. I am a civilian as well as my hubby and we felt that a large percentage of Oahu was military. You are definitely not alone. Good luck, whatever you choose.
Thank you I may be very naive, but I hope that with the proper upbringing and attitudes we'd be ok...I just can't get past the feeling that we should probably not mention that we're in the military outside of base. Thanks for the response.
1. What are the areas like around the Shoffield area?
ghetto, just outside the gates... my friend lived in apt across, got his car broken into 3x! --the neiboring town Mililani is mostly nice. only nice places in wahiawa (north) is the heights.
2. How bad really is the discrimination toward military/non-Hawaiian?
depends where on island - wainae very.. waimanalo moderate, waipahu (nonwaikele) moderate. everywhere else its minor to none. Fyi Hawaiians are hawaiian, Locals are people born & raised.
3. How are the schools between K and 2nd grade? Any advice on the ones in that particular area?
If u on schofield thats base schools.
4. We'd probably shop at the exchange/commissary most often - is this likely to make up for the high cost of living? Would $2000-$3000 suffice in that area for a family of 4, sometimes 5?
Is that a month? not to be nosey but rank - I think your est might be off.. are you calculating Oconus Cola?
5. What do utilities generally run for a 3 bedroom home/apartment?
depends on you.. does you family has a gamer or 2? (on the comp all hours of the night & day) you down load alot? can you handle 80-90 degree w/o AC? ect....
Thank you I may be very naive, but I hope that with the proper upbringing and attitudes we'd be ok...I just can't get past the feeling that we should probably not mention that we're in the military outside of base. Thanks for the response.
Hi Rush...I actually bring in $2000/month on top of his income between my GI Bill/College Fund and my student loans (yeah....loans are not real money but hopefully the degree will help paying it off less painful in a couple of years). That, plus the COLA, living on base (hopefully) and we should be around $2500 if I don't work, $3500 if I do. Soooo...bills don't include utilities, but if worse comes to worse, how much would we be out for utilities? It's funny you should ask...I just dragged my hubby off the X-Box. He usually plays 1 or 2 nights a week, depending on whether or not he has an extra day off to stay up late and whether or not the monkeys let him have an hour at the end of the day of "peace" (how on earth can blowing things up be relaxing?). Here we use about 1,100 kw/mnth. (Seattle summer, no A/C, no heat).
Yeah...had that problem in Japan and Italy...well, I was ok in Italy as long as I kept my mouth shut. So, are you saying even not divulging our dirty secret we'd still be out of luck? It sounds like the military issue is pretty serious?
Here's a question. I know that in middle and high schools, there's always somthing for kids to hassle each other about but at the elementary school leval, 1st, 2nd grades, is there discrimination towards children from other kids or teachers? Also, how long does one need to live on the island to be considered "local"? my son and daughter are 4 and 5. would they be accepted by middle and high school times?
hmm, hard to say about the bills... dont think a E6 or above would have any issues bringing up a 3 kids and a spouse (that works). - Teenagers are different though.... R u getting that GI B.A.H.?
Military thing isnt a prob, specially families. Most of the single sailors/soilders/coasties get into trouble wit the locals.
besides there is a ton of military you can avoid dealing wit locals majority of the time... the NEX there is niice.
hmm, hard to say about the bills...R u getting that GI B.A.H.?
Military thing isnt a prob, specially families. Most of the single sailors/soilders/coasties get into trouble wit the locals.
besides there is a ton of military you can avoid dealing wit locals majority of the time... the NEX there is niice.
Seattle? tan now so u wont look tooo newb, LOL.
I haven't converted to the Post 9-11 yet - it works better for me to keep my college fund out here plus my regular GI Bill but out there I think I'll have to convert but I've heard that to get the Post 9-11 you don't get the BAH if your spouse is still active so I'm not sure...either way, it looks like it'll be equal to what I'm bringing in now. The extra kicker and Navy College Fund I got when I enlisted are what bump it up to the higher amount.
Heehee Good point about the tan - I'm 1/2 Mexican so I'm good to go, but I'd better get my hubby and the little white people a big can of spray tan - and maybe some for my legs at this point.
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I may be very naive, but I hope that with the proper upbringing and attitudes we'd be ok...I just can't get past the feeling that we should probably not mention that we're in the military outside of base. Thanks for the response.
