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san antonio and austin mamas, i could use your input.  

post #1 of 12
9/5/08 at 5:05pm
Thread Starter 
unfortunatly, its seeming like a divorce is in my near future dh is in the army, and we're in louisiana right now. i was raised in houston, but i donbt want to go back there. my family has issues, and i think ds and i could use some time alone, ya know?

anyway, i was thinking of either san antonio or austin. i have an awesome friend in austin that could give me that moral support i'd need, but the cost of living is higher there i think.

san antonio has the army base (my son will get an id card, and still use tricare insurance) so i can use the commissary and stuff. and the cost of living is lower there

id be needing to rent a house with a little yard, we have 2 big dogs, and im looking for an idea on what daycare runs in both places if you have any idea. ds is almost 1 right now
post #2 of 12
9/5/08 at 6:11pm
I'm in San Antonio. Housing for a 3 br in my area runs about $900/mo. On the south side it's cheaper. We rent a 2bedroom apt for just over $800 at the moment, but when I looked for a house to rent, I found comparable prices. (We're looking in a specific area due to schooling for my kids.)

My friend runs a home daycare and she charges $120/wk and is only taking under 2 right now.

We live on the North Side.

Tristan and Thomas could be buddies. :
post #3 of 12
9/5/08 at 9:04pm
Yeah, SA's cost of living is much less than Austin's. I believe our bus system is cheaper as well, and it's very thorough. (It no longer goes on post, though.)

If you want to rent a house, you need to look on the south side or the west side. Here's a link for SA Craigslist's housing section: http://sanantonio.craigslist.org/apa/ Housing is very variable in cost here. A lot of people will warn you away from the south side without even really having been there, much less lived there. As long as you avoid the southeast side, you'd be fine. Here's a link to Realtor.com's listings for rentals (I've capped it at $600/mo): http://tinyurl.com/59rt9f Here's one that looks as if it'd do well for you: http://tinyurl.com/66fhd5 It's a 1 bedroom, though; I don't know if you'd prefer two bedrooms.

I do not, unfortunately, know about day care.

I don't know what you're doing for a living now, or your education level or anything, so I'm kinda talking out my rear-end at the moment, but:

Food stamps were fairly easy for me to get. I waited less than a month and they gave me back benefits the first time. There's not a lot of difference between going to the Commissary & to HEB, as far as cost goes, but I haven't been to Ft Sam's Commissary in so long I don't know how it is. (Don't forget, you'd have Lackland and Randolph too).

West Telemarketing will hire you on the spot, but they don't pay much. (I think they're just West now.) That's answering phones, usually order-taking but I gather they do some customer service now. Caremark is also fairly easy to get hired at, and they pay a bit more. That's customer service for a prescription benefits agency, insurance basically. Our economy is holding up pretty well. Toyota's shut down but still paying its employees. One bank laid off a couple hundred people but another's hiring a couple hundred.

San Antonio doesn't stink as much as Houston, but it's not as pretty as Austin.
post #4 of 12
9/5/08 at 9:22pm
We just moved from San Antonio - and before San Antonio we lived in Georgetown, which is just north of Austin.

I would choose San Antonio. The traffic is much better, the cost of living is a bit lower, and there are tons of great kid's activites (SeaWorld, Zoo, and tons of other stuff). Austin is close enough that you can still see your friend pretty easily.

We lived in Terrell Hills, very close to Ft. Sam. I'm not sure what rents would run in that area. It was Alamo Heights school district, whcih is very good. Nice central neighborhood, close to everything. I have no idea what daycare costs.
post #5 of 12
9/5/08 at 11:13pm
Are you sure Toyota shut down? My friend's dh works there. Goes in every day and does his job. I know there was some thing going on w/ Toyota, but I didn't think they shut down.

Also, yeah, don't blow off the South side. It's very nice over there, actually.
post #6 of 12
9/6/08 at 12:40am
You might look into someplace like Temple or Copperas Cove or Belton, etc.

Fort Hood is a large base and you would have access to MTFs and commissaries, etc. Fort Hood/Killeen is also pretty centrally located between Austin and San Antonio (and about 4 hrs drive from Houston).

Just a thought.
post #7 of 12
9/6/08 at 10:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by XOIMOM View Post
You might look into someplace like Temple or Copperas Cove or Belton, etc.

Fort Hood is a large base and you would have access to MTFs and commissaries, etc. Fort Hood/Killeen is also pretty centrally located between Austin and San Antonio (and about 4 hrs drive from Houston).

Just a thought.
Not really. Also, Killeen is gross. (No offense to any of our Killeen/ Ft. Hood residing mamas!) Temple & Belton are ok, but they are 3 hours from San Antonio and only 30 min from Ft Hood/Killeen. Approximately an hour from Austin.

That's not centrally located between the 2 cities.
post #8 of 12
9/6/08 at 2:00pm
I have lived all over Texas and would rec San Antonio! It is a family-centered community. There is almost no traffic. The food is wonderful. There is a great AP group. Also, lots of good church groups for single moms (if you are interested). I'm not sure about daycare, but I know a great preschool in town - The Circle School, you can google it. As far as renting and jobs the city center is great place to live and work...off of Broadway and Mulberry OR near SAC off of San Pedro. Blessings and if you need one-on-one advice just PM me!
post #9 of 12
9/6/08 at 8:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ashleyhaugh View Post
san antonio has the army base (my son will get an id card, and still use tricare insurance) so i can use the commissary and stuff. and the cost of living is lower there
You can shop at any military installation, not just Army :.

We have Ft. Sam, Randolph AFB, and Lackland AFB within about 20 min of each other.
post #10 of 12
9/6/08 at 10:05pm
Thread Starter 
thanks for all the input.... i was kind of leaning towards san antonio. dh is a medic, so he did his training there, and i liked what i saw of it....

im hoping i wont need this info, but i have to prepare i guess
post #11 of 12
9/6/08 at 10:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ashleyhaugh View Post
thanks for all the input.... i was kind of leaning towards san antonio. dh is a medic, so he did his training there, and i liked what i saw of it....

im hoping i wont need this info, but i have to prepare i guess
post #12 of 12
2/10/09 at 4:03pm
Ashley, is there an update? How are you doing?
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Mothering › Forums › Welcome to the MotheringDotCommunity › Finding your Tribe › Tribal Areas › Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico › san antonio and austin mamas, i could use your input.