Beth Johnson is accustomed to the uncertainty that comes with being a military wife – picking up and moving her family every three years.
The crippling anxiety that comes with a US government shutdown, however, is not something she is used to.
She is one of the millions of Americans who sighed a deep breath of relief when politicians in Washington agreed to reopen the government earlier this week.
At 43 days, it was the longest shutdown in US history.
But that relief could be short-lived, as the funding agreement expires at the end of January, when Congress will face the same spending challenge once again.
“It really affects every part of your life when your family’s sole source of income comes from the federal government,” Ms Johnson said. “The uncertainty is crippling.”
The Tennessee mother of two has lived in seven states since her husband joined the military nearly 20 years ago.
Picking up and moving her family every three years means it is tough for her – and other service members’ spouses – to get work, so the Johnson family lives on one paycheque.
Not knowing whether or not military service members would receive their paycheques from the shuttered government left her family with difficult decisions.
Some 1.3 million active-duty personnel are required to serve during government shutdowns potentially without pay, but the Trump administration stepped in twice during the autumn shutdown to reallocate funds for those servicemembers.
But without certainty, many families had to tighten their belts. One of Ms Johnson’s sons even offered to get fewer Christmas Gifts – “it’s ok we don’t need them,” he said to his mother.
Ms Johnson is frustrated by what she described as unnecessary sacrifice from millions of Americans.
“What was it all for? Why were we suffering for over 40 days in uncertainty, not knowing what was going to happen,” she questioned. “What was the point? We’re just going to go through this again probably in January.”
The agreement Congress made this week funds the government for the next two months, guarantees that all federal workers will be paid for time during the shutdown, and funds the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) – which provides food aid to one in eight Americans – until next September.
Sierra Bird is one of the more than 42 million Americans who depend on funds from Snap to feed her family.
The Florida mother of four gets about $900 a month, but those funds were delayed because they were caught up in the spending bill.
Ms Bird said she “survived” the shutdown and her Snap card will be reloaded over the weekend.
She’ll return to some sense of normal, but she’s also weary another shutdown could be on the horizon and she said she would start stockpiling food, just in case.
“People are going to take what they need if they don’t have what they need,” Ms Bird said. “Don’t mess with people’s food.”
While Snap benefits have resumed, one thing that hasn’t come back is health-insurance subsidies. It was those subsidies that Democrats had said they were willing to fight for, which helped fuel the shutdown in the first place.
Democrats had said they would not approve the budget unless the subsidies continued. But on Tuesday, eight Democrats sided with Republicans to approve a spending plan without them.
“I swapped one stress for another,” Ms Bird said. “I would rather have the affordable healthcare than Snap, because I can feed them rice and beans and survive, but I need my medications.”
In addition to those struggling to put food on the table during the shutdown, more than 1.4 million federal employees went without pay for 43 days.
Sarah, a Utah Interior Department employee who asked her last name not be used, was among them.
She was furloughed from the start of the shutdown on 1 October and as the days and weeks went by she worried she would have to find another way to make money.
“I was trying to decide if I wanted to give up the federal sector altogether to find another career,” Sarah said.
As an archaeologist, she works in a unique, specialised role, making it hard to transfer her expertise to another job or industry.
Her worries were quelled on Thursday when she returned to work for the first time in weeks, following the government’s reopening, but she is already preparing for the prospect of another one come January.
“With the holidays coming up, I’m not going to spending a whole lot of money,” she said, noting she is putting off certain remodelling projects too.
“I would not be the least bit surprised if another shutdown happened.”
In the less than 80 days until the next potential government shutdown, Ms Johnson, the military wife, said she would be preparing, just in case.
“We’re making a huge effort to watch unnecessary spending and save money where we can so we have a bigger nest egg built up because if the government shuts down again in January there’s no guarantee that active duty military is going to get paid.”
