Nixon froze everything in the early 70s.
Cost me a bundle as well.
Nearly starved us. I attended AFROTC field training in the summer of '71. (6 week version for entry into the 2 year program). They paid us at the rate of an E-1, basic trainee. After paying for our own laundry, getting our 1505s and fatigues starched, and for our flight ball cap, and some other BS fees, we where left with very little pay. And being unavailable for 1/2 the summer meant I could not work my regular, reasonable well paying, summer job. I'd been married about a year when I finished that training. Fortunately, my wife graduated while I was learning to march and make my bed, and started teaching shortly after I returned. We not only didn't starve, we moved to a nice 2 BR apartment, instead of the converted first floor of a 50 y/o old house. (At least we had a real living room, dining room and kitchen, and the bedroom and bath was an "add on" rather than a conversion, so other than the neighborhood, it really wasn't all that bad).