After talking things over for a number of weeks now, the White House has decided to cut some aid to the Egyptian government. 

Not all of it, though.

In a remark on Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry said only $260 million of the $1.5 billion that’s sent annually will be frozen — most of it military assistance. Cairo-based journalist Kimberly Adams says not much of that money trickles down to the rest of Egypt’s economy.

“Because the military is such a huge, monolithic organization, they pretty much keep everything of themselves, to themselves,” she says. “What gets to the military, pretty much stays with the military.”

Since August, Adams says people are slowly trying to get back into a normalized life. The curfew has been pushed to midnight, which provides some breathing room for the country’s thriving nighttime commerce. But there’s still a lot of violence and inflation, and grocery prices are up. Egyptians are still tense when they go about their daily lives.

“You’re finding that maybe they’re not spending as much,” she says. “People aren’t really investing in any sort of big ticket items.”

And Adams says when it comes to morale, time is ticking and average Egyptians are losing hope.