There aren’t many people who are lucky enough that they can move for free. Most people see moving expenses add up quickly, leading to needless stress when finances are probably tight. Keep reading to learn some useful tips for moving on a budget.
Start your moving process with a win-win. Declutter your entire home and sell any excess that still has value. Ask yourself if certain items are worth your time and energy moving with you? If you can truly live without them, sell them online through a yard sale, pawnshops, or a consignment store. Donate anything else you can to a local charity. You win by having less stuff to move, and you win again by coming up with some cash that makes your budget a little less tight.
When you start packing up anything that is going with you, use whatever is free or cheap. Have lots of bedding and clothes? Use them for packing material instead of buying a jumbo roll of bubble wrap. Use your socks for wrapping glassware, and use kitchen towels to separate plates. If you have any original packaging left for electronics, use them. Check Craigslist and other sites for moving boxes being given away for free. If you know someone working retail, ask them to save that flat stack of boxes headed for the dumpster because then all you need is tape.
Next, take measurements. You need to measure two things. The first is all your larger pieces of furniture, and secondly, your entry/exit points. That’s both for the home you’re moving out of but also the one you’re moving into. Just because you know you can get your sofa out of your current house doesn’t mean it fits in the next apartment’s smaller door.
To keep a lean budget, a lean moving money machine, don’t burden it with unnecessary spending. That means avoiding mentally decorating your new place until you’re there. Yes, you’ll have to buy somethings for your move and possibly a few things to have a bare minimum of living when you get there, but don’t splurge for new dishes and artwork just yet. Get there with what you have, unpack, and then you can start decorating.
Look for any tax breaks or compensation you can get. Moving expenses are tax-deductible for many members or relatives of servicemen and women of the armed forces. Your employer might compensate you for a job-related move. At the very least, get itemized tax deduction receipts for any goods you donate from your decluttering.
At some point, you have to decide on hiring a professional moving company. It might seem quicker and cheaper to bribe your buddies with some drinks and a few pizzas, but how long will it all take? Can they handle the heavy lifting? How much will the truck cost you? Crunch the numbers. Otherwise, you just need to check on the Internet to find the best moving companies and pick one on which you can rely and is budget-friendly. Sometimes the professionals are cheaper because they’re faster and know what they’re doing.
If you can help it, and often can’t, try to move from October through April. This isn’t the peak season, so rates are lower, and it’s much easier to schedule things.
When you do get to your new home, keep looking for savings. Compensate for any deposit you might have to put down on a lease by taking advantage of new customer specials from local cable, Internet, and satellite providers.
Schedule your utilities carefully. You don’t want things shut off at your old home too early, but you also don’t want to overpay for having services you’re not yet there to use at your new place. See how much you can do just off of your phone’s Wi-Fi for a while. You’d be amazed by how much money that can save your family.
If need be, use self-storage when necessary. If there is any time gap between moving out and moving in, your possessions might need a temporary home while you crash on a friend’s couch or in an extended-stay facility. Many self-storage options now also include containers you can pack up in your yard before they move them for you, sparing you a lot of cargo to deal with.
You know that moving is stressful, but do you know how stressful? Most research points to losing someone you love as being the most stressful thing, as having someone pass away in the family usually ranks number one, and divorce is commonly the second-most stressful event in life.
Moving is number three, and that shouldn’t be a surprise. Your base of operations, your home, the place where you ‘live,’ is changing. Moving represents ending one chapter in life and starting another. Use these tips to make your move on a budget that much easier the next time you have to pull up and go somewhere new.
