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Money Saving Tips when Planning for a Move

The following is a post from staff writer Crystal at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff, where she writes about finding the balance between paying your bills, saving for your future, and budgeting in the fun stuff along the way.

In honor of Daniel’s big move last week, I have been thinking about the expenses of moving. It can be pretty expensive. Here are a few tips you can use to save some money when planning your next move.

Moving Tip #1 – Cancel Your Services in Advance

It is a good rule of thumb to cancel your existing services a few weeks in advance of your big move. This way you can avoid having to pay for your last month of service and can use that money towards your first month at your new pad. Cable services, home phone service, and lawn services can all be canceled before your move. This will also help to cover any installation costs that your new provider may try to hit you with at your new place.

Moving Tip #2 – Sell Your Stuff

Why pay a fortune to move the junk that you do not even want anymore? You don’t have to worry about paying someone to haul your old things away if you sell them off before your move. By having a garage sale or listing your stuff online at places like Craigslist and Kijiji, you can pretty easily downsize the amount of stuff you will have to move. Plus, the money you make can be put towards the furniture or expenses for your new place and you may not start off your new part of life with the same clutter as before.

Moving Tip #3 – Hire Your Buddies or Shop Around

You could spend a pretty penny hiring professional movers to come in and move your boxes and personal possessions. Instead, see if any of your friends or family members want to help. You can pay them back in kind during their next move.

If you rather not bother your loved ones, have too much heavy furniture you rather not tackle, or rather not be on the hook for moving help in the future, shop around when you are hiring your movers. Keep in mind two things. First, reputation and being insured matters. Secondly, price matters. By shopping around, you can find great movers at an affordable rate. Companies like Mayflower have a trustworthy name and you can use competitor pricing to try and bargain with them.

Moving Tip #4 – Move During the Middle of the Week

Most people try to move on weekends so they don’t have to take time off work. That is exactly why rental truck companies like U-Haul charge higher rates on the weekend and holidays. You can save a lot of money by renting your moving truck on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Most moving companies charge less during the week for the same reasons.

My Experience

My husband and I have moved 3 times since college. Our first two moves were from apartments to apartments and we didn’t have much stuff. We were grateful for the help from family and the moves were as cheap as possible. The last move was into our house and we had more furniture. Neither of us was comfortable asking our parents or friends to hurt their backs on our account, so we hired professional movers on Memorial Day weekend.

We went cheap to start with and the stupid company didn’t even show up! A better but more expensive company fit us in towards the end of the day. We were so grateful and were glad to pay the extra $80 for quality movers ($420 instead of $340). We will be hiring movers again when we move in the future. It was worth it to us.

What other moving tips do you have for us?

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6 COMMENTS

  1. Great post!

    One other tip: Similar to your last post, but if you can move on a day that’s not the first or last of the month, you’ll save a TON on the moving van rentals. They really mark up their prices on those days, because EVERYONE moves on those days. If you can negotiate with your new landlord to let you take the place even a week earlier (probably won’t be an issue if the unit is currently vacant), it’ll save you money and the hassle of having to move everything all at once.

  2. We’ve moved in the middle of the week and just used family and friends to move. It’s saved much money.

  3. All good tips, and I think that sometimes people overlook #2 – sell your stuff. It’s important to remember that we pay movers for what we move, so there’s an implicit cost associated with each item. If you don’t need something or wouldn’t buy it again, why not throw it way, give it away, or sell it if time permits. I made that mistake before, taking an old mattress that I’ve never used since moving. Won’t make that mistake again!

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