Part 7:
Save Money On Relocating

Any time you're going to be moving, you know you can plan on spending quite a bit of money.  It helps to know some tricks for saving some money.  Then your moving expenditures will not be more than they have to be.

One of the easiest ways to save money on relocating is to move less stuff.

Be sure to go through your things beforehand and throw out, give away, or sell whatever you will not need.  A lot of people get into a time crunch when they are relocating, and they don't have time to do this.  They end up moving a lot of stuff that they then throw out when they reach their destination.

Talk about a waste of money.  Take the time to get rid of these things before you move.  It's frustrating when you're unpacking and realize you just paid to move trash.  Remember that if you give some of your stuff away, such as to Goodwill or other charities, you should request a receipt so that you can deduct the amount donated from your taxes.  That will save you money again.  So just this one tip can save you money twice.  Or, if you have time, have a yard sale and get some money out of your stuff right away, which will help cover some of your moving expenses.

Then there are some things that are just not worth moving.  If you have a piece of furniture that is not particularly nice, like the kind of stuff you buy and put together yourself that's made out of particle board, or maybe something you bought used, ask yourself whether it's really worth the time, effort, and expense to move it.

Sometimes you're better off to just leave it or get rid of it and buy new stuff after you move.  And that doesn't necessarily mean buying brand new stuff.  You can go to thrift stores and yard sales and often find some nice stuff, maybe even better than what you had in some cases.  You especially want to consider this with big things like couches, chairs, beds, entertainment centers, and dressers.  Those things are a pain to move and take up a lot of space in the moving truck.

Another way to save money is to do a lot of the work yourself. Even if you hire movers, you can do the packing yourself. This will save a lot of money. The time-intensive work costs the most, so do your own packing and save a bundle. Remember to get started early if you are going to be doing your own packing.  You can't pack up an entire household at the last minute.

Packing materials can be expensive, so if you have some time before you move, start looking around for free packing materials well in advance and start stocking up.  Most grocery stores, retail stores, restaurants, and other places of business throw out dozens of boxes every day.  Some recycle them, but most usually just break them down and throw them away.  There's no sense buying boxes when you can get them for free.  But again, if you wait till the last minute you may not have time to do this.

Some places will set the boxes out back by the dumpster before throwing them out.  But if you don't find anything that way, you may have to ask for them.  Just tell the employees or managers you're moving and need boxes and wanted to see if they had any they were going to be throwing out anyway.  If they don't have any at the moment, ask if they can hold some for you when they get some.  Some places will, and some won't.  But if you ask them to hold boxes for you, be sure to go back and pick them up when you said you would.

What about packing more fragile things?  Well, bubble wrap can get expensive and there are lots of other things that will work just as well.  For instance, you can save your plastic shopping bags and ball up a bunch of them and pack them around things.  Also, newspapers work great.  If you need filler and padding, take each page of the newspaper and wad it up in a ball.  It takes a little time, but works great.

If you get the newspaper regularly anyway, just start saving them.  If you don't, contact your local paper and see what they do with the old newspapers that don't sell and see if you could get some of them.  Often they just get thrown away.

Shredded paper can work well too.  You could check with banks and other businesses that often have huge bags of shredded paper every day.

Of course, you can save even more by renting a moving truck and loading and driving it yourself. But here you have to think about how much help you have.  If it takes you multiple days to load the truck and you're paying for it by the day, you might be better off to hire professionals to do your relocation. They will do it a lot quicker and you will lose fewer friends too.

You can also save money by canceling your cable service a month early. You won't have much time to watch it anyway.  You will be too busy packing and going through your things in preparation for the move.  In the place you are relocating to, wait a month before hooking up the cable.  In this way, you save the money of two months of cable service.  It's just TV, you can live with out it.  And if you have Internet access, most TV networks have their shows online for you to watch for free.

On the day of the relocation, pack yourself some meals in a cooler and you can save a lot of money on restaurant meals.

Sometimes the stress of relocating makes you spend money just to save time and energy.  But if you plan ahead, you will not have these unexpected expenses.  Instead of renting an expensive hotel room, try to stay with friends, camp out, or at least send the kids off to Grandma's until the move is over.

Be creative, and you will come up with a lot more ways to save money on relocating.

Sincerely,

John Smith

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