Breaking Down Our Moving Costs

We recently moved from Jacksonville, Florida to Orlando, Florida. It’s about 140 miles between the two cities. My wife started working about two months ago, so money wasn’t as tight as it has been in the past. However, we still like to get the most out of our money no matter what we’re doing.

Here is a breakdown of our moving expenses:

$55.00 – Packing Supplies: We spent $20.00 on 30 boxes with packing paper and it included four wardrobe boxes. We found this steal on Craigslist. A couple was selling them after they had just moved from Texas. They were all nice, professional moving boxes. We spent another $10.00 on packing tape, $20.00 on mattress and couch covers and $5.00 on furniture wrap. The boxes were definitely our best deal. Check out your local Craigslist for great deals on used boxes.

$223.00 on Truck Rental: We used Budget Truck Rental, because a lot of their trucks are newer and safer than U-Haul. Penske is another good company to use for truck rental, but they tend to be a littler more expensive. Right now, Budget automatically gives you 10% off of your truck rental if it’s a one-way drive. But, you can get a 20% off coupon code if you forward your mail with the post office online. With every one way rental, you get a minimum of 2 days and unlimited mileage. I think you get more days for travel time based on farther distances of travel. This amount also includes a $45.00 charge for a local one-day rental, because we had to store our stuff for a week until we closed on the house.

$175.00 – Movers: We splurged a little and got movers to help us pack up the truck. Renting your own truck and hiring movers load your stuff is much cheaper than doing the package. We lived on the second floor of an apartment building, and we had bought a ton of heavy stuff over the past year, so we figured the money was well spent. Good professional movers are an asset, because they are quick and they know how to pack the truck to maximize space.

$23.00 – Storage: We had to store our stuff for about a week, because our house wasn’t ready to close at the date we had to be out of our apartment. We didn’t like the fact that we’d be moving our stuff twice, but we didn’t have much of a choice. Every extra day we kept the truck rental, it was an extra $75.00 a day. We found a public storage facility that only charged $1.00 for the first month of storage with NO time commitments. But they did charge a maintenance and lock fee.

Total: $476.00

So, there you have it, our moving expenses. We had budgeted $600.00, so we came way under budget. That’s not too bad for a long-distance move with help to load the truck. What are some of your tips for saving money while moving?

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