I like moving!
Says NO ONE!
The last week put me out of commission and neglecting my duties for MyFondi. We moved into our new townhome. Still renting but it is more space since the both of us are working from home.
I am going to miss our old building as it was our first home in the South Florida area and we made a lot of friends. We moved down here knowing not a soul. Our prior building had functions prior to the pandemic each month so you can meet the people within the building and try one of the restaurants on the strip.
I am happy we are in our new place but the move was something else. Let's just say that nothing went as planned. This is our 7th moved since we graduated college. I was hoping we were going to move into our forever home but the housing market is out of control across the U.S. So, I am hoping our next move will be last move for a long time into our forever home.
Now let's talk about the pitfalls when it comes to moving and money.
If you know you are about to move, save up your money so you have the funds available when the move happens and you are not going into debt because of it. On moving cost alone, it can average $500-$1,600 for a local move and $2,000-$-7,000 for a long-distance move.
When we moved to Florida, we saved up a large amount of money because we knew it would be costly. This move on the other hand; we weren't really prepared but prepared LOL. I wanted to document a few things to think about when planning your next move along with some commentary from our move:
Movers: My husband only booked the movers for 3 HOURS. We needed them for 5 hours!!! Next time, I am saving enough money for movers to pack/unpack the entire house.
Shipping: If you are moving a long distance, this can be expensive. You need to perform your research to determine the best way to move and the cost.
Painters: This was an unexpected expense because we were going to do it ourselves. We later changed our mind because we were exhausted.
Handyman: Another unexpected expense as we needed someone to mount the TVs to the wall. We hung TVs a million times in Pennsylvania but houses are built differently down here in Florida. Also, you may have renovations you may want to do to the house before moving in.
Deposit for New Apartment
Rental Truck
Moving Supplies
Change Fees with Utility Companies
Miscellaneous runs to Home Depot/Lowe's
Miscellaneous items for the House/Apartment
Cleaning of New and Old House/Apartment
Gas
New Vehicle Registration and Insurance
One of the best things that happened is that we got our keys the week before we had to move out of our apartment. We moved most of the boxes over the entire week and unpacked some of them as well. Could you imagine what would have happened if we had all of those boxes and only had the movers for 3 hours! I must shoutout Task Rabbit as we found our painter and mounter on the site in no time.
The moral to this story is to be prepared for the unexpected. Save more than what you think!
