I lost my job in June and am in the process of moving from Florida to Houston in order to be closer to my boyfriend. I am desperately looking for cheap ways to
get my belongings and car from Florida to Houston. I have been getting
moving service price quotes and it’s looking around $2000 for
everything. Any tips on moving cheaply? Anything I should know to help mitigate costs with moving companies? -Amanda
My advice: If you have more time than money, do everything yourself.
I’ve moved three times in the last five years and haven’t paid a moving service for anything. I always accept all offers of help from friends and family and then just work very hard for the three weeks or so leading up to the move and the few weeks after the move.
One of the great things of boxing up everything yourself is that, as you’re going through things, you’re likely to find a lot of stuff you don’t need. So you can sell it on Craigslist or in a garage sale before you leave and make a little extra money. You can then use that extra money to rent a truck (I’ve always found the best rates for moving van rentals online.) and pay any additional expenses incurred through moving.
Another tip: If you are really short on time and unable to scrounge up free boxes to pack up everything in, try buying them off of eBay. They are loads cheaper there than buying them from a moving company.
What about the rest of you all? What are your best tips for moving on a dime? Do you think a moving service is worth the cost?
Graphic from BoxBundles.com
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I had to move maybe 3 or 4 times in the past year due to school stuff. Definitely my best tip is to pack as you would for regular travel. This means rolling up your clothes, stuffing them in crevices of boxes, basically packing smart to maximize space. You would be amazed at how much you can reduce the number of boxes you need. Cloth items can be compressed way, way down using vacuum-seal bags (you can get these pretty inexpensively at Ikea now) or ziploc bags. If you’re packing a car for the move, REMOVE ANY EMERGENCY SUPPLIES BEFORE PACKING THE CAR and put these items on the very top of the rest of the stuff you packed. I learned this the hard way– you don’t want to have to unpack all your stuff just to get a bottle of motor oil or your first aid kit. Of course, eat up as much of your food as you can before the move.
I had to move maybe 3 or 4 times in the past year due to school stuff. Definitely my best tip is to pack as you would for regular travel. This means rolling up your clothes, stuffing them in crevices of boxes, basically packing smart to maximize space. You would be amazed at how much you can reduce the number of boxes you need. Cloth items can be compressed way, way down using vacuum-seal bags (you can get these pretty inexpensively at Ikea now) or ziploc bags. If you’re packing a car for the move, REMOVE ANY EMERGENCY SUPPLIES BEFORE PACKING THE CAR and put these items on the very top of the rest of the stuff you packed. I learned this the hard way– you don’t want to have to unpack all your stuff just to get a bottle of motor oil or your first aid kit. Of course, eat up as much of your food as you can before the move.
Shop around for moving companies. Some times there is a several hundred dollar difference between companies such as Budget and U-Haul. Also – if you are flexible on days – try several different days – sometimes weekdays are cheaper than weekends.
Budget offers an extra 15% off if you use and American Express credit card.
Don’t pay for the insurance through the moving company – rely on your own car insurance (unless you are nervous about it).
Don’t get too large of a truck – pack well into boxes that stack – pack the most necessary things first – if it doesn’t fit – don’t take it. The smaller trucks are cheaper and get better gas mileage.
I didn’t have time to read all the comments, so I am not sure if these tips were already shared, but another great place to get nice free boxes is a liquor store. Those boxes are very sturdy since they have to hold heavy bottles!
When we did an out of state move a year or so ago, my husband called several companies to get quotes on rental trucks. After company A had the lowest rate, he called back companies B, C and so on to see if any of them would match or beat that rate. Then when one of those companies gave a lower rate, he called back company “A” to see if they would in turn beat that rate, and they did! We got a very low rate, lower than anything we could find online.
for free (and sturdy!) boxes for breakables, call a local liquor store and go up on their delivery day! they are made for holding glass and the seperate compartments in the wine boxes come in handy!
If you have freecycle in your area, that is another great source. You can post your request and an email os sent out for all members. Freecycle.org is also a great place to just get rid of items. When we moved across country, their were quite a few things i gave away because i didn’t want to deal with having to schedule a time to meet buyers (if i did craigslist).
u-pack is a cheaper way to move. They drop the truck off and you fill it up (with help from family/friends). When it arrives at the new destination, you have a few days to unload.
Haven’t read all posts, so may be repeating… If you’re looking for free tissue paper to wrap things up, sewing stores regularly discard discontinued patterns. They send the envelope back to the manufacturer for a credit, but will give you all of the tissue paper from the patterns. We moved ourselves from the west coast to the midwest with a pick up truck full of dress patterns wrapped around our breakables. Heh.
I didn’t have time to read through all the comments, but when we’ve moved my mom has always gotten boxes from hospitals and grocery stores. They’re free, sturdy and you can get them as big or as small as you need them to be.
Meh! Don’t ever BUY boxes! Freecycle or grocery stores are the perfect places to get them.
We recently moved about 100 miles, and had a group of family there to help load the truck. We had help unloading the truck due to our horrific experience with buying our house, so I can’t really give much advice other than do it yourself!
My husband just reminded me that we gathered boxes from Starbucks in the weeks before our move. The boxes were very strong, a uniform size, and FREE! yeah!
I just went to our local small town newspaper and asked for the end rolls of newsprint. They gave me two large ends for FREE and I used that to wrap all my breakable items and to use as extra stuffers in boxes.
People often post their moving boxes for free on Craigslist – beats begging the stores for them.
Try your local freecycle.org – there are often posts for free moving boxes and you can all request boxes.
You can get boxes and packing materials free from Craigslist or Freecycle. Don’t pay for them!
We used ABF UPack. You rent space on a trailer. This was more cost effective for us than driving a UHaul.
Penske trucks are the way to go! They don’t limit you on mileage like the U-Haul trucks do.
When we were moving back to Alabama from Florida, we drove over the FLorida line into GA to pick up a truck because it was over $1,000 cheaper!!!! Yep…that is not a typo! And because they don’t count mileage it was cheaper to drive the distance!!! Hope this helps!
I would definitely move myself especially if someone could help drive either the moving truck or your car. One other thing…$2000 sounds like a great price for a moving company. Make sure they are reputable though. You can also look at the break-down they charge to load each box, etc. It can come out to be $9 per box and you know they fill half the boxes they pack with paper to increase the cost! So…if you can pack most of the boxes yourself and then just have a company load it all up and move it for you, that will save you lots too!
We are in the process of moving from WI around the lake to MI but it will be a good 12 hour move with 2 little ones. We are downsizing so we aren’t hanging onto much so a 16ft box truck works for us. When I was looking around at trucking companies I realized the two main competitors for individual use unless using a huge semi truck are Penske and U-Haul. I got quotes online and Penske called me right away with great, English speaking customer service. They gave me a pretty good deal but I wanted to talk it over with my husband so she put my quote on hold and I gave her a time to call back. So the next day before she was to call, I gave U-Haul a fighting chance and told them exactly what Penske’s offer was, to my surprise, they beat Penske by a lot…so I had them put my offer on hold and I talked to the Penske lady and after telling her about U-Haul’s offer she talked with her manager and have us a great deal, slightly more than U-Haul but because of the CS we went with Penske. So for around $522 we got packing pads, a dolly, 4 days, 24/7 roadside service, insurance from them protecting us against any damage to the vehicle from us or anybody else, that also includes their environmental fees. The truck does get 8-10 miles per gallon but most of them get that or worse.
I recently moved from out-of-state. I posted a bunch of frugal moving tips in July on my blog. You can also click “frugal tips” in the archive. I’ve moved so many times, I’m almost a pro! Check it out and Good luck!
We just moved two weeks ago. I was shocked when I looked into the price of moving vans for going across the country…it would have been cheaper for us to just sell all our furniture and buy it again once we arrived (since it was mostly free or garage sale stuff).
But, trailers are much cheaper than moving vans. So, we got rid of lots of stuff and the rest we loaded up in the trailer/van.
To save on food costs I made up meals in advance for the busy days I knew we would have while packing.
We have moved way too much too… lots of good advice here! The best way we found to get a good deal on a moving truck is to think about the law of supply and demand. Their prices are flexible, so when the demand is high, so is the price. Check into different pick-up/drop-off locations, as well as different dates. The result may save you hundreds!
Another great resource is Freecycle. It’s a yahoo group in your local area (just search for your city, or nearest large city). You can post “wanteds”, so this is a great place to post that you need some boxes. Simple rule for freecycle is that it has to be free. Also, if you have a lot of stuff that you want to get rid of, post it here to give away to someone who could put it to good use, instead of throwing it away. The purpose of freecycle is to keep things out of landfills. You may think it is junk, but someone else may not.
Thank you everyone for all of your answers!!!
I absolutely got my boxes for free–from behind a TJ Maxx dumpster. Everything is packed and in storage (I am hoping that when I find a new employer, he/she will pay to relocate me); my car is in another storage. I did this to get out of my costly FL apartment so that I could find another renter and get out of my lease, and because storage units usually offer one month free or for application fees (ended up spending about $90 on both storage units, and I have until Sept. 1 when I owe more on these). I am debating whether to fly back to FL and get help loading everything into a Uhaul and dragging my car behind me, or a moving service. With airfare, gas, hotels, etc., the price actually seems almost the same for if I were to do all of the labor myself. But I do have some great tips from EVERYONE and will be looking deeply into these. In the meantime, please cross your fingers for me that my new employer will pay or help me out–I have my first interview next Wednesday!
Thank you all.
We’re currently going through a move right NOW! The cheapest route for us from AZ to MI was http://www.upack.com.
I was shocked when they’re quote was going to be cheaper than us driving a moving van and paying for all the gas.
With Upack, you pack all the boxes and load it up yourself, then they drive it across country to your destination.
Upack also has a blog with great tips on moving in general and how to consolidate space with how to use the least amount of space while packing!
Look on craigslist for boxes under FREE section. Good luck!
I have made MANY moves in my lifetime. I’ve moved across town about 3 times, to a neighboring city about 2 times and from Georgia to California, California to Georgia and Georgia back to California. Whoa!
Tips:
1) NEVER pay ANYTHING for moving boxes. They are ALWAYS available for free on Craigslist or at grocery stores if you ask or even local businesses.
2) Have a yard sale. Simplify your belongings and make a little money at the same time. Saves time, moving expenses and packing efforts.
3)Instead of buying bubble wrap (unless you got it for free from Craigslist) wrap your breakables in your dishtowels, t-shirts, sweaters, recylced newspapers, whatever you can find. Talk about killing two birds with one stone!
4)Suitcases double as moving boxes.
5) BIG MOVING TRUCK TIP:
When we moved from California to Georgia, we bought a used U-Haul truck from Craigslist (private owner) in California. Then we got to take our time in filling it up because we weren’t paying by the day. Once we got to our destination, we resold it on Craigslist there for about the very same price we bought it for. So we ended up just paying for the GAS!
6) The last time we moved (Georgia to California), we sold everything except for the essentials and filled my Honda Civic to the brim to make the drive. We haven’t missed any of the stuff we left or sold. Our friends here have graciously donated their used furniture here and there.
-Morgan
mvalencia@astoneagency.com
My husband is in the ministry so we have moved around quite a bit. One of the hazards of ministry moves is that you may or may not have people offer/want to help based on their current attitude towards you! Two memorable moves have been when I was 8 months pregnant (yes, 2 times I was 8 months pregnant and we had to leave the churches we were at and move across the country)! The first time this happened, my husband drove me and our son to the new state, then he flew back packed and loaded the U-Haul all by himself. No help. Miserable. The second move while pregnant, the church we were going to offered to pay for a moving company to move us. Needless to say, with 3 young children and a big old belly ready to pop with a baby, this was a complete Godsend. The moving company experience wasn’t flawless, but it was definitely a lot less stressful and much physically easier. If we had not gone that route, the church we were leaving would not have offered help, so we would have been in the same predicament as before. So for us, the moving company was definitely worth the extra bucks.
I’m sure this has been said (haven’t read through the comments), but I tapped Freecycle for moving boxes and got a ton, and met some really nice folks in the process too (they gave me even more stuff than the boxes, actually).
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