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You may have read about the moving process, helped someone move before, or moved before yourself.
In each instance, you know how stressful the whole process can be. The added fact that moving is an expensive process too can just contribute to your growing stress about the whole thing before you even have made preparations.
Stress is unavoidable, but you can find ways to reduce it and save money. Here are five proven ways to save money and stress less on your next move.
Control Your Budget
The first step of keeping more money in your pocket instead of spending it on your move is to be conscientious of how you’re spending your own money. While this is a relatively simple concept, it’s harder to execute than you think. You should start creating your budget as early as possible before your moving period.
Creating a moving budget is a fairly easy process, although it will take some effort and time. It enables you to pay close attention to your expenses and quickly take action when you need to. An example of how you’d use a moving budget is putting aside a certain amount for packing expenses. It’ll be much easier to control these costs when you have a budget in place.
You’ll want to make sure that your budget includes self-moving expenses, moving company expenses, vehicle transportation expenses, and extraneous expenses.
Find an Affordable Moving Company
You want to look for the most affordable way to move to wherever you’re going. The first step in doing that is finding a moving service that is low-cost. You can easily find companies that are cheap. The challenge comes from finding a cheap option that also offers quality service.
When you look for the right company, you want to get quotes from a large variety of companies. Compare the offers that they give you carefully. The estimates that they give you won’t cost a dime, so you have nothing to lose during the process of figuring out which company best fits your budget.
If you want to save money during your moving process, you don’t want to agree to any estimates offered via email or over the phone as they won’t be as accurate to what you need. You’d risk the chance of actually spending more than what your budget calls for.
To get an estimate in-person, you could ask the moving companies that you’re interested in to conduct an on-site survey. Movers can give you a more accurate estimate if they know exactly what they need to move.
Don’t Move Items You Won’t Use
The easiest way to cut down on costs is to move fewer items to your new home. While there are other factors to consider when moving such as move distance, moving company rates, and time of year, the mere fact that if you have fewer items will save you money.
Look at items around your house and think of the last time that you’ve used them. If it’s been years since you touched something then store it away in a storage unit or throw it away. Sort out your things before you get to the packing stage so the process will be more organized. Getting rid of extra items that you don’t need can also be an excellent way to profit. Sell items that you haven’t used in a while.
Save on Moving Boxes
You can easily save some money when getting boxes for packing. When you’re looking for packing materials, you want to decide on the size of the boxes that you need and the number of them. If you go to the store and buy them outright, you’re looking to spend upwards of a hundred dollars or so.
To save cost on the boxes you get, ask your friends and family for any extra cardboard boxes they might have laying around. You can easily reach all of your friends through social media, and you’ll be surprised to find out how many people will be willing to help.
You can also widen your internet search and find box suppliers on sites like Freecycle or Craigslist. Go to shopping centers, bookstores, home electronics stores, and supermarkets and ask them if they have any leftover cardboard containers.
Pack Yourself
Save money by opting out of hiring a professional packing company. You will have to invest a major amount of time into the process, but, with careful consideration, you can properly pack everything you need. When choosing whether or not to pack for yourself, you want to evaluate your own packing skills, weigh whether or not you have time, and determine whether or not it fits into your budget.
The Bottom Line
Moving is going to be a stressful process, but there are ways that you can greatly reduce that stress by reducing the costs. Another way to ease the process along is to use certified bank checks for all of your moving expenses. After all, you should be focused on this new chapter in your life, not your financial problems.
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