7 Tips for Creating the Ultimate Moving Budget

As your excitement builds for an impending move, so do your stress levels. Moving is complicated, especially with many different services to hire and deposits to make. 

One of the best things you can do to reduce anxiety to focus on the thrill of a new home is carefully create a realistic budget for your move. By writing out your moving budget, you can set realistic cost expectations and map out everyone you need to hire before the big day arrives. Read on to learn our seven tips for crafting a reliable and accurate moving budget.

1. Take Inventory of Your Items

Before you can start interviewing local moving companies, you need to have a concrete understanding of how much stuff you need to move. Make a list of everything that will be making the journey to your new home, starting with the largest and easiest to enumerate items, like furniture, appliances, and bedding. 

For smaller items, such as books, clothing, and dishes, you don’t necessarily have to take a precise count of each item—though doing so might be helpful for you for other purposes, particularly insurance claims. It’s important to determine a reasonable estimate of the number of boxes and the overall weight of the items, which the moving company will use to calculate your price estimate.   

2. Choose a Date and Start Booking in Advance

The sooner you know when you’re moving, the sooner you can start booking the services you need. Scheduling services in advance saves money by avoiding the premium you’d have to pay to book on short notice. There’s a lot to consider when planning your moving date, including lease or sale terms and your work schedule, so consider all of those factors when creating your budget. 

The time of year when the move occurs will affect the cost, so if you have some flexibility, it’s worth keeping in mind that winter is generally the least expensive season for moving. 

3. Research the Average Cost of Services

Extensive research is key to ensuring that you understand the costs you’ll have to pay during your move—and to get the best prices possible for all the services you need.For example, if you’re moving down the street, it’s helpful to know that the average cost to average cost to hire local movers is $1,400. But if you’re making a cross-country move, you can expect to pay between $2,600 to $6,570.

Once you’ve set some reasonable expectations, it’s time to start looking into the specific services you’ll need. Get quotes from movers or truck rental companies, and find out if any of your speciality items—like your baby grand piano or pool table—will entail special handling fees. If you have belongings you’ll need to store, look into the rates offered by local storage facilities and consider portable storage containers.

4. Create a List of Your Expenses

Once you have gathered your research, it’s time to create a preliminary budget, laying out all the expenses and their costs. Create a simple table or spreadsheet, with each cost category in one column and the price quotes or detailed estimates in the other. That way, you can clearly view the list of all the expenses you will incur during the moving process.

5. Plan Ahead for Hidden Costs

Whether you’re moving yourself or hiring movers, there will inevitably be a number of different hidden costs associated with moving. Plan ahead by including them in your budget so that you’re not caught off guard when it’s time to pay up. Some key charges to anticipate include: 

• Packing and unpacking: If you want the movers to pack the items from your old home into boxes and unpack them in your new one, you’ll pay more than the base rate. You may even need to hire a local packing and unpacking service.

• Tips:Professional movers expect to be tipped for their work and customer tips make up a significant portion of their income. Aim to tip each mover $4 to $10per hour or 10% to 20% of the total cost.

• Pet boarding or childcare: If you have pets or young children, you’ll likely need to budget additional time and money for the services required to keep them safe and occupied during the moving process. 

• Furniture assembly: Many large furniture items must be disassembled and then reassembled during a move. If you don’t plan on doing this yourself, you’ll need to hire a local furniture assembler. Expect to pay $120 to $180 per piece. 

• Cleaning: Depending on your lease or sale agreement, you may also need to hire professional house cleaners to guarantee your old home will be spic and span for its new inhabitants. 

6. Factor in Travel Expenses

If you’re moving a long distance or the move will stretch out over multiple days, you’ll likely pay additional costs for transportation and temporary lodging. Once you make reservations for your overnight stays, add the expense into your moving budget.

Don’t forget to consider other expenses that increase during the flurry of the move, including your food and gas budget. You’ll likely need to set funds aside for frequent gas stops and snack breaks, which can add up over the course of several travel days.

7. Create an Emergency Fund

Life is full of little surprises, especially during the complex process of moving. No matter how thoroughly you plan and budget, you will likely run into a series of unexpected expenses on your journey to your new home. Anything from a car malfunction to a moving truck delay can throw off your well-thought-out budget. If you’re in a financial position to do so, make your budget bulletproof by setting aside the funds that you can use in case of emergencies.