How to Set a Moving Budget: Moving Budget Checklist

True fact: the happy ending of your relocation journey is entirely up to you. If you somehow manage to take care of the two most important aspects during a move, then your relocation success will be largely guaranteed. We say aspects but you should know that they feel more like challenges than anything else.

Moving challenge number one: organize your time.

Moving challenge number two: manage your finances.

And while you can’t possibly underestimate the importance of money as the fuel for your upcoming house move (because that’s exactly what is is), you may happen to underestimate the significance of fuel management in general.

Find out why managing your finances during a move is so crucial and learn how to make a moving budget in order to turn your money into your ally, not your foe.

Benefits of making a moving budget

It’s important to understand early in your preparations that planning a moving budget will only bring clear benefits for you and your family. In fact, there isn’t a single disadvantage of making a moving budget planner, except maybe the time you will need to devote to its creation. However, if you know exactly what things to budget for when moving out (and you will, if you continue reading), then it shouldn’t take you too long to organize and distribute your finances in a logical and sensible way.

Before we move on to explain how to set a moving budget and what to budget for when moving out, here are the major reasons why having a good budget plan for moving out is not only a great idea but an essential prerequisite for a problem-free relocation as well.

• You will have relatively accurate estimation of how much money you will need in order to bring your relocation adventure to a successful end.

• Your moving out of home budget will inform you whether you have saved enough money to cover the inevitable moving expenses in the first place. And if it turns out that you haven’t, then you need to weigh in your available options such as finding an alternative source of funding or postponing the relocation for a later more favourable stage, if at all possible.

• Your effective moving budget checklist will alert you if any of the pre-move tasks becomes too greedy and eats up more money than you allocated to its completion. Be mindful that the constant monitoring of your expenditure will give you a good chance to respond to and deal with a possible over-the-budget situation. Ultimately, your goal should be to complete the project of moving to another home with the money you have at your disposal without going into any kind of debt.

• Once your move is over and the cardboard dust settles in your new home, you will end up having something very valuable – the knowledge of how to make a moving budget and the possession of the actual moving budget checklist. Luckily, you can always refer to both of them in the future should the need to move house again knock on your door again. Also, you can share your budget making knowledge with good friends or even the world so that other people can benefit it as well.

How to make a moving budget

It’s fair to say in the very beginning of your preparations that setting up a budget for moving out is not overly complicated provided that you have preliminary data that you can work with. But before we take a look at what should be included in a moving budget planner, let’s discuss briefly the two ways of approaching the entire budgeting project.

Using a pen, a calculator and a notepad to set up a relocation budget may seem somewhat old-fashioned but the simplified budgeting method works like a charm. After all, the data you’re about to process mean much more than how exactly you intend to plan your finances.

However, if you’re looking for a much faster and much more convenient way to create a budget when moving out, then it’s best if you take advantage of the staggering leap of technology and use an adequate software program to get the job done. Spreadsheet applications such MS Excel will definitely speed up the creation of your moving budget checklist, but any word-processing software should do just fine. To make things even easier, you can find free moving budget templates on the Internet as well.

How to budget your money when moving out

Your moving budget checklist should definitely begin with your major expense when moving house – the removal company expenses. The costs of using the quality services of professionals are dependent on a number of essential factors.

Initial price estimate

It’s very important that you know approximately how much you will have to pay for using the services of a professional removal company. Trust us, the last thing you would want is to take a look at the relocation bill and see a final price that is much more than what you expected to pay. Frankly, you don’t need the moving stress of not knowing even remotely what the end price range will be, so do something about it.

Your best option to start your moving budget on the right foot is to request a free moving quote from a few future relocation partners and then compare the received offers after on-site price estimations inside your own home. As long as you have chosen reputable removal companies, then the latter should be willing to send down a knowledgeable moving expert to your house or apartment to inspect the entire situation in person. After the in-house inspection, ask the company representative to furnish you with a binding price estimate which should include all principal and additional moving services, and their corresponding charges.

While creating your moving budget, you must be aware of the fact that the final relocation price will be in direct proportion to the overall weight of all the household items you intend to take with you to your new home. Due to the fact that the actual distance between your two homes remains unchanged, the number of your belongings, and consequently their total weight, is one effective way to bring down the final moving cost. Learn the best way to inventory your home, optimize all your household possessions, and thus move only the ones you really want and do need on a regular basis.

Additional expenses

• Additional services. It goes without saying that your personal house moving budget should include all the extra services requested by you or needed to complete the moving job as planned. Pre-move packing and post relocation unpacking are the most common additional services of a residential move, but you can also negotiate a number of other services with your professional removal company – disassembly and re-assembly of large furniture pieces, temporary storage, delayed delivery, and so on.

• Additional insurance. Speak with your removal company about purchasing extra insurance if you wish to move items of extraordinary value and you’re afraid, as you normally should be, that something bad might happen to them during the transportation. As a rule of thumb, you can easily get additional insurance either through your removals or directly from a third-party insurance company.

• Extra fees. The moment you receive multiple moving estimates to review and compare carefully, speak with your future partners about what extra fees are likely unless they are diligently noted in the estimates. As you can probably figure out by yourself, there are various charges you may end up paying depending on your specific set of circumstances. For example, expect to be charged extra by your hired labourers if there are too many steps to be overcome (flight charge), too much distance from the moving van to the entrance of your home (long carry charge), too many bulky and heavy items to handle, and so on. Make sure you discuss these additional charges with the selected removals before making up your mind.

Self-move expenses

If you’re about to set up a budget for moving out on your own, then your approximate relocation budget calculations will probably get a bit more complicated. This is usually so because of the sudden increase of the unpredictable costs of self-moves.

• Moving vehicle. If you have decided that you can manage your residential move on your own /most often in the case of short distance local relocation/, then you can’t take advantage of the moving van your removals will show up with. Therefore, your moving budget checklist should include the costs of renting a suitable vehicle and all related expenses such as fuel, possible insurance, etc.

• Packing supplies. Of the things to budget for when moving out, don’t forget to include the costs of packing materials which can be included in the price quote received from a professional removal company. Although you can use proven tactical moves to lower the costs of packing supplies /finding free moving boxes or using alternative packing materials found in your home), cardboard boxes, packing paper and bubble wrap alone can easily exceed their allocated budgetary limits.

• Moving equipment. It’s possible that you won’t immediately think of including the costs of renting or purchasing the required pieces of moving equipment into your house moving budget. A utility dolly, moving blankets and furniture pads will make your self-move so much easier, so make sure you factor them in into your preliminary calculations.

• Hidden costs. If you feel nervous, unsure or inexperienced to plan, organize and execute the entire residential move by yourself, then your best course of action is to hire experienced professional movers. Lost time aside (although time really is money), the risks of costly personal injuries and pricey property damage increase dramatically, and therefore final price could be staggering.

Post relocation expenses

Your preliminary moving budget checklist should not end immediately after the moving day is done and over with due to the number of post relocation expenses that will be waiting for you. So, set aside more money for at least:

• House related costs. If you’re renting your new home, plan to pay your rent, a possible security deposit with your landlord or even deposits with the utility companies. If you’re an owner, mortgage payments or immediate utility expenses will most likely be your first concerns. Your new property may be needing repair works too, so don’t forget to include such post move costs into your house moving budget as well.

• Home décor expenses. Depending on what exactly you are taking with you in terms of furniture and appliances, be ready to budget for essential furnishings that you can’t function without for too long. Don’t forget about the importance of major kitchen appliances and plan to purchase the equipment you need if you’ve decided to or have been forced to leave some of our trusted kitchen servants behind.

• Car-related expenses. Your motor vehicle will inevitably incur post move costs as well, including the necessity to update all required paperwork such as car registration, car insurance, etc.

Unexpected expenses

By now you should have a good idea of how to make a budget for moving out. The removal company expenses, the extra costs of additional moving services, self-move expenses, and immediate post relocation expenses should all be valid entries in your moving budget planner.

However, the golden rule of budgeting when moving to another home is to prepare for eventual unexpected expenses by allocating a reserve contingency fund. The bitter truth is that you never know what might happen during a move so it’s never a bad idea to set up a more generous moving budget than what the preliminary numbers are telling you.

Speaking of numbers, it’s possible that the bottom line of your house moving budget doesn’t look too promising for the smooth relocation you were hoping for. If that actually happens, don’t despair as there are proven ways to bring down your relocation cost even further. Review our fool-proof 7 cheap ways to move across the country for some inspiring money-saving ideas.