How are you going to afford moving?

[meep95]

So I have a fully funding assistantship, so once I am there I should be okay.  Im struggling with how to afford actually moving several states away and paying rent for the first bit before the assistantship stipend comes through.  I did have a good amount of savings, but I had to stop working this year because I had an unpaid internship that took up all my time (it was worth it because it made me stand out as an applicant), and then didn't want to start work again until I was done with all my interviews.  I had to spend a good chunk on interviews as well.  I am in the process of trying to find a job, but either way its going to be really tight. How have you all afforded to move, or how are you planning to? 

[cabraloca]

I am honestly wondering the same thing, and I am moving from out of the country. So according to my calculations I need around 5k to move to the US to start grad school. That's including airfare, two months rent + security deposit (move-in date is August 15th but the first check comes in October), two months food, supplies, books, and a new laptop. I was thinking of making a GoFundMe if I can't raise half of it by May.

[rheya19]

The cost of moving itself depends upon a lot of different things. Do you have a lot of stuff? Like a full apartment, furniture, etc? Is the distance to your new school driveable? Could you rent a UHaul and drive yourself there? 

[Cra2y_G1raffe]

I plan to drive myself.... I also have a cat.... really can't leave her behind...

[yahm]

I don't know what your plans are, but if you have a lot of stuff to move, my boyfriend and I are considering a U-box. For like $1500 someone will pickup all your stuff, drive it across country, and then deliver it to your new pad. ($1500 for a one-bedroom apartment.) Since we want to take the opportunity to drive across country and see some cities along the way (we're moving from LA to Alabama), we thought it'd be easier than lugging a huge trailer. 

I will say, though, as someone who has moved across the world twice: only take the stuff you really need. You'd be surprised what you can live without and what things will be irrelevant in a new environment. 

@Cra2y_G1raffe: We're moving with a red-tail boa snake. I feel you on the pet hassle

[Nichi]

I plan on putting some stuff in my backpack and a carry-on. Laptop, some clothes, my important papers. If you're more established and want to keep more of your stuff, this wouldn't be ideal. I find the idea of a near reset on things to be a little refreshing. It was nice the first time I did it.

[qt_dnvr]

I moved across country once by Amtrak freight + flying. It's extremely affordable and sends your stuff from Amtrak station to Amtrak station (you have to be there to pick it up or they'll charge you storage). I'll likely do it again w this move and drive furniture out w our parents' cars, fragile stuff in my compact. 

[TakeruK]

Check if your school has a loan program that helps you out. My school offers all new students a $2500 zero-interest, zero-fee loan. They pay it to you in September and then you have 6 months of grace period. After that, you pay off the $2500 in 18 equal monthly payments of $138.89. 

This is especially helpful to us because most people will move in early September for my school but the first paycheck isn't until the end of October. So we're often out the moving costs, the first 2 months of rent, the security deposit and other costs associated with setting up a new place to live.

I would also suggest getting a good credit card now, one that allows you to choose your billing cycle date each month (they do this by giving you an extra bill in the month you choose to first make the change, so you should do this sooner rather than later). Choose the day that the statement closes wisely. For example, if you plan to incur a ton of expenses related to moving on September 10 (for example), choose a date so that your statement closes on the 8th or the 9th. Then, all of your big Sept 10 expenses will appear on your October 10th statement, and you usually have 3 weeks to pay your credit card bill, so that won't be due until late October. This gives you some time to get your first paycheck from the school etc.

[kurfew007]

I'm going to fund my moving with three things: my savings, my significant other's savings, and the money we make from selling our furniture. Having said that it will be more than enough. I haven't made my final decision yet, but the school I'll likely be attending is only a four hour drive from where we currently live. It won't cost that much to move what belongings we do take as we'll be able to move them ourselves. 

We did some figuring, got cost estimates from a few of movers, and looked at furnished units and how much more it would cost. We're not likely to be living in the city we move to for the next 20 years so we don't necessarily need to own a bunch of furniture. Yes, furnished units cost more, but the apartments we're looking at run around $50-75 extra for a furnished unit over a non-furnished unit. That's $3000-4500 over five years. We got five moving estimates and all of them were over $3000 with us packing everything. Just seems worth the extra money to us, and we'll have plenty of money to cover deposits, etc. 

[cowgirlsdontcry]

I'm moving from Louisiana to Alabama and have a houseful of furniture. Going to get rid of everything except one-bedroom, living room and office stuff, which is just folding tables. I have arthritis in my lower back so I will be using movers. Expect it to cost approximately $3,000-$5,000. From the way leasing looks in the apartments I have viewed online, I may also have to put up costs in the neighborhood of $5,000. As a result, I could be sleeping in the apartment on a blowup mattress until student loans are disbursed because I have saved approximately $8,000, although I could be pleasantly surprised about move-in costs for the apartment.

[rising_star]

@meep95, I got a new credit card with 0% interest for 18 months and used that to pay for my moving expenses. It's similar to what @TakeruK was describing except that it was from a national bank (think Chase, Capital One, Bank of America, etc.), rather than my graduate institution. It worked well for me because I knew I'd be able to pay it off in that time frame with the income I'd be arning. 

@cowgirlsdontcry, a series of questions for you because that seems like A LOT for a move from one state to another (I spent less than that on a cross-country move). Have you considered hiring college students, rather than professional movers to load your belongings? Have you considered using U-Box, ABF, PODS, etc., and having them move your belongings? I did a 2000+ mile move where I hired college students on each end to load/unload an ABF trailer and the total cost was around $1800. 

As for rent + security deposit, you all may be able to find rental companies or landlords which don't require two months rent plus deposit up front. Most of the places I lived in during grad school required security deposit and first month's rent, but didn't make you pay the last month's rent in advance. I also at one point lived in an apartment where the management company was doing a promotion where they waived the application fee and security deposit, instead charging a flat $75 cleaning fee when you moved in. For my current place, the landlord let me move in without paying the security deposit in advance, knowing that I was in a tight situation financially. Keep an eye out for opportunities like this to lower your moving expenses.

[cowgirlsdontcry]

When I moved from Denver to Louisiana, I used one of the U-Pack companies. The men they provided to load the ABF trailer were awful (had insufficient tools and were inexperienced-dropped armoire and broke leg). It cost me almost $5,000, as I had to also pay those bad loaders. That was in 2010. I won't be moving as much furniture, so the cost may be less in that way, although with increase in costs generally over the last seven years, it could still be a lot. My divorce was also nasty and my ex legally left me with many thousands in credit card debt, which I defaulted on because I was a student and simply could not pay, so I have had some concerns about what may be required up front. I spoke with a management company this morning and it seems likely that because the defaults were six years ago I may have no problem as they don't pull a credit score and only look at the last two years of credit, and as a result, I won't have to pay more than the deposit, pet deposits and first month's rent, plus whatever admin fees they charge.

[TakeruK]

Moving furniture is super expensive. Next month is my third long move (first: western Canada to eastern Canada; then eastern Canada to western US; now western US to western Canada). At each stage, the difference between minimal moving of just boxes of stuff vs. furniture was $3000-$4000 and we decided that we would rather spend $1000 on new IKEA things than $3000 to move old IKEA things. I guess people with actual nice furniture might not want to throw out their stuff in this way but since we knew we would be moving in a few years, we did not buy any expensive furniture. 

The U-Haul U-Box for the Canada-US move was about $2000. Next month I'm using the ABF U-Pack cubes for $1000. I am hiring my own movers though from a company that my friends here have had good experience with. A full-service moving company would have been $4000 for this upcoming move and that wouldn't even include all of the furniture. 

[cowgirlsdontcry]

I have nice things, including a top of the line Maytag front loader W/D. I could not begin to replace even the smaller amount I'm taking with the costs saved by not moving anything. I'm having separation anxiety about getting rid of so much in the first place and need to have some familiar things around as I start a new life, because everything else will be totally different. 

[rising_star]

@cowgirlsdontcry, I've used ABF a few times but have always hired my own movers on each end because it's less expensive. Plus, with 2-3 college students, you can more easily supervise what they're doing (AKA, make sure they don't break anything). IDK. Moving a multi-bedroom house cross-country cost me less than what you're estimating to move one state over... If I were you, I'd call or go online and do an estimate so that you can get a better sense of what the actual expense will be, rather than just guessing based on your past experiences. (For reference, I just priced moving a 2 bedroom apt/house from Baton Rouge to Tuscaloosa and the quote was $1783 from ABF U-Pack...)

[cowgirlsdontcry]

I just looked at ABF and I'm not sure this will work. I live in a teeny little town in the middle of nowhere. I drive 45 minutes one-way to get to school. ABF couldn't even give me a choice of someone to load the trailer (just an unload) and an estimate of 1 hour to unload with just two men, which I don't believe for an instant. It was either ABF or someone like them that I used the last time and they way under-estimated both the amount of space I needed and the time to load/unload. It's going to take someone who knows what they're doing. The armoire weighs about 250 lbs and is 6' tall. It's not the moving itself that worries me, it's the lack of experience in the people loading/unloading. I have to think about this some more later as I'm prepping for my thesis defense on Wednesday.

[flying_sloths]

Just as a heads-up, your moving expenses (including storage costs) may be tax deductible in the US. It's possible that RAs/TAs don't fit the "working full time" requirement, but it could be worth checking out if your moving expenses get close to the standard deduction. More here, from the IRS.

[qt_dnvr]

Just wanted to update the Amtrak recommendation with some actual pricing. Amtrak for me (Denver to Chicago) is 65$ for the first 100 lbs and 60 cents per pound thereafter. I'm thinking combined with media mail for all my books and my partners absurd DVD collection (About 50c a pound regardless of location) and selling my furniture I should be in pretty good shape. Just gotta start collecting moving boxes here shortly...

Also if you're doing any kind of work study you should be eligible for food assistance. The maximum benefit is less than 200$ a month but it could still really help a grad students budget. 

[MinaminoTeku]

Packing my stuff, renting a truck, and driving to my state. Road trip! I have some savings to use for furnishings (if need be) and first few month's rent until the money kicks in. Hiring cheap labor (aka my friends) to help me move my stuff.

[Levon3]

On 4/18/2017 at 0:02 PM, qt_dnvr said:

 Just gotta start collecting moving boxes here shortly...

Pro tip on moving boxes: liquor stores have boxes that are the perfect size for me to carry, and are sturdy enough to hold many pounds of liquor, so they're great for moving. I always go ask what days they do inventory, and then go in the next day and ask for boxes. They're often happy to get rid of them for free. 

[qt_dnvr]

8 hours ago, Levon3 said:

Pro tip on moving boxes: liquor stores have boxes that are the perfect size for me to carry, and are sturdy enough to hold many pounds of liquor, so they're great for moving. I always go ask what days they do inventory, and then go in the next day and ask for boxes. They're often happy to get rid of them for free. 

In this case I'm actually mailing or shipping 90% of the bulk of my move- so I'm hoping for fully-sealing boxes and will be hitting up Craigslist, Nextdoor and Freecycle shortly.

[rising_star]

@cowgirlsdontcry, obviously, as with all advice, YMMV. I was just throwing it out there as an option. I've never hired the movers ABF offers through their website but have instead hired my own via Craig's List. A number of companies offer a similar service, such as U-Haul U-Box, which again means someone else handles the driving. I have lived in an incredibly rural area and was able to use either one of those companies for the move, though I ultimately went with ABF.

[Lycaon pictus]

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