Moving leaves you with mixed emotions. It’s exciting, anxious, hard work and daunting all at once, and potentially one of the biggest stresses you’ll ever face. There are multiple reasons for this – including because it’s an extremely expensive affair. There’s no getting away from some of the costs, such as the cost of fuel that can be accounted from going from one location to another, as well as estate agent fees.
If you’re having to balance moving with work, you might well be wondering can you rent office space and live in it, even if just temporarily, but the answer is no. It might be tempting to try and save money, but there are ways for you to save money when you move house.
Here are just some of the ways you can preserve your budget when making a move.
1. Source Cardboard From Supermarkets
Generally speaking, apart from larger furniture items, almost everything in your house can be boxed up. You can buy moving boxes from wholesalers and other outlets, but you needn’t spend your money. There’s a good chance you already have boxes in your house somewhere, and relatives or friends might also have some they can give you, but if not, there are options for you to source them for free.
Supermarkets take countless deliveries every day, and this means they typically have huge stocks of carboard boxes. If you ask nicely, there’s a good chance they’ll be able to give you some boxes. If not, it’s worth posting on a local area message board to see if anyone has some boxes you can have.
2. Pack Items Yourself
Professional movers are a popular choice for people looking to move house, and for good reason. They come in, pack up all your items for you, load them into a van, drive the van to your new location, and unpack your items for you. This makes it much easier for you during the moving process, but the convenience comes at a cost.
If money is tight, try and take a couple of days off work to pack your items yourself. You can still hire movers to move the boxes in one go to your end destination, but you can save money by packing the items yourself, however tiresome and annoying that might be. You may find it helpful to create a checklist, to help you organize and account for all of your items when packing.
3. Suspend Parking Meters in Advance
Depending on the property you’re moving into, parking may not be readily available for free. This is usually the case with terraced houses and apartments, and it could make moving tricky. The last thing you want is to spend lots of money on parking meters, nor do you want to risk getting fined if there is a permit holder policy in place. You could get the movers to park down the street or round the corner, but this will drag out the moving time and – if you’re paying the removal company by the hour – end up costing you lots more.
Generally speaking, you can contact the local authority or parking management firm who enforce the parking rules outside your new place and ask them to suspend parking management for you whilst you move. You will likely need to give a few weeks’ notice in order to get permission, but the cost of one phone call is far cheaper than the cost of parking fines.
Summary
There are more than three ways to save money whilst moving, including getting friends and family to help and doing a deep clean of your old property yourself instead of hiring a professional company. That being said, these three nifty tips should help. Best of luck on your move!