Family Living, and Moving

So that new baby is on the way, and you’re house with two bedrooms doesn’t seem to have enough room for five people.   It’s either time to move or time to build an addition.   As attractive as building an addition may be, it’s probably going to be far less strain on your marriage to go ahead and find your family a bigger home.   This is only one of many events that can lead people to relocate from one home to another, and it doesn’t necessarily matter why you have to, only that it has to be done, and that you want to do it as cheaply as possible.

The hard work is actually finding something that is in an area you want to live, affordable, and has the space that you’re going to need.   This is a good time to look at your future plans, and be sure that you aren’t going to outgrow the new house in the next few years.    Even if there are no plans for more children in that future, it’s probably still a good idea to get something with an extra bedroom or a den that could later be converted into a bedroom if needed.   That extra space will eventually come in handy.

Once that’s done, you’ll want to start planning the actual move, and you’ll probably want to do that by figuring out how much moving will actually cost you.   There will be many decisions involved in this.   One of the biggest is whether you want to do it yourself, or hire a professional moving company.   There are several websites you can go to and get help to find budget moving companies.   One I recommend is MovingQuotes.net.   You can go there, and get a very good idea as to what hiring someone is going to cost you.   You can then compare that information to what it will cost both financially and in added stress to rent a moving truck if you decide to go the do it yourself route.  

Some of the hidden costs to consider when moving yourself are the cost of fuel, number of trips back and forth you’ll have to make, and how much is your time worth?    Do you have friends and family that will show up on both sides of the move and help you load and unload, or are you going to be stuck lugging your mattress and dresser upstairs by yourself?  While it may appear cheaper to do it yourself, looking at these hidden costs might make you decide that hiring someone to do the hard work might actually end up better for your back and your wallet in the long run.