What's the cheapest way to move 1,600 miles?

[jmjj215]

Hey guys. In a little less than two months I'll be moving the fam (My wife, 2 year old, one-month old, and myself) down to Texas. Any tips on moving as cheaply as possible? We're living in a 650 sq. ft. apartment right now and are looking forward to an upgrade to about 900 sq. ft. But from what I've seen, it's going to cost us upwards of $1,500 after totaling the truck, gas for the truck, gas for the car, hotel and food for the entire trip.

Any tips?

[lovingyoualways]

check and see what pods costs to move to a diff state. We just used them to move our stuff so we didn't have to rent a truck and all that nonsense. But we also moved in state worth the call at least IMO

[debtdude]

1. trailer the car.
2. don't sleep. I wouldn't care to leave all my stuff in a hotel parking lot.

[Fern]

Sounds like quite an adventure coming up. Good luck!

[jmjj215]

We're looking at doing the pods and splitting it with another family that's moving down to Dallas as well. That should shave off quite a bit of cost..

[lovingyoualways]

they're a great company. They were really friendly and considerate. When they dropped it off at my parents house they made sure it was exactly where my parents wanted it before they left.

[CRFSaver]

If you are thinking of splitting pods with another family you might consider hiring a moving service for about the same price. I moved 3,000 miles (Virginia to California) and the moving company cost me 2,100 dollars, the minimum charge. Add to that less stress of driving a large truck, packing and moving into an apartment. And I had a little less then the equivalent of a 650 sq foot apartment.

[jmjj215]

CRF, do you mean splitting the moving company with the family?

I'm thinking of maybe renting a truck, loading it up, unloading at the airport terminal (the pods are cheaper that way), driving to TX, renting another truck, loading the truck from the pods at DFW, then unloading at the apartment.

I need a nap after just typing that. Our apt is also about 650 sq. ft.

[CRFSaver]

yes that was what I meant. Not sure if its feasible or not but sometimes I have discovered having a professional company do it can be cheaper then yourself. If you do just research the moving company. Call the national office and ask which one in your area has the best rating and then check the BBB. (yes BBB actually is still a good resource for movers since each of the moving companies is a franchise)

[jmjj215]

Well, because of a lot of qualitative factors as well as just the money, we've decided not to split it with the other family. It mainly has to do with when I'm taking some sections of the CPA exam. I think we're going to do the pod thing for $1,800 and hang out w/ my parents halfway between here and TX for a few weeks while I finish up the CPA exam. We'll just pay a bit of "storage" on the pods. As we analyze this more and more, the money is counting for less and less..

[Elgin526]

Hey, this is my first post!

Anyway, my brother just moved from IL to AZ and he just tossed/donated all his furniture and just packed up his personal belongings, rented a U-Haul trailer, and towed what little stuff he had behind his SUV. His furnature was all junk and wasn't worth the cost of moving it. He's replacing it with thrift store and second hand finds.

Depending on the quality of your belongings, you may want to consider doing this. If you don't have a car/truck that can handle a trailer, you may want to see what shiping your stuff UPS may be. Don't laugh, I've heard of people shiping anything that will fit in a box and it turns out less than renting a truck from Budget or U-Haul. When factoring renting a truck, don't forget to add in gas (they get horible gas mileage) food, and lodging you'll need for the trip!

[jmjj215]

Okay, now we've decided we are going to split with the other family. It's going to work out great. We'll rent a big truck, load it up with our stuff going in last, then the other family is going to tow their car with the uhaul, drive it down to TX, and put our stuff in storage. We're heading to visit my parents for two weeks where I can wrap up the CPA exam (crossing fingers there) then we'll head to TX, find a place to live, and grab our stuff from storage.

The guy we're splitting with basically said, "Jesse, let me be your pod." I thought that was pretty funny. We're splitting it 50/50 (including the trailer to pull their car) so that it compensates him somewhat for having to stick our stuff in storage when they get to Texas. This is, by far, the cheapest strategy I can think of and it probably won't cost us more than a grand (not including our own gas to get to TX).

Of course, if gas hits $4.00 a gallon, I'm sure you'll hear from me.