A Change Is Gonna Come

Recently, a very close friend died, and truthfully I don't really feel like writing this blog post, but I don't think he'd want me to sit around crying all day, so I'm going to do my best. It's a distraction, at least. Here we go. 

Once you have it in your mind that you're moving, you have to downsize quite a bit. We have a small house (4 rooms + 2 bathrooms and a hallway), so it's easy enough to sit down and say "okay, here's what we're NOT taking."

First, we went through an elimination process to figure out how we're getting our crap from point A to point B. I checked out and priced several popular possibilities: PODS (and similar), professional movers, U-Haul, and then also some dreamy, imaginary ideas that didn't pan out about packing our car top to bottom and hitching it to the back of our friend's car or packing it top to bottom and sticking it on Amtrak's Auto Train (which, it turns out, only travels along the east coast). For a while, we settled on the idea of a U-Haul, but waffled over whether we'd pull a U-Haul on the back of one of our cars, or pull our '98 Honda Accord on the back of a U-Haul, and assuming we went with the latter, which kind of car trailer would we need? There are two to choose from! At one point my wife finally asked why we didn’t just ship what we couldn’t fit in our car, and the clouds parted, the sun beamed down on my face, and I knew I had married a genius. 

Now for the shipping aspect. Obviously, there are plenty of options (we're staying in the country, so for international shipping options, you'll have to look elsewhere, I'm afraid), including -but not limited to- USPS, FedEx, UPS, Greyhound, and Amtrak. We're not taking any bulky furniture with us. If it can't be broken down flat, it's either getting sold, scrapped or dumped. The idea of shipping EVERYTHING via USPS is terrifying ($$$$$$$), though I won't rule it out for something like, say, our Audrey Hepburn painting. Amtrak, however, ships everything cheaply. They do have some guidelines you have to adhere to, which you can find on their website, but for the cost of specific box sizes and weights, you'll have to call their shipping number. Anyhow, when I called last year they told me I could ship about 500 pounds of stuff for $350. SO CHEAP! The catch is that you have to pick up your items at your destination on the day the train arrives (or have someone pick it up for you), or they'll charge you a daily fee. It's a small price to pay for such reasonable shipping costs. Greyhound is also cheap, but I'm not touching that one with a ten-foot pole since every Greyhound experience I've had has been shady and uncomfortable.

So, like I mentioned before, you can scrap, sell, and dump. Scrapping and dumping are self-explanatory, but selling is sort of unique since you can do it so many different ways. There are sites like Craigslist and eBay, and then you've got apps like LetGo and OfferUp. On top of that, there's the old-fashioned way: having a yard sale. If you don't have a lot of time in your schedule to execute the latter but want to cover all your bases, try the local flea market. Ours lets you set your yard sale up there. There's a small booth fee, but I think it's worth it. It's a popular location so you're guaranteed the foot traffic if nothing else. It's a risk, obviously, because you have to spend a little for the space, and you don't really know if anyone is going to buy your stuff. I'm going to give it a try soon, and when I do, you can be sure I'll write about it. 

Changes. This whole entry is about changes. You have to purge, sort, organize and then purge again. You have to make decisions and let go of things, both mentally and physically. You have to train yourself to stop buying big-ticket items for a while. Tell yourself the new couch/armoire/deep freezer or whatever can wait until you're moved into your new place. Okay. Who's ready? Get to sorting! You got this. 


P.S. I'm considering making a separate post with all the price information for the moving/shipping options listed in this entry. If that's something you're hoping to see, well, you might get your wish. 

It's All About The Benjamins

The main thing about moving anywhere, even just a couple streets over, is that you need $$$. That's money, kids, and depending on where you go, and how much stuff you have, you're going to need varying amounts of it. Every move is different, so for our move, here's an idea of some of the different cost factors:

1) Gasoline

2) Car repairs

3) AAA

4) Groceries

5) Motels/campgrounds

6) Pet food/pee pads/treats/cat litter

7) Postage (for shipping a bunch of our stuff!)

8) Vacuum seal storage bags (for packing as many of our clothes and linens as possible and laying them in the bottom of our trunk)

So, just so we're clear, this doesn't even include the cost of rental applications, not to mention the pet fees and security deposit/first & last month's rent that many places require in order to ensure a roof over your head. My wife is in contact with a realtor who's going to assist us with finding a place to live, but as a precautionary back-up, I'm also scouting cheapy extended stay motels, because hey, anything can happen. Before I get too far off base, do you see where I'm going with this? Moves are pricey. Therefore, it's important to save a healthy chunk of money. 

Obviously, you're going to want a savings account. We have one that detects whenever we swipe our debit cards and socks a little extra into savings. It's convenient and not scary at all because if you're swiping your card, you're already spending, so you're unlikely to notice your savings account rounding up your purchases to pad that moving fund. 

Our secondary savings is with Qapital. Once upon a time, we saved with Digit, but they recently decided to start charging a monthly fee to their members. Essentially, both Digit and Qapital operate around similar concepts. You link your checking account to the FDIC insured company of your choice and every time you swipe, you also save. Digit was easy to forget about since their actual app was crap and it was ultimately simpler to communicate with the program via text message using a series of pre-programmed commands. The problem with Digit is that there is no overdraft protection in place, so if your checking account balance gets too low, Digit will continue to save, which will put you in the red (if you're like me: Mrs. Set It And Forget It), and that's a place no one wants to be, but especially anyone saving for the big M.

Qapital, on the other hand, has a fail-safe. If it recognizes that your checking account will drop below $100, it automatically pauses saving until it can do so again without potentially leaving you in a clutch. Something else Qapital has that Digit doesn't is a bomb ass app. You can set various rules to help you save more or less and stick to your financial guns. Qapital also has a great support staff and sends periodic emails to help you plan and save in a way that works for you. 

I highly recommend getting a BP Rewards card. I picked mine up right at the gas pump. You can activate it from your phone and start using it the same day. You simply swipe your rewards card before paying. You can rack up ten cents off per gallon pretty damn quickly, which feels incredible given the price of fuel these days. 

There are lots of other, smaller ways to save and earn a dollar here, forty cents there. Penny Hoarder regularly publishes articles that I access via Facebook, and they are filled with apps and side job options to help just about anyone earn a bit extra. Every penny matters. That loose change can easily add up to an extra tank of gas!

That's all, folks. I'm sure I'll be back tomorrow with more greatness! 😀

Leaving Florida

In about five months, we'll be leaving our tropical abode for a similarly hot, though drier habitat, and it's totally exciting! Four reasons why:

1) I've never driven cross country
2) My daughter hasn't done any major traveling since she was two (she'll be nine when we leave)
3) I suffer from acute wanderlust
4) I've always wanted to go on a road trip

I think about this trip All. The. Time. All the time. There are a million things to factor in, plans to make, pennies to pinch, and possibilities to account for. I didn't start this blog with the intention of finding readers, though if that happens, awesome! My real motivation for creating this spot was so that my wife and our friend (who's moving with us) don't have to listen to me ramble on about my brainstorms 24/7. I don't want them getting annoyed with me before we even get going. 😝😝

Things to know (yes, another list):

1) We're traveling with animals. Two cats, a small dog, and maybe a couple of parakeets.
2) Between the three of us adults, we have two smallish cars.
3) We're broke.

Okay, that last one is somewhat of an exaggeration, but let's be real here: it's not easy saving bookoo bucks when there are bills to pay, mouths to feed, and all the life stuff that just keeps happening on a daily basis whether you want it to or not. As a result, we have to sort of get creative with our savings, so in addition to a savings account, we have a Qapital account (more about that later), and I have an ongoing list of things we can sell/scrap that we won't be taking with us. Having just that little bit of extra money will make a difference in the long run. My next goal is to get us back on food stamps (we qualify, it's just a matter of rounding up all the necessary paperwork) so that we can take the cash money we'd otherwise be spending on groceries and put it immediately into savings. 

These are the basics. I mean, really, really basic. 

Next time, I'll probably talk about Qapital and what it can do for you (and why it's a helluva lot better than Digit!!), and why it's so important to have in addition to your regular savings account.