Moving States: What does it really cost?
Our “What does it really cost” series sheds light on how much different women across the country spend on the big life events: having a baby, taking a sabbatical year, moving, getting a master’s degree, buying a house, etc. This week’s feature is highlighting one woman’s cost to move to Austin from Boston.
Location: Boston to Austin
Age: 35
What were your total costs to move to Austin?
The moving company we used was “all-inclusive” which included the truck, movers, 2 months of storage, and distance. We found free boxes to pack our things, which helped! Buy-nothing groups are great.
Final Costs: About $5,396
Was this more or less than you were expecting?
More, moving is so expensive!
Were there other options that you considered? What are the pros and cons of this compared to other options?
We opted for the full-cost movers who would move our furniture and boxes out of our apartment and ship it to to our new place in Austin. We were also opting to spend two months in Boulder, CO as we moved from Cambridge, MA to Austin.
We looked at PODS or renting a U-Haul. PODS were actually MORE expensive since our apartment in Cambridge had a small parking lot, and would require a very narrow loading and pick up window. On the flip side, while renting a U-Haul would have been much cheaper, it would have made it challenging for us to visit family and friends on our drive west, and we would have had to park it somewhere for two months in Colorado.
As a result, we opted for a full-service company. I had used this company for a cross-country move before (ironically, this move was from Boston to Houston) so I trusted the company. Included with the base price was two months of storage. This meant we could schedule delivery in Austin at the end of our summer road trip and fall in Colorado. It was perfect since it kept us from having to move our stuff twice.
We also considered paying them to pack our boxes for us. If we had had corporate relocation money, we might have opted for this choice, but since we were paying out of pocket, we chose to pack ourselves. We also were able to get rid of a lot of stuff which reduced our moving costs.
While there were definitely cheaper ways to move, it was nice to pay more for convenience and lean into being financially secure in our mid-30s.
What do you wish you would have known?
I wish I had tried to sell more furniture early on. I didn’t list some items on Craigslist and Facebook marketplace until 48 hours before our move which meant I had to take the first offers.
In addition, I wish I had purged more. We paid about $60 / box to move. There were some things that we opened up in Austin, and I KNEW we didn’t need. We probably could have saved money by being more ruthless about what we moved.
Also, don’t forget to budget for tips for the movers. We tipped ~$120 to each mover in Cambridge and $80 per mover in Austin. In Cambridge, they had to take our stuff down 4 flights of stairs with no air conditioning in August.
In conclusion, this woman’s total cost to move to Austin was about $5,400.
We hope this gives you insights into how someone else navigated the costs of moving to a different state. Do these costs surprise you?
This post was created as part of the “What does it really cost series?” Her Personal Finance’s mission is to help high-earning women take charge of their finances. As an MBA, our founder has a particular passion for supporting this community. Here is a link to a Q&A with Harvard Business School students about finances in school. You can also learn more about our founder and our classes on our website.
Did you enjoy this post and want to contribute your own story? Send us an email to eryn@herpersonalfinance.com.
