When you are planning such a major task like relocation, the first thing you need to establish is your budget. Taking time to create a moving budget is crucial. Not preparing financially for the move can cause big expenses that you can’t handle. Small and cheap tasks can easily turn into the huge costs. Also, the insignificant cost will quickly add up to the very big amount. That’s why is important to set your budget before you do anything else.

Create your budget plan for the move

Since relocation is a difficult job, creating the perfect moving strategy can help you a lot with this process.
Your first step – making the moving budget plan.

You can easily make your budget template by using the Microsoft Word or Excel programs. The Excel sheet is the best choice since it has formulas that are allowing you to easily calculate your expenses.

If you are old school and prefer the paper that computers, all you need is a notebook, a pen, and a calculator. For the more visual appeal, you can purchase a bookkeeper’s record book. With simple adjustments to the column titles or entry boxes, it will provide you with the basic outline of expense tracking that you’ll need.

It’s a good recommendation to make a title of the moving task and the costs that are following it.

Moving company expenses

If you are hiring moving company for your relocation, these expenses will be the major base on your moving budget.
In order to calculate your budget, you’ll need to include the following amounts:

• Moving company fee
• Extra services – Moving a pool table o relocating piano, may cause the additional costs, so be sure that movers have point that out before signing the contract.
• Extra charges – Ask your movers is there some extra charges that are not calculated in their fee.
• Additional insurance – If you have very valuable items it will be wise to purchase additional insurance for them.
• Costs of additional services – If you are purchasing the packing/unpacking or storage services from the company they will cost extra.

You can get approximate quotas from the movers online, like on the movingkingsnc.com. Still, this is just so you can see what are the average moving costs that you can expect.
The best way is to call three different moving companies and ask them to do an in-house estimation. When the representatives do an inspection of your home and your belongings, they will give you the estimated fees for the company. Compare them, choose the one that best suits your needs, and then add that amount to your moving budget plan.

Have in mind that every type of move has different costs. The costs of a local move will be significantly lower than the cost of international relocation.

If you are moving on yourself

In some cases, hiring the movers is the absolute necessity. Like with moving abroad and especially if you need to relocate your office elsewhere. When it comes to local moving, it safe to say that you can probably do it yourself. Keep in mind that it will be stressful and time-consuming, but it is doable.
Here are the costs that you have to calculate with DIY relocation:

• Renting a truck – If you don’t have a truck, you will need to rent one in order to transport your belongings. Rates for renting a truck will depend on the size of the truck, and how many mileage you need to pass.
• Gas money – Don’t forget to add the costs of the gas for the rental truck. Ask agency that you are renting a vehicle from how many miles for one gallon the van or a truck can go without refilling. Then calculate the approximately how much money you will need according to the milage that you need to pass.
• Moving equipment – When you are moving on your own, you will need stuff like a dolly, a loading ramp, mattress and furniture covers, various packing supplies etc. If you don’t have them, you will need to rent them and add those expenses to your moving budget.
• Emergency money – When you are transporting your belongings on your own in the rental truck, it’s always the best to have extra money. Just in case of an emergency or accident.

Travel arrangments to your new home

Whether you have hired the movers or you are transporting your belongings yourself, you need to add the travel expenses into your moving budget.

When you are on the road, you need to calculate the gas money, the tolls, the lodging expenses if your trip is too long, and the meals.

If you are traveling by plane, bus or a train you will need to add to your moving budget the price of the tickets for you and/or family members, and some extra money for the food in case of delay.

Packing costs

When you are purchasing the packing services of the movers, that can save you a lot of money on buying packing supplies. In this case, the packing supplies are the responsibility of the professional packers and are part of their fee.
When you are packing on your own you will need to purchase or rent these packing supplies:

• Bowes of all shapes and sizes
• A lot of duck tape
• Labels and markers for the labeling
• Padding, moving blankets, all kind of wrappers, mattress covers, packing materials
• Packing paper and/or old newspaper
• Dolly and other moving equipment

Storage fees

When you are moving, you may encounter some problems during the relocation day and find yourself in the need of the storage unit. Long term or short term, depending on the situation. This will add some unexpected costs to your budget. Get ahead of it, and add the storage fees, even if you are sure that you won’t be needing it.

Storage costs include:

• The cost of renting the storage unit
• Transportation of your belongings to the storage unit
• Additional storage costs – security deposit, the price of a heavy duty lock, upgrading to the climate controlled storage unit etc.

Calculating the total costs and adding it to your budget

Once you know what are all of the total costs of your relocation, it’s time to add them together and make your moving budget accordingly.

When you get the amount of the total costs, multiply it by the 5%. This is necessary in order to have an extra budget in case of some relocation problem.

By adding this 5 % to the subtotal, you will get your total moving cost.