Thursday, January 7, 2016

The cost of moving....part one

I totally understand why "they" say that moving/selling a house is in the top 5 most stressful life events.  The year that our house was on the market really tested my patience.  And once we had the offer, and the deal was underway....it just got worse.  I am so happy it is over.

But now....the aftermath.

Over the summer, we realized we were not going to be able to clear enough on the house to take care of mortgage and associated fees in regards to closing.  It was a hard pill to swallow.  The whole idea of the move was to give us a fresh start, and having to pay a chunk of cash just felt like we would be carrying all the baggage with us.  But we didn't have a big choice.  Waiting to get what we needed on the house, as we were watching the housing market start tanking around us....it wasn't prudent.  So we took out a personal loan in the amount of $22,000, which paid off the retirement loan we were still paying on and left a little over $12,000 to put toward the closing on the house. By paying off the retirement loan (and yes, I am really just changing it's name....it isn't "paid" off yet), our cash flow didn't chance since the monthly cost for the new loan was almost the same as it was for the retirement loan....but yes, we now reset the clock for the payoff.  At this point, we were solely focused on cash flow.

We had about $7,000 put aside in additional money for the move.  I had that money just sitting there for close to a year.  It was so hard not to just pay off the cars or a huge chunk of the credit card.  But I knew we were going to incur costs for the move....so it sat.

We thought $19,000 should cover everything to close us out of CT.  Nope.  It didn't.

Here are how the numbers played out:

Packing/Moving - $5,332.26

Packing materials - $63.78 (tape, a few larger boxes, specialty tv box)
Moving Company - $5,088.48 (included $350-ish for extra insurance, but our estimate from the movers of $3900 for the actual items was way off!!  We even had the truck re-weighed)
Tips for Movers - $180 ($100 in CT for 4 movers, and $80 in CT for 3)

Room/Boarding - $126.92
Hotel for one night - $72.68
Cat Boarding (x3 cats) for one night - $54.24 

Closing on House - $18,527.38
Mortgage payoff and associated closing fees - $18,462.38
Trash Removal - $65.00 (yeah...we found out that people just dumped their trash in front of our house since we were gone....)

Transportation - $314.77
Flight for G-man - $88.73
Rental Car for 3 days- $124.44 (there was no way were going to fit 4 people, 3 cats, and our "stuff" in my car"
Gas for 2 cars - $101.60

Miscellaneous - $50.27

Oil Change for Car - $20.27
New ID Tags for Cats - $30 (Can't find the exact amount...but they were roughly $9 each, plus tax)

I am sure there is other stuff that I am forgetting...we got to the point where the cost of stuff stopped really mattering.  It was stuff that we had to do, so we did it.   Add up all of that and you come to....

$24,351.60

That takes care of getting us out of CT.  I did not include food, as we were going to have to eat whether we moved or not. I know we spent more on food than we should have.  We didn't go to "nice" places, but at some point I just wanted food that wasn't fast food nasty.

The mortgage costs were done in "cash," as were a few things here or there.  We still have some cash left in the account, which will go toward paying the credit card that was used to fund the additional $6,000.  We also are in the process of receiving some refunds, which are also all going directly to pay down the credit card used to fund all of this....

Home Owners Insurance - $976.38
Escrow - not received yet, but will be about $1133
Oil - $323.27
Trash - $23.33 (refunded before we had to pay to remove the extra trash)
Cable - $17.23

Subtotal:   $2,473.21

We have to call CT and see if we are eligible for any refund on the car registration and our driver's licenses.  Taxes are separate issue, but we really shouldn't get a refund because our taxes are paid for the previous year.  We need to make sure that the 2016 taxes are only for the 2 months that our cars were considered CT (it runs 10/1 to 9/30).

Once we add in the cash we had left over (and in case you were curious, it was in the credit union account that does not have a debit card, so it was easier to just use the credit card while we were on the road, and then just make one transfer).....we will be at about $3,000 that will go back to the credit card.  Roughly half of what we used.

We will be having our taxes done in a few months (vs doing it ourselves), and whatever refund we get will be going back to the card as well.  We got over $2,000 last year, and we will have a move that we can deduct as well.  We are hoping that the taxes will cover the remainder of the bill...and we will just be left with the personal loan that we took out to fund the house.

I haven't even gotten to what it has cost us to set up our new life.....stay tuned!!


7 comments:

  1. I was just thinking about how you hadn't posted in awhile and figured you were busy still settling in. Wow! That really is quite a chunk of change for a move! It's eye opening to know that it costs THAT much and actually makes me rethink if I want to move out of Connecticut once my girls are through with high school here.
    Looking forward to hearing more about your settling in adventures!

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    1. Oh, it adds up!! Wait until you see how much it was to set up everything here.

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  2. As hard as it was financially, I have to believe that when the dust settles you will recoup it fairly quickly due to the lower cost of living. I think you've done great under the circumstances! I also think your story will help others see the "hidden" costs of moving - whether across town or across the country. I hope the kids are settling in and you are all enjoying being together.

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    1. We are going to have to see how the cost of living plays into things. For example...we aren't "saving" on rent/mortgage....because while our rent is less than our mortgage...we lost the tax write off so we will end up paying more in taxes.

      Kids are settling in, and yes, it is nice to be together again.

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    2. I'll bet your heating bills will be lower, at least!

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  3. Those moving companies are a racket. When my Dh moved his sister out of her small,one bedroom ranch house, the quote was low but boy once done,the cost was high. They broke stuff and were such a pain in the behind, don't know how these companies run. Cheryl

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  4. In MN we have a property tax refund for renters - so I get a small refund back in August each year. Does your new state have anything like that?

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