Relocating on a budget isn’t easy. If you can stay put and save up your pennies you’re better off, but for those that need to move fast, other tactics may be worth considering. Here are a few ways to save money on your move.
Consider downsizing
Downsizing is the obvious way to save costs. You may need to part with a few possessions in the process as you’ll be moving to somewhere with less space, but this could be the valuable motivation to declutter that you’ve been looking for all this time. Some of these belongings you may be able to sell, making more money in the process. If you can’t bear to part with any of your possessions, you could consider temporarily moving some into storage. You will have to pay the rent of a storage container, but by downsizing you may be able to bide time to repair your finances, eventually upsize and subsequently get all your belongings back in your home.
Avoid the agents
More and more people are ditching estate agents and selling their home themselves. This does require a lot of extra effort – you will have to market your home which could involve paying for listings sites, signage and newspaper ads. Generally, it will work out less costly than hiring an agent – just be prepared to put in that extra time and graft. Feel free to buy homes through agents, but make sure they’re not charge a buying fee as some dodgy agencies seem to be adopting.
Learn to barter
Through a bit of haggling, you can lower the price of many moving costs. When buying a property through an agency or directly, you can often haggle the price down by a couple grand. You can also negotiate the price of a lawyer. Always ask about how much interest a property has got before getting too heavily engrossed in haggling, though – if a lot of other people are interested and you’re driving a hard bargain, they may give the property to the other viewers.
Hiring a van VS a removals company
Whether to handle the removals process yourself or hire professionals depends largely on how much stuff you’ve got to move and how far a distance you need to move it. Having to make multiple trips over a long distance in a van will use up a lot of fuel, in which case you’re better off using a mover who will have a lorry and be able to reduce prices. However, if you’re just moving around the block, you may as well rent a van and do it yourself.
Changing your address
The stress doesn’t stop once you’ve moved. Having unboxed everything, your next point of call needs to be to get the address changed on any bills, prescriptions and bank accounts, as well as changing your address on the electoral roll. Sites such as this one can help you run through a list so that you don’t miss anywhere. This will prevent fines as a result of unopened bills and damaged credit score that may occur if banks think you’re living at multiple addresses.