4 Things You Need to Budget For When Moving Out of State

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If you’re moving out of state, whether for a job transfer or to participate in the mass exodus of your State (A-hem, Illinois), you’ll need to price your move and create a budget.

I have been MIA for the past few weeks because we finally moved to beautiful, sunny Florida!

This has been a dream of mine for the past several years, and we were finally able to make it a reality!

But the relocation didn’t come without a few hiccups. We had some expenses pop up that we weren’t quite prepared for.

Unexpected Costs When Moving Out of State

1. Moving Truck Expenses

If you’re hiring a moving company to pack up all of your belongings and transport it for you, this won’t be a problem.

We decluttered and sold items, including my huge, custom farmhouse table, a massive queen headboard, washer, and dryer.

I have moved across the country a few different times, so I knew that no matter how tight you think you can pack a U-Haul, you probably have too much stuff.

I donated so many clothes to Goodwill, got rid of everything that didn’t spark joy, and even dried out my cans of paint so they could be disposed of properly.

I love refinishing furniture in my spare time, but the paint takes up so much space!

Since my husband was to start his job a couple of months before school dismissed, I would stay behind with the kids and we planned to move basically one bedroom of our 4 bedroom home.

We rented a small U-Haul trailer, which cost $265 + the cost of gas to make the 800-mile trip.

We were able to find him a small, one-bedroom apartment with a 3-month lease so that he didn’t have to stay in Extended Stay for 2-3 months.

Since we opted to transport our belongings ourselves, we planned to rent a 26′ U-Haul truck (the largest size they offer), and because I had done such a fabulous job decluttering, we’d be fine. I was wrong.

The 26-footer cost $1500 + gas, and to our surprise, we weren’t able to fit everything on the truck.

So we have to go back one more time to load up a trailer to empty our Illinois home.

This will cost another $265, but we had planned on my husband flying one-way through Allegiant for about $35 and renting a small 10′ truck.

To our dismay, that 10′ truck costs $1100, so it was a no-go. He’ll have to make the 1600-mile round-trip trek once more.

If you think you’ve decluttered, donate and sell over and over until you’re truly only keeping items you need and/or love.

Ask yourself this question:

Are these items I’m holding onto worth having to come back for a second or third time? If the answer is no, get rid of them!

I’ve written a simple guide on decluttering using the KonMari method here.

2. Storage

Many people who move cross-country are downsizing. We moved into a home 200 square feet smaller than our home in Illinois, but we don’t have a basement or a 1600-square foot garage.

Luckily, we don’t have to put any of our items in storage, but we do have to store our boat.

Moving to Florida, you’d think that you could park your boat in your driveway or alongside your home.

With HOA, or Homeowners’ Association, rules prohibit parking boats, trailers, campers, etc where people can see it from the street. Many won’t even allow cars to be parked in the street in front of your house.

This keeps the neighborhood in pristine condition, and I don’t have a problem with it.

But we didn’t realize there are so many communities with HOA’s here. So we have to store our boat for $80/month.

If you own a boat or a camper (or have a lot of stuff that simply won’t fit in your new home and garage), plan on getting storage quotes.

3. Movers for Heavy Items

We had planned all along to hire movers to help us load the truck in Illinois.

Even though we’ve moved many times, we are not professionals, and we don’t have the vision to pack a truck like a game of Tetris.

This cost us $360 plus tip (which we gladly paid). This included 4 movers for 3.5 hours, and they were able to get most of it loaded without trouble.

We own a very large 48-gun safe and a beautiful armoire that are both very heavy. The gun safe alone weighs over 800 pounds.

Because we had friends meeting us in our new city to help us unload, we thought we could all handle unloading the safe. Again, we were wrong.

It was Mother’s Day weekend, and we called around to get quotes. We had the entire truck unloaded and called movers to help us with the other two items.

We were completely shocked that it cost us $379 plus tip to unload two items from the truck.

The charge was a minimum of two hours. Had we known that, we would have just budgeted for it in the beginning and left some of our other heavy items on the truck for them to bring into the house.

It’s a good thing I was able to earn more than $2000 selling household items and furniture the week before. This helped cover some of those unexpected costs moving out of state.

Moving Budget Tip

When moving out of state, you’ll want to compare prices of moving trucks. Sometimes companies will match deals or prices of competitors.

We chose U-Haul for their low loading decks, but Budget offers 20% coupons all the time.

See if U-Haul will honor 20% off or a price match with the coupon.

4. Registration Fees

Ok…this one we were prepared for. We’ve lived in Florida before, but if you’re a brand new resident to Florida, you’ll pay a hefty registration fee for your vehicles.

When moving to Florida (and many other states), you’re required to register your vehicles and change your driver’s license within 30 days of moving.

In the State of Florida, the cost of registering vehicles for the first time is astronomical. You’ll need to budget for about $800 for two vehicles plus the cost of your driver’s licenses and hunting and fishing licenses.

This will set you back about $1,000 if you’re moving out of state, so prepare for it in advance.

Total Cost of Moving Out of State – Our Moving Budget

You’re probably wondering how much it cost us to move out of state, so I’ll break it down for you:

• Moving Trucks – $2030
• Movers – $859
• Fuel – $500 (approximate – fuel prices average $1.51/gal)
• Vehicle Registration Fees (Less since we’re former FL residents) – $330
• Driver’s License Fees – $116
• Annual Freshwater and Saltwater Combo Fishing Licenses – $66

Aside from housing costs, our grand total was $3,901.

Thankfully, my blog income last month was just over $3,700.

I am so grateful that I’m able to earn money working from home and while ad revenue decreased, affiliate marketing income increased.

If you’re curious about blogging, check out my post on how to start a blog. I share how what started as a small side hustle idea has changed my life and how anyone can start a blog and work from home (or on the side around their full-time job schedule).

Bottom Line it, Honey!

I tend to get long-winded when sharing stories, so my husband always says, “Bottom line it, honey! Land the plane!”

If you’re considering a move out of state, be sure to create a budget and when you think you’ve decluttered and gotten rid of enough, consider tripling that amount.

It costs quite a bit to relocate and move across the country, but if it’s something that’s important to you, it is so worth it!

Leaving the state of Illinois for Florida was the best decision ever, and we are happy to call the Emerald Coast home sweet home!