Moving Ohio to Florida- Any Suggestions?

[Savin' Moola]

Hello!!!
My family and I are making plans to relocate from Ohio to Florida in
January- We have 3 small children also- well by this time we will have
4 children!- Does anyone have any tips or money saving ideas to
successfully accomplish our move when we do not have tons of money? I
have been looking at u-hauls and the cheapest isnt under 3,000!!! on
top of everything else EEK!!! PLease help if anyone can!!
thanks so much!!!!
corey

[Savin' Moola]

Re: Budget101.com : Moving out of state- Any suggestions????


Ok Corey,
I'm not American but had a similar move last fall. My fiance and I moved in
together but because he has a really good paying job my children and I were
the ones that relocated to where he was, one Province over. The tips I'm
going to give are basically generic and should help almost anyone in a
similar situation.

We used movers. Yes movers get a bad rap for being this and that and
ripping people off, etc. but for us they were a very good solution. I found
the company online. They do moves across Canada but they are located in
Quebec (which is where I was moving to, from Ontario)...they had an
impressive website, strong commerical customer base and I searched online
for good and bad and found very little. I called the company and very
promptly the sales guy returned my call. We spoke at length about the move
at least twice before I booked with them. He was sincere and the company
has been in business over 25 years so it's not a "fly by night" one.

I then did the online estimation on the move with the contents of my former
home and in looking around was surprised that they honestly were the cheaper
solution. When I had moved locally from one city to the next ( it's a
Tri-City area set-up) I'd been charged almost $900.00 for a 40 minute away
move! The estimation on a cross province move was $2K. I was surprised and
that's with the "guys" doing the labour but I packed everything in advance.
In the end (because I'm a very good packer) and the movers were excellent,
good attitudes and hard workers unlike the previous movers I'd had) that in
the end the actual "paid" cost of the movers was only about $1400.00. Which
was a savings over the projected cost of $2,000.00.

Also since I ran into problems I did not expect get these items before you
leave your current state:

1. Your children's long-form birth certificate
2. any marriage certificate or certificate of divorce from the previous
state.
3. Financial records (hard copy)

The reason I state your children's long-form birth certificate is because
this never crossed my mind. In my previous province having the short-form
was good enough. Switching provinces...without them....made it very hard to
enroll my children in school.

Even though I had all my custody papers, divorce papers proving that I have
sole legal custody they wouldn't even look at them and only "provisionally"
allowed my children to enroll until I came up with those documents. I now
have my own long-form birth cert, my finace's and both of my kids. So, now
with both short and long form I can statisfy any governmental requests for
more documentation. It never occured that I would need this as I'm a
Canadian citizen and so are my children but this varies from Province to
Province up here and probably does in the States as well. I'd get them put
them in a fire-proof lock box so you'll have them. It's better to be safe,
than sorry.

Also on the packing front, be ruthless and if possible use plastic
totes...they are reusable, stronger than cardboard and you can write clearly
on the outside what's in them as well as number them. I added additonal
tape around them for stability (ie. lids popping off) but found they worked
very well and are practical. Also save up for the "incidentals" things you
don't think off right off...cleaning products, shelf paper, bug killer,
possible fees for hook up of utilities, cable, phone. Do your research in
advance. Call the chamber of commerce in the city you'll be moving to and
ask about these things and try to set them up at your new address online
before you get there. Our phone, cable, internet was hooked up 4 days after
we moved here...the electrical was turned on for us the day previous to our
move since I could do that online. ( I set up the dates for the other stuff
on the phone, with the companies after searching online for them).

Just a few ideas to keep in mind.

Sincerely,
Sherrilee

[Savin' Moola]

Re: Budget101.com : Moving out of state- Any suggestions????


--- In Budget101_@yahoogroups.com, flyingkitty <flyingkitty@...> wrote:

>
> 1. Your children's long-form birth certificate


I don't thnk we have different copies here in the states. You get a
copy at the hospital which isn't a legal one, it's more of a decrotive
one, has the foot print on it, etc. The legal ones all look the same,
though, no short or long form that I'm aware of.

[Savin' Moola]

Re: Moving out of state- Any suggestions????


I didn't know about a difference either until I recently decided to get
a copy...yeah, I know, I shoulda had one but I couldn't find it...
anyway, when I contacted the state where I was born on-line, I learned
that I had a choice! I went for the cheaper one -- the short one,
which is the size of a post card. I do remember that the one that I
had previously was like a reverse negative and seemed kinda fragile.
so maybe things have changed a bit
mos

[Savin' Moola]

Re: Moving out of state- Any suggestions????


Everytime I've gotten one, I've gone straight to the main county
office (all 3 kids born in 3 different counties, so 3 different
offices), I've gotten a photo copy of their official copy, and then
they notarize it, for about $15 total. I've never been given a
choice. Maybe it's a new thing? It's been 2 years since I last
obtained a copy, but I have to go in the next week and get a copy of
my youngest daughter's, because she's (finally!!) going to be
starting preschool in the fall, and the paper work is due soon.

[Savin' Moola]

Re: Moving out of state- Any suggestions????


my suggestion is this...reduce, reduce, reduce!!! that is get rid of
everything that you haven't used or loved in the last year. have a
yard sale, donate to a charity, or leave on the curb for someone or the
garbage people to collect (I do suggest recycling, but when all else
fails...). when you get rid of the items that you don't use regularly,
you'll have far less to move. go room to room, closet to closet and
start flinging items that just don't mean 'you' anymore. do an
assessment of what you really need. I found when I moved across the
country that the things that I really had to have boiled down to a
stockpot, fry pan, slow cooker, DD's pitcher for Koolaid <GRIN>, some
clothes, artwork, tv and stereo, and items that DD HAD TO HAVE (she was
five). everything else could be replaced. with the money made by
selling off everything, I was able to replace what I needed. not brand
new, but good quality and good enough to set up a home just
something to think about...
mos

[Savin' Moola]

Re: Moving out of state- Any suggestions????


Wow, that's a long move! And with 4 little ones!

I can't give you much help in keeping the actual moving costs down, but
I can give you some travel tips for keeping the trip down cheaper.

1. Pack a cooler with milk, juice, ice, fruit, and lunch meat.
2. Pack plastic bowls & spoons (not plasti-wear, but the durable
plastic dishes you can find cheap at the dollar store), cereal, bread,
and snacks.
3. Get each child a few small "busy" items at the dollar store- crayons
& coloring books, books, cars, etc. Give them out one at a time alone
the way when the kids start complaining that they're bored.
4. Map out parks in the further south region where the weather will be
much nicer, and plan to stop as often as possible for the kids to get
out and stretch thier legs.
5. Make sure they eat some fruit on the way, the higher the water
content, the better (think watermelon, grapes, apples), because they
count for both liquid & food content, so your child won't get thirsty
as often.

You might also want to compare the price of hauling larger items down
with the price of replacing the items at thrift stores later one. I had
a friend who moved his girlfriend and her 2 kids from Washington state
to Mass several years ago, and she insisted on bringing all of her
furniture, most of which was from good will and not worth it, and half
of the stuff she got rid of at a yard sale 2 weeks after she moved it
there. The woman was a real peice of work to begin with, but he paid
almost $5,000 to move her furniture from one place to the next, only to
have her sell most of it for about $100 later.

If the cost of moving it is going to be high, then sell it and use the
money you made and the money you'll save to replace it when you get
there. The less you have to haul down, the cheaper it will be. You
won't need to use as much gas, either. The heavier the load, the more
gas you use.

With a move like that, you want to think minimalist. Move only what you
absolutely have to, and sell off the rest. You'll make money for the
move, and for replacing what needs to be.

[Savin' Moola]

Re: Budget101.com : Re: Moving out of state- Any suggestions????


If you have 4 little ones I highly suggest investing in a portable DVD player.
You can get them for about $150 and they are worth every penny on long drives.
Sanity does have a price and it is well worth paying. If you do not have any
DVDs sign up for a month of netflix and get the 8 movie option you can cancel as
soon as you get to your destination and just send the movies back. Also, you
can join freecycle and place a wanted post for kids DVDs and I bet you would get
some that way too!