Sense to Save

Ideas for making a smooth(er) move

My pal Sally Ann and her husband are moving from Pittsburgh to Georgia in a few days. I want to wish them well as they head 12 hours south!

Their move reminded me of a few things I’ve done in the past to help make moving a little easier. I’ve moved a few times when I was little and still living with my parents, four times while in college, and then moving out here to Pittsburgh.

First, as anyone will tell you, as soon as you know you’re moving, start getting rid of your stuff! If you’re like me, you’ve accumulated more than you need. It really helps to sell, donate, or toss everything you possibly can. Books are especially heavy, and I like to sell or donate as many of those as I can before moving. I’m hoping to start getting rid of stuff now, even though we aren’t sure if/when we’re moving, since we just plain have too much junk.

Pack whatever you can in containers you already have. For example, I load up my bathroom storage bins with all my toiletries from in the cabinets and under the sink, so I won’t need any cardboard boxes for those. All clothes go in my plastic clothes drawers (still light enough to move) and in all of our suitcases and duffel bags. I load up all Rubbermaid bins and other storage things with whatever I can, while trying not to make any one box too heavy to handle.

Ask around to see if anyone you know has moving supplies they’d be willing to give you. Maybe they have some boxes, tape, work gloves, or a dolly they’d be willing to lend. Or maybe, a pickup truck. Ya won’t know unless you ask!

I like to save sturdy cardboard boxes from previous moves, online shipments, and the like. If I need more boxes, I’ll visit grocery and drugstores. Usually, a nice manager will let me have any of their unneeded boxes, which can work really well for moving. Or, if they don’t have boxes right at that moment, they might hold some for you to pick up in another day or two.

If I’m really organized, I like to have a special box to open as soon as we arrive in our new house. This might include toilet paper, hand soap, a shower curtain/rings, a set of bedsheets, and other things I’ll want that first day there.

That’s probably the fullest extent of my organization. Some people are really good about keeping inventory of their items and labeling each box precisely. I’m usually in a mad dash to get out the door.

What works well when you move?

A slight problem with paying bills online

I enjoy the convenience of paying my bills online. If I can go through a particular company’s web site to pay bills, I do that, or I have my bank draft a check and mail it to them on my behalf. It saves me an envelope and a postage stamp each time. Plus, when it’s all-electronic, it saves paper. Most of the time, I’m perfectly content with online bill pay.

But.

Recently, we canceled a service which drafted our bank account each month. We were told that our account would not be charged this month.

It was anyway.

I called customer service, and they explained that due to certain account settings (?) it still drafted a payment, even though we canceled our agreement. I had to send proof that the payment had cleared my bank, and they would refund the money within a few days. I’m expecting my money back later this week.

It’s a minor inconvenience, but it could have been a big problem if we didn’t have a little wiggle room in our checking account.

I have enough in that account to cover that old payment, and then a little cushion beyond that. And, I’ll be sure to keep enough to cover next month’s “payment” just in case they draft the account again (which I doubt).

I suppose this could have been avoided altogether if I was able to send a payment each month, rather than give them access to my checking account.

Have you generally had good experiences with paying bills online?

Job satisfaction, making enough money, and being close to family

Can we possibly have it all? Can Shane have a job that fulfills him, pays enough money, and lets us live close to family? I don’t know if we can have all three things at once, but we’re going to try.

Shane and I have been living in Pittsburgh for almost one year. It just isn’t the right city for us. We’re way too homesick. We belong in Bloomington, Ind., and that’s all there is to it.

With a year of being pretty miserable here under our belts, and now with a baby on the way, it’s becoming more clear that we really do want to move back to Bloomington. But, is that the absolute best decision for our family?

Bloomington doesn’t have a huge job market, and it could be quite difficult to find a relevant job there. It’s not a big city (less than 100,000 people) and I don’t know if he’ll be able to find something that fits his skillset, fulfills him, and also pays enough.

It’s almost guaranteed that if we move back, Shane will take a pay cut. The cost of living in Bloomington is supposedly slightly higher than it is here, but I think we can find a cheaper apartment there. And, the city has an Aldi (and CVS and Rite Aid) so we’ll be able to get our groceries and toiletries for a low price.

If we live in Bloomington, we’ll be near his parents and most of his extended family, who live in the city or the nearby towns. My family lives one to two hours from there. It will be amazing to be able to see them more often!

Plus, I really love Bloomington. I lived there for four years, from the time I was a freshman at Indiana University until graduation. The summers are incredible, but even during the school year, the city is a great place to be. The restaurants, festivals, general atmosphere, the people, and even the scenery. I love it all.

With Shane’s current job, we’re expecting to move to a new city within the next few months anyway. When he took his position within his company, it was a year-long program, and then he would be transferred to a new position. None of the possible places (too many to mention) are all that close to home.

Don’t forget that we’re expecting our first baby in December. Our current insurance will pay most of our baby-related expenses, and our out of pocket totals will be about $280, which we should be able to pay with our flexible spending account.

It’s hard to say what our health insurance situation would be if Shane took a new job somewhere. If we needed to, though, I think our emergency fund could cover our expenses, if we found ourselves under or uninsured.

In my mind there are a few possible scenarios:

1. Shane takes a new position with his current company. The new position is also in Pittsburgh. If that happens, we would want to stay in our apartment for another year, renewing our lease for $770/month.

2. Shane takes a new position with his current company, but in a different city. If that happens, we’d break the lease (with 60 days notice), and his company would pay the $770 for us to get out of it.

3. Shane takes a new job with a new company in or near Bloomington. If we break our lease, that $770 comes out of our own pocket. But, if we change to a month-to-month lease, we’d pay $820/month, or an increase of $50 per month.And, if we knew that we’d be staying in Pittsburgh after all, we could change it back to a year-long lease and bump our rent back down, with a possible credit on that extra $50/month paid.

So, what in the world do we do? Do we try to maintain or increase our income, even if that means Shane possibly won’t enjoy his job, with us living a day’s drive or more from family? Do we stick it out for a little while longer in Pittsburgh so that our baby’s birth is paid for? Or do we move home, possibly paying thousands of dollars in moving expenses and more, but have an entire support system of family near us?

Here’s what I think we’re going to try. We’re going to renew our lease on a month-to-month basis. We’ll spend the next month or so trying to find a great job for Shane in Bloomington. It should be in a healthy work environment that values its employees. It should pay at least $35k with some form of health insurance.

Is that really too much to ask? I don’t know. Please keep us in your prayers.

Have you ever faced similar decisions? What did you do?