The Save My Cents – hubby, me (pregnant), BB, and our two cats, have now successfully made it across country with ALL OUR STUFF. NYC to Huntington Beach CA.
All I can say is that I’m sore in more places than I knew I could be sore. I really wanted to put up my feet and relax, but let’s be real, moving is a stressful and busy experience. Here’s a breakdown of moving costs.
(this is a bit different from costs associated with us trying, unsuccessfully to date, to rent / sell our NYC home, which will be a topic of a different blog)
Movers – $8,400 base price + $750 in tips
I used CA NY Express Movers | Move East and I could not be happier. They exclusively do CA / NY moves (though should be rebranded Move West). They own their trucks and their employees are W-2 end to end. This was important to me because I did not want our items changing hands mid-country, which is where a lot of theft and breakage can occur.
We moved about 911 cubic ft volume of stuff. The $8400 breaks down into:
$5,788 moving fee for the volume
$578 fuel surchage
$160 tickets and tolls
$1090 for furniture wrapping (we had a lot)
$756 for packing (we brought this down from $1500 after packing about 40 boxes ourselves)
Hubby and I originally debated between professional movers vs. renting a Penske truck. However, given that we wished to move all of our nice furniture (it was custom and made of solid wood, purchased in North Carolina), and I was pregnant and not going to be able to physically lift much… we ran the numbers for full service moving, vs. Penske truck + buying packing materials + hiring people to load and offload + travel expenses for my BIL to join my husband… it came out to be the same. So full service moving it was.
My final moments in our bedroom in our Manhattan home. Standing next to our little closet (which I shared with some of hubby’s wardrobe).
FedEx of important items – $800
Outside of what we were able to carry on the plane (jewelry, electronics, important documents), we also FedExed some of hubby’s art book collection, as well as stuff that BB outgrew that I was able to pack as early as April. We stored these items with friends who lived in Irvine. Most stuff arrived undamaged.
New fridge – $700
Something new I learned about California is that landlords here don’t provide a lot of appliances that would be standard elsewhere. We got this pretty standard Whirlpool 20 cubit ft fridge and it was delivered quickly from Costco.
Deposit on an Airbnb in case rental fell through – $500
With the rental market being pretty competitive and us having two cats, there was a concern that we might not get a rental home in time by the time we moved. So I placed a deposit down on an Airbnb that I’d used before in Huntington Beach (I know the owner privately, so this was outside of Airbnb). We did not end up needing this, so it was money I was ready to lose.
Ruth Bruno Real Estate was fantastic in helping us find a rental.
Replenish supplies that I donated – $356
Two nights before we were to move, I heard about a very tragic story of a family in Harlem. A family of 6 children (all under the age of 10) lost their father, and their mother wasn’t working at the time. I gathered all the household goods I had at that moment and donated it to them to help keep them afloat. I then rebought them here via Costco, Walmart, Target.
Washer and Dryer – $300 from FBMP, $180 TaskRabbit
The landlord also did not provide a washer and dryer, but the house had hookups. I found a set that appeared to be in great condition on Facebook Marketplace, drove to see it, and then put down the money. Since hubby and I just had no time as we still worked east coast hours, I hired a TaskRabbit (who got an Uhaul van and moving dolly and blankets) to get the washer and dryer moved.
Our Maytag washer and dryer. No frills, but hopefully will last a long time
Cat fees – $250
We flew with our two cats in the cabin. They mostly did quite well – we’ve driven with them before for an entire day. They do pee in the carriers so we line them with pee pads and try to clean as much as we can
Our cats looking out on the runway from the American Airlines Flagship lounge at JFK airport
Our own flights were “free” because we paid for them with vouchers from previously canceled trips.
Credit checks when applying to rentals – $146
We applied to 2 rentals (and bid on a third). I don’t love that there is no one system that we can use to show our credit score these days and that the landlords often want their own application.
Moving materials – $50
We already had packing tape stocked in our home and I was able to procure about 20 moving boxes from a local Buy Nothing mom in NYC (thank you!). I got some more boxes from U-Haul and some shipping material. In terms of boxes holding up – the boxes that our movers used were the best, they were not crushed at all. The U-Haul boxes were small, and so there was crushing at the corners. We also used a lot of Kirkland diaper boxes (thanks BB) to pack – and those held up very well.
Grand total spent: ~$12,700
It is a lot of money to move, but I hope that we don’t do a cross country move of this scale ever again. I miss NYC like crazy, but I also look forward to starting our new lives here.
