Common Moving Expenses and How to Cut These Costs

They say moving house is one of the most stressful experiences you will go through in your life. Try doing it while you’re also five months pregnant and have a very energetic and high spirited toddler in your life…fun and games!

We recently moved house from Liverpool to a small village in West Lancashire. It was a huge change for us going from a two bedroom flat on the third floor with a balcony and open plan living space, to a four bedroom detached house with a garden, two reception rooms and a huge kitchen. Even though it seemed we had accumulated an awful lot of stuff over the past four years, once we had moved it all into the house, there didn’t seem to be very much at all.

But moving house isn’t just about moving all of your things from one address to another, there’s a whole host of other common moving expenses that crop up between you deciding to move house and the day you actually move in. Moving house is not just one of the most stressful things you’ll ever do, it’s also one of the most expensive too.

Here are my top tips to cut costs on those common moving expenses, saving your pennies for those all important mortgage payments, energy bills and your first official takeaway in your new home!

Before You Move…

Find a trustworthy mortgage broker

One of the biggest costs of moving home is going to be your new mortgage and one of the best ways to reduce your mortgage payments is inding a trustworthy mortgage broker who will scour the market and find you the very best deal. He will also be able to save you time and any negative impacts on your credit report by finding you a deal that you are likely to be accepted for instead of wasting time applying for one that you are not.

Shop around for removals

You’ve got two options when it comes to moving all of your things, removal van hire and doing it yourself, or doing what I did which was searching for removal companies near me who would do the job for me. Make sure you have a good shop around to find the best deal. Our removal man Michael was a gem and even though he offered the lowest price, he did a fab job and ended up with a hefty tip at the end. (Oops, this is meant to be about cutting costs-but he did totally deserve it!)

Make sure you have a good shop around to find the best deal- it is usually less expensive to have local removalists

Ask on local Facebook groups for boxes

Boxes are absolutely extortionate. I’m not sure how I didn’t remember this from last time we moved, but I ended up spending a fortune on the damn things again. Ask on local Facebook groups if anybody has any going spare, because chances are these boxes are going straight to the tip. Such a waste of money!

Use TopCashback to sort out insurances

I’ve banged on about using TopCashback before, but the money you can get back from sorting your insurances via them is not to be sniffed at. I ended up with over £100 of cashback for clicking through their website to Esure’s website which took about 10 seconds more than going direct. Easy-peasy money!

Still not signed up? Here’s my affiliate link to get you up and running.

Change your address on everything straight away

Last time we moved, over four years ago, changing your address with most things was not an easy process. You needed proof that you now lived at your new address and it could take weeks and weeks to start getting your utility bills. A redirection of mail was a big necessity and not a cheap one either. This time I found it so much more straight forward to change my address with the banks, child benefit office, DVLA, pension and work and was super surprised to see you can even do it in advance without any proof needed. I had already set up a mail redirection for six months but found that thanks to the ease of changing address now, we’ve barely had anything redirected at all, except junk! Save your money.

On the Day…

Turn off the utilities in your old home

Make sure you turn everything off at the mains, especially if you were renting and you still have some time left on the lease. When we moved out of our rental and into our purchased home, I wanted an overlap of a couple of weeks so we could get it cleaned up nice and incase anything went wrong with exchange on our new place. I turned off the electricity and water at the mains so I wasn’t paying for any utilities during those couple of weeks. Who knows what you might leave on by mistake if not? A dripping tap? A rogue light?

Related Post: How to Save Money on Your Utility Bills

Check the meter readings in your old house AND the new

Don’t make the same mistake I did and forget to write down your meter readings. I was good and remembered to do this at the rental, but totally forgot to check what the readings were at our new home. When the first utility bill came in for our gas and electric (which by the way was EXTORTIONATE!) I had no idea if it was right or not. You live and learn!

Pack a box specifically for the first day/night

To save you running out to grab takeaway coffees and food, pack a box with all the essentials you’ll need such as the kettle, teabags, coffee, a cool bag with snacky food and everything else that’s a daily essential. This pin details exactly what you might need:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/514606694907944378/

Hopefully these tips help you to save some money on the common moving expenses you may incur when you move home. If you have any more ideas, do leave them in the comments below.