Canadian Finance Blog

Posted: 20 Jul 2011 02:00 AM PDT

If I’ve learned one thing from my current move, it is that you can save a lot of money and a lot of stress by timing your move right.

So we knew we were going to end up moving by the end of the month. What we did not know is that we were going to be moving to Vancouver Island, a full week ahead of the end of the month. Suddenly we went from having all the time in the world for a relatively simple move, to having absolutely no time and a huge cross-ocean (technically) move. To further complicate things, we are not moving into our new place, we will be moving into a storage locker and will be living out of our car and off the generosity of friends and family for a few weeks before we find a place to settle down in. Yikes!

So as soon as I knew we were moving, I immediately set about doing what I always do with these large things. Researching. A quick google search of “how to move” lead me to a number of relatively generic lists, but it was good to start somewhere, and I knew it might help jog my memory of things that actually needed to be done. The scariest part, however, was finding out that half of these lists started with “two months prior to the move…”. Yeah, our timeline was suddenly about two weeks from making a decision to having to be gone, so it would be significantly shorter. Throughout the last week or so, I’ve learned a number of ways one can save a lot of money by planning out ahead of time a few things, and timing them accordingly.

Eat Through Your Freezer

I’ve written a whole other post on this subject, and if you plan on doing this, right before your move is the best possible time. Go through your freezer and write down everything that is in it. While you’re in there, toss anything that’s been in there for longer than a year, and anything else that might be suspicious. You don’t want to risk food poisoning just before you pack up your truck to move. Now start planning all of your next few weeks or month’s meals around the things that you have in the freezer. The point is that, if you time it right, you can have an empty freezer and a slightly fuller wallet by the time your move rolls around. We, unfortunately, were not able to accomplish this task. We’re doing the best that we can, but I can only eat a certain number of bulk bagels a day!

Time Your Rentals

Right at the end of the month and the beginning of the next is always the busiest time for rental trucks, moving companies, and storage lockers. If you can move at a different time of the month, you stand a much better chance of getting a vehicle reservation that the company will actually honour, and you might even find a deal or two. The storage place that we are moving into is currently having a buy one month get the next free promotion. So because we are moving into it at the end of the month, we get a pro-rated cost for the remainder of the month, and the next free. We essentially get a month and a bit (all that we will need) for the cost of less than a third of a month.

Coordinate With Your Employer

The summer season is the time of the year where my job is in most demand. Everyone is looking to take their vacation in the summer, so if you haven’t booked holidays it is all hands on deck. Therefore, planning a move right around the busiest time of the season is less than ideal. If you can, try to time your move around your already booked vacation time, or do it during a slower season so that you can take a few days without bothering anyone.

Tell Your Life To Calm Down

Moving is stressful. Even easy moves just down the street still require you to pack everything in your home, coordinate friends and family to help as they can, moving truck rentals, unexpected costs, and plenty more. If possible, plan to move when the rest of your life is as low-stress as possible. Have a major life change coming up? Perhaps wait to move, or get it out of the way ahead of time. I don’t recommend trying to move while also looking to change you and your spouses’ jobs, for example, or just after you had your first kid. Let the dust settle, and then consider moving. Moving requires a clear mind and heavy problem solving. Too often when you are stressed you do quick impulse purchases to fix problems, rather than taking a slightly longer road to get to the same end cheaper. Try to avoid these costly decisions by moving when you have less on your plate to deal with.

How have your moves been timed?

Timing Your Move originally appeared on Canadian Finance Blog on July 20, 2011.