Security deposit on the apartment, deposits to get utility services turned on. I don't know--moving is such a pain, I might take the option where they do everything, especially since you'll be in a new area.

You will need furniture, pots, pans, dishware, glassware, serving utensils, tupperware, bathroom rugs, shower curtains, towels, plungers, cleaning supplies, window treatments, lamps, etc. That will cost a pretty penny when you add it all up.

Anonymous wrote:Aren't you going to have to pay tax on the 15k? Are you taking that into account when determining you'll have 6k left over? When we relocated here, dh's company paid for everything and then gave us a cash payment to cover the taxes on the imputed income. I would talk to hr to find out more details on the taxes before making a decision.

Yes we took that into account. It will be about 30% and we'll recuperate some of it when filing our taxes.

I'm just trying to think what other expenses we would have that I'm not thinking of.

Besides the POD, the trip (road trip or flying and shipping our car)... what else can you think of?

Aren't you going to have to pay tax on the 15k? Are you taking that into account when determining you'll have 6k left over? When we relocated here, dh's company paid for everything and then gave us a cash payment to cover the taxes on the imputed income. I would talk to hr to find out more details on the taxes before making a decision.

Anonymous wrote:On the West Coast, homes often don't come with refrigerators -- just an FYI.

And driving x-country is exhausting. We did it just as far as West Texas and it took 4 days.

OP here, we've been to Ohio, Florida, Conn, and Illinois so we're used to doing half of the trip I guess. We were estimating 7-10 days.

We've been looking for months and so far every place we looked comes with all appliances, thanks for the alert I'll make sure I double check for that from now on.

On the West Coast, homes often don't come with refrigerators -- just an FYI.

And driving x-country is exhausting. We did it just as far as West Texas and it took 4 days.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the advice so far.

Yes we moved 3x with children but it was not that far. It's the first time we're doing it cross country.

Once we drive we'll stay in a hotel a couple of days to rest then tackle the unpacking.

Our plan would be to bring our mattresses, wedding gifts, a few toys the kids like, a few boxes with my crafts material and our clothes. Absolutely nothing from our kitchen except our dinner plates and silverware. Oh and 2 flat screen TVs.
Is 6K enough to furnish a 2bed apt?

Maybe, it might be tight though. You'll still need a bed frame for you, two beds/cribs for the kids, living room furniture, kitchen table/chairs, and other sundries. Does the new place have appliances? That could be what makes or breaks you.

We do a family bed so we don't need frames. Our couch was bought from Ikea As Is session for $200 and DH is sure we'll get another such deal there. Yup the new place has appliances. We're renting for a while before deciding on a place to buy. The kids are little so we want to live in the city for a little longer before thinking of buying in a good school district in the area.

It's Seattle by the way, if anybody is curious about it.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the advice so far.

Yes we moved 3x with children but it was not that far. It's the first time we're doing it cross country.

Once we drive we'll stay in a hotel a couple of days to rest then tackle the unpacking.

Our plan would be to bring our mattresses, wedding gifts, a few toys the kids like, a few boxes with my crafts material and our clothes. Absolutely nothing from our kitchen except our dinner plates and silverware. Oh and 2 flat screen TVs.
Is 6K enough to furnish a 2bed apt?

Maybe, it might be tight though. You'll still need a bed frame for you, two beds/cribs for the kids, living room furniture, kitchen table/chairs, and other sundries. Does the new place have appliances? That could be what makes or breaks you.

OP here. Thanks for the advice so far.

Yes we moved 3x with children but it was not that far. It's the first time we're doing it cross country.

Once we drive we'll stay in a hotel a couple of days to rest then tackle the unpacking.

Our plan would be to bring our mattresses, wedding gifts, a few toys the kids like, a few boxes with my crafts material and our clothes. Absolutely nothing from our kitchen except our dinner plates and silverware. Oh and 2 flat screen TVs.
Is 6K enough to furnish a 2bed apt?

I would chose the option where the company pays for everything. In my experience, the moving industry is so corrupt, and they will always low-ball you on the bid and then tell you the outrageously high actual price when all of your belongings are on their truck. I wouldn't want to gamble to try and make a profit and actually end up paying out of pocket.

PP^ I would never in a million years drive the cars with 2 young kids and then unpack. My limit. As I said, we shipped the car and flew.

We packed the car with our stuff and had it shipped. There is a weight limit. We did not want to drive (East coast to West coast). If you can put all of your stuff in storage pods and still have energy to unpack it, you will be fine. You have an advantage that one person is not working. We did not have much stuff and we had many contacts in the area (no kids at the time) We used the extra money for our down payment. Good luck.

I would have someone else pack for me every day of the week twice over. HAve you moved with kids yet? Worst. Experience. Ever.

Your kids are young. Can you really manage all that yourself? We moved a 2br apartment from NC to here, including one of our cars, and all the packing and it was almost 8k. (Company paid.) Just make sure you are getting good quotes.

Bump

A lump sum - $15K (before tax)

Or have it all paid for item by item using a moving consultant? They'll cover every single expense, from movers to my job placement in the new location. They'll pay for a real state agent to find us a home, help us find childcare, pay for the shipment of our car, our plane tickets and one extra trip for DH to come and finish things up.

By our rough math, if we got the lump sum we'd have 6K left.
The plan is to drive there (2500 miles away). DH has points so we'll drive our car and use points to stay in hotels along the way. Kids are 3 and 1. DH will be between jobs so no salary. We're moving a small 1 bedroom apartment only using a POD service and hiring people to load/unload. Most of our things are already packed since we just moved a few months ago anyway. Most packing would be kitchen stuff and our closets/kids toys.

I'm pretty sure I'm not thinking of everything. Having 6K left seems too good to be true.

If you have moved cross country how was the move? How much did you spend?

Thanks for sharing your experience.