7 Things to Include in Your Moving Budget

Moving is already a costly affair. When you add exchange rates, shipping, taxes, and visas—just to name a few—suddenly it's five times more expensive. Making a budget, is key before deciding whether you want to move or not. Get online and research where you want to live, look at budget samples for that country, and see what expenses people generally have.

Having a budget, even just a rough estimate, will help you straighten out your plans, and determine whether they are realistic and achievable or not.

Moving costs: Visas, health surcharge, shipping, luggage, new car, storage, housing situation in Canada (on-going mortgage payments, breaking a lease, etc), upfront costs (see below) for your new housing situation, etc.

• initial payments for renting: i.e. first month's rent, deposit, Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS), estate agent fees, inventory, agreement fee, etc.
• initial payments for buying: i.e. deposit (a.k.a. down payment), stamp duty, legal fees, etc.

Travel costs: Plane tickets, pets' transportation (plane tickets, travel crate, pick-up/boarding, etc), rental car, rental car GPS, rental car insurance, etc.

Accommodations and Food (first few days/nights): Where will you be staying upon arrival (i.e. hotel/motel, B&B, friend's place, rental), and for how long? Groceries or take-out? Pet food?

Living costs: Rent/mortgage, groceries, household purchasing, gas and electricity, television, television license, broadband, telephone, cell phone, income tax, life insurance, home insurance, MOT and car insurance, road tax, fuel, transportation (bus, train, bike), clothing, etc.

Furnishings: Consider the cost of sheets, towels, bed, mattress, pillows, table and chairs, plates, cutlery, pots, glasses, fridge and stove (a.k.a. "white goods"), pet bowl and litter, you know, the basics. You can live without the rest for awhile.

Leisure: Travel plans, eating out, entertainment, gym/membership, pet boarding, etc.

Miscellaneous: School uniforms (including shoes and P.E. kit), veterinary bills pre-move, bank fees, postage and tracking fees.

Naturally, this list is variable in certain respects, as everyone's circumstances and reasons for moving are different. The list I've provided is intended to guide you, as well as to identify things you may not have known about, e.g. the health surcharge.

Here is an amazing article to help give you an idea of a general area's spending, based on where you are in the UK.

With regards to furnishings, to make an initial estimate I went onto Ikea UK and filled a basket with the basics, then converted the amount to Canadian dollars. You can do the same, and once in the UK you can get cheap goods through Facebook garage sales, Gumtree (like kijiji), Freecycle, "car boot sales", the pound stores (a.k.a. dollar stores), and charity shops (these are everywhere in the UK and there is no stigma from buying from them). Prepare to have a vehicle that can carry the goods, or you can look for a "man with van" or a "van hire" to help out at low cost.

As for groceries, before moving I didn't know what things cost in the UK, nor where to look, so I went to my sources and asked. The main grocery stores are Tesco, Sainsbury's, The Cooperative Food, Asda (a.k.a. Walmart), Waitrose, Lidl. Take one of your average grocery lists, and do a "shop online" at one of those stores. You'll have a better grasp on what things cost in that area, and be able to put in a rough number for weekly/monthly groceries, depending on your budget's format.

In our case, the reason for our move was to have a foot in Europe for easy access to travel, cheaper fares, etc. The move is temporary, so we wanted to ensure we had the resources to live out these plans without breaking the bank.

Making a budget gave us the opportunity to realistically look at the numbers. We decided that the costs incurred by moving were slightly higher than the cost of travelling to Europe every year for the next three years. But since this move was initiated through work, we would have part of the moving costs paid for by the company. Also, we could travel more often while in the UK due to proximity, increased vacation days for my husband, and more frequent school breaks. Things also tend to be less expensive in, say, February, than they would be in August, when the whole world is on vacation.

Put in the time and effort, it's really worth it. If you have questions, please feel free to ask me. If I don't have the answer, I will find someone who does! :D

Photo credit: George Hodan of PublicDomainPictures.net