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| What I saw for 7 hours on New Years Day |
Well, it's been awhile but here we are with another great idea: how about a ReallyPoor Move! We just made one. First of all, we were in a REALLYPOOR state: Wisconsin, and after 10 years, we decided there just had to be another world out there: places where my son could find a wife whose favorite hobby wasn't cheese curds and majoring in respiratory therapy. Places where Weird Al Yankovic's "Stomp the Weasel" isn't an actual day and event in Valders. We wanted a change from a state where the following didn't look like the Manitowoc Christmas parade:
and where the annual Sputnik Space Trash Festival occurred with what they thought was the center piece of Sputnik on display at the Rahr Art Museum:
Sputnik IV stayed in its useless orbit until September 5, 1962, when it fell screaming from the sky over Wisconsin. All 7 tons, including the dummy cosmonaut, burned up in the atmosphere -- except one 20-pound hunk of metal. That piece crashed into the street outside of the Rahr-West Art Museum. (A rival 14-pound piece, found on a loading dock in Sheboygan, was later dismissed as doubtful.) from RoadsideAmerica.com , January 16,2015
I include this quote because most people outside of Manitowoc would think I was making it up but they truly have the place it landed right outside the Museum, the Museum display, and a festival to celebrate space junk falling on Manitowoc. They dress up like aliens and put on skits before going back to work at Manitowoc Ice and Weyerhaus. Here is a picture of the place it landed:
I don't think it left the metal ring when it hit, I think that was a monument funded by the city, but its still all the rage and brought fun and laughter to Manitowoc once a year. It was truly one of the best REALLYPOOR ideas for a field trip I have ever come across.
Anyway, I was supposed to be writing about the REALLYPOOR move to another state. We had all kinds of 'REALLYPOOR' ideas in this move! For example, we had to move in the dead of winter so we moved JANUARY 1st early in the morning even as there were still a few drunks on the highway getting out of parties. The worst part of it was the blowing snow drifts all the way into Minnesota, so after a thoroughly planned precision pack and move, we ambled out of Green Bay about 7:45 or so in the morning, and took almost 7 hours for a 4.5 hour drive because of weather conditions and going 35 mph. Arriving in our destination though in the Twin Cities area, we found how 'reallypoor' it can be to move furniture up three steep flights of stairs: we did at least feel free when we finally got here.
During the move though (and we have had many as so many people today); we learned a few tips that may help to save a lot of money in moving. These days, many are called to move out of state or even to another coast or country in order to take a job or start a new life. Many young college students who are still on a college student budget can't afford a few thousand dollars to move and it can easily run into the thousands even in a self-move. A U-haul or similar type truck can cost several hundred dollars, the cost of which expands with gas costs, equipment costs, purchase of boxes etc, meals, lodging, on top of already making long distance arrangements, paying apartment deposits or house down payments, getting utilities turned off and on, and other peripheral costs. A few tips may help though in keeping expenses down:
Tips for "Really Poor" Moving
1. Strip to the bare bones for low cost moving. Most people, even poor people have too much 'stuff'. Old chairs that should be thrown away, sofas they don't like, cracked dishes, a thousand knick-knacks, etc. This move, we took a long serious look at what really had to be moved, and we sold almost enough furniture to make the move. One doesn't have to let go of antiques, or the chair Dad had before he died, etc, but the truth is, we can all let go of furniture and items in our life that are more expensive to move than they are worth. Start over fresh. Craigslist and Ebay are reasonable places online to advertise your furniture: most that was going to sell, sold within about a week. We sold some items we were very happy with: our sofa was only 1.5 years old, but we knew that to take it would have meant renting a more expensive vehicle, carrying it up impossible steps because it was so heavy, and possibly ruining the sofa. Because it was newish and in good repair, we got a reasonable sum for it.
A lot of times when you make a move for a job, you are not sure the job will last, so investing in new furniture, expensive housing etc, is not wise for the first year. During the transition though, it does not mean you need to live and sleep on the floor: Craigslist has a 'free' option on its 'for sale' column where people all over the city you are going to give way free furniture and materials. Some are great and better than you would normally buy, and some is weathered and moth-eaten: you have to decide yourself, but it means particularly for tables, desks etc or cheap tv's , you do not have to go without items until you can afford new, you can compensate with free or low cost items off such classified pages as the above. MOVE SIMPLE.
2. Take your own food on the move. For the cost of stopping at fast food joints, you can take everything you like, or prepare sandwiches in a cooler and so forth. On the road with coffee, drinks, meals etc you can easily drop fifty dollars depending on how many people are with you: for that price, at a thrift shop you can pick up a twin size mattress, a chair and a table, etc. Think poor.
3. Don't take cheap dinnerware and kitchenware. Now, we all really love our Corelware dishes with the black rims and tulips, and we've kept the silverware from our wedding even after the divorce, but be practical: a lot of it has built up scratches, cracks, bacteria etc. If its sentimental, that's another thing, but from a pragmatic point of view, do you really need to move it, or can you buy a similar item cheap? You can get dishes for .88 at WalMart, or a set from 10 to 20 dollars brand new. Carefully shopping at FamilyDollar, Dollar Tree, and other discount stores, one could easily replace a whole kitchen's worth of dishware and utensils for under a hundred dollars, and it doesn't all have to be done at once. Start clean. It's good for your family, and again, thrift shopping can replace at least your own worn plates and cups, though new is not costly even if you are poor.
4. Throw away old towels and bathroom items. Bathroom items collect bacteria more than any other part of the house, so this move we decided to throw all those old perfumes, colognes, toothbrushes, old razors etc away, including bleach stained towels even if they were top of the line ten years ago. Towels are best bought new, but Big Lots, and the stores above, particularly on clearance racks include towels for as low as 1.50 a piece: it you can't drop $6, for 4, then buy one every time you go grocery shopping for a few weeks: soon you will have all new towels. I always budget on our worst budget for just $3 of the grocery money for household items each time: over a year you will have 52 new items for your house including bowls, gadgets, towels, and skip 3 weeks you will have a sheet set. One just has to be disciplined and discerning. On the perfumes etc, you can always pick up gift sets in the first garage sales in the spring: alot of people never even open Christmas and Easter gift sets, and sell them in brand new quality for a dollar or so. Better than moaning over Chanel No. 5.
5. Invest in tape and a tape gun. Well packed is well saved: you won't lose anything in the move through breakage and spilling out which also creates more work. My son's first job was in a UPS store, and he taught me this little extra expense can make a move much easier than just throwing stuff in open boxes.
6. Check coupons, deals and days on moving trucks. We found a truck for 2/3rds of what we thought we would have to pay. Some companies have discounts on special days.
7. Organize and Mark. Get a black marker, and on the outside of a box write the room it goes in, and briefly what's inside: e.g. bdrm, stuff in desk drawers. office: cords and mice. etc. When unloading the truck, take them directly to the room to which they belong. Before the move, when all is disassembled and packed, move the same-room boxes into sections in the room nearest the door. We were able to look at everything and pre-plan mentally the packing of the truck before we picked it up, so packing went quickly and lock-step. We woke at 5, and by 6:30 everything was packed and in the truck, with floors vacuumed and counters wiped. Mental planning, 'cognitive' planning is 80% of moving.
8. Research your New Area on Google Maps . Weeks before your move, go to Google or Yahoo or Bing Maps, and type in your new location, and the option showing you 'what's nearby'. This way, you will know exactly where to return the truck, or trailer, where to buy groceries, where to buy the immediate things you left behind (e.g. plates and cups), and other things interesting to you: e.g. state parks, libraries, specialty stores, churches etc. What you can do mentally also prepares you for a smooth emotional transition with a lot less fights and a lot less anxiety.
Let's face it, moving, no matter how efficient and low cost, still costs real money, that most poor people don't really have. Pre-planning is the key. I hated to see him do it, but my son worked every available hour he could get in two jobs in the couple of months before we moved, meaning he did not have to dip into his regular budget to move. It's a little disheartening to think of how much had to be spent just renting a truck, but it had to be done to move ahead in life. Make the move in your head and heart before you make arrangements. It's one way to accomplish a 'REALLYPOOR' move (!).
Oh, and don't forget the change of address forms.
