How Much it Cost Me to Move from NY to Colorado!
This month my partner and I took the leap and moved from WNY to the Denver, CO area. Here’s how much it cost.
I would say that our move overall took 3 months to set into motion. And here’s how it all went down…
I had a hybrid (due to COVID) full-time work position with a small company in WNY. In June, I was working there for almost 2 years, and mostly everyone was back in the office by May -- we had many split up office locations and clinics, and at my location, the 11 of us that worked there each had personal offices, so it was safe to do so. But, my boyfriend and I knew that we wanted to move somewhere out West or on the West Coast, therefore I ended up starting to apply to completely remote jobs in May. I was able to land a 100% remote position working for one of the largest health care providers in the country.
During this time that I was applying to remote jobs, we had taken 3 long-weekend trips to the top 3 cities that we were interested in moving to. Denver, CO; Salt Lake City, UT, and Seattle, WA. (Let it be known that Seattle was my top choice, but is too rainy for us). Our goal with a place to move was access to outdoors and good weather, along with not being too expensive. Each of these weekend trips, between flights, accommodation and food, probably cost between $1,000-$1,200 combined for the two of us. We deemed this an important cost to make our decision because we did not want to move somewhere having never been before. (I have not included these trips on my cost breakdown below).
After taking these trips, we landed on either Salt Lake City or Denver — and really, whichever city my boyfriend was able to get a position in first, we would move! I would say the job search process was pretty slow for the first maybe 6 weeks, then it really picked up with a couple of calls per week he was getting! Persistence and patience is key. We were able to land him a job in Boulder, Colorado.
After spending about 2 weeks looking at apartments, we were able to use an Apartment Locating service (shout out to Smart City Denver) to help us find one we liked, in our budget and in a good location. Once our application was approved through the apartment complex, we began planning the move!
Here is a breakdown of the cost and process with our move:
- Storage: Before our move, my apartment lease had expired, and so I had to put my belongings in storage for a month and 2 days- therefore of course, the storage company charged me for 2 full months or storage- a fact I am still a little frustrated with. To rent the truck for this first move out of my apartment, it cost $26.02; and for the storage unit was $79.99 + taxes and fees, so the first month was $87.90 ( I also was required to buy a heavy duty lock- $13.00), and the second month was $82.00.
- Renting the truck to drive across country: we rented a Uhaul 10' truck to drive across the country. This total was $1,915.08 — they calculate this amount based on milage and days they anticipate you to take to drive that milage. I was a bit aggravated because their calculation (1,800 miles) anticipated 200 miles more than our actual drive was (1,600 miles based on the odometer), but I did not have any ground to be able to counter this with the company since it was a fixed-rate truck rental. This adjustment could have saved us $200!
- Gas: all in all, we drove the rental truck, and 2 cars across the country. My boyfriends father was nice enough to drive our truck across the country with us, and also take care of the gas. I can confidently say that the price of gas unfortunately increased as we drove West. I spent only the cost of gas for my own car: over 5 fill-ups, I spent $234.00.
- Hotel: For our drive, we spent 2 nights in a hotel. The first hotel was $87.30 (outside of Pittsburgh, PA) and the second night was $92.09 (Higginsville, MI). We basically chose the bare minimum since we were just sleeping and then leaving early in the morning.
- Food/snacks: this part I tried to be reasonable with over the time that we drove, because it can be common that you just eat because you’re bored in the car. I tried not to do that. Between gas station snacks and meals, I spent $120.21.
Total for the physical move: $2,667.60
We additionally had the normal costs associated with moving into a new apartment. I will include them here in case you may consider it of value:
- Apartment Finder service: FREE — check out the Smart City services, they are in many large cities across the country and can help you find the right apartment that fits your needs.
- Apartment application: $20
- Security deposit: $500
- Enrolling in our package delivery service: $25
- Excluded from our monthly rent for our apartment, that we are either charged for separately through our complex, or have to pay completely separately*: heat, electricity*, water, sewer, trash, common space heat/electric, pest control, admin charges, renter’s insurance*, wifi*
Overall, I think our move was much cheaper, although maybe a little more labor intensive, than hiring movers. I have friends that paid $5,000+ for their move from NYC to Denver, and their belongings got lost — aka a big mess! The stress could also have been reduced if we had hired out, but when is moving not one of the worst things to do in life! Overall, I hope this can help others gauge their either local or cross-country move, and be able to budget accordingly.
I would love to heat other’s experiences with cross-country moves- pros and cons of doing it yourself or hiring out!
