Moving to another city can be an expensive affair so let’s hope you have created a moving budget and you have stuck to it through all stages of the moving process. Controlling your move and managing your finances at the same time is perfectly feasible as long as you know your moving costs in advance.
How is your family budget holding up after the move?
Once you find yourself in a brand-new place, maybe even more expensive than the one you just left, it’s only natural that you would want to take advantage of tried-and-true money-saving tips to stay afloat and enjoy the latest chapter in your new life without any financial struggles and money related headaches.
After all, you have chosen to move to a new city to improve your life and not make it more miserable, right?
Here are the top 6 ways to save money after moving to a new city so that you can maintain your present financial status and maybe even try to improve it as long as you’re smart with your dollar bills after the residential move.
1. Take it one slow step at a time
Buy yourself more time to fine-tune your spending habits in your new city by killing your moving inertia and taking it one slow and awkward step at a time.
With all the moving day adrenaline still pumping through your veins, you may find it a real struggle to slow down your moving pace once you find yourself in the new home. But why would you want to kill your relocation inertia in the first place?
The simple answer is that when you move to a new city, there will probably be a score of new adventures and sweet temptations to make you loosen up your purse strings. And with most things happening in a blur and everything around you being nothing but a whirlwind, it’s much easier to switch into an overspending mode and go way over your budget limitations before you even realize it.
That is exactly why you need to take it slowly until things settle down a bit and you get a much clearer picture of what your post-relocation budget management will be like. Because let’s face it – there’s no real urgency to rush things because you’re going to be in your new home for a while (hopefully).
As it turns out, one of the most frequent money-draining activities after a residential move is to rush to the largest furniture and home interior store in order to furnish your new place entirely to your own impeccable taste.
And while it’s true that there are always new things to buy for your new home, it’s even truer that your home décor doesn’t have to be completed in one giant go and with the sense of emergency that rarely makes financial sense.
Instead, the wise thing here is to resist the strong temptation to have your dream home by tomorrow, thus allowing yourself enough time to reassess your current situation.
Home decoration projects aside, there may be tons of other tempting money pits waiting to stretch out your post-move budget even further. In order to stay on top of your financial status quo, you must show your noteworthy patience and military-like discipline, and buy yourself more time to figure out how your recent move will affect your old spending habits.
Money-saving tip in one sentence:
After moving to a new city, don’t be quick to purchase a product or a service until you have had sufficient time to reassess its value and usefulness.
Daddy, I know the cheapest place in town for Barbie dolls.
It’s impossible to deny that information alone is one of the greatest assets of the Information Age.
The moment you leave the familiarity of your old surroundings and move to a new city, timely presented pieces of precise and up-to-date cost-saving information are exactly what you will need the most to make your money go further.
One thing is clear – you won’t find it too thrilling to be the fresh face in the new neighborhood with all the funny questions. And yet, extracting invaluable information from the people who have lived there for years and know their ways around is your best bet to save money when moving to another state.
One great money-saving piece of advice after moving to a new city is to locate the best sources of information about cheaper yet good-quality products (mostly groceries), inexpensive yet fun entertainment activities, and a number of other viable money-saving options.
Information source #1. Neighbors
A good tactical move is to get to know your neighbors as soon as you move into your new residence. The first months of living in your strange home in a completely unfamiliar setting will supposedly be one of the toughest periods of your move, sometimes even surpassing the stressful unpredictability and hectic randomness of Moving day.
The good thing about having allies in the folks next door is that you don’t have to become best friends with them in order to end up with meaningful conversations that will help you settle down more quickly and find great ways to cut down on your monthly expenses.
You may choose to speed up the socializing process by making the initial introductory steps and maybe even inviting those people over to a housewarming party. Besides, most neighbors will be happy and proud to give you good money-saving advice knowing all too well what it was like when they first moved into the neighborhood.
Another top-notch source for frugal tips when you move to a new city is your new colleagues at work. Thanks to the host of similar things that connect you – field of expertise, shared interests, closer age gap, and so on, it’ll be much easier and more common to befriend your coworkers than your folks next door.
Having already lived for some time in the city you are now calling your home, your colleagues can provide you with some excellent insider pointers on how not to waste more money than the absolute minimum, at least until you rediscover the new limits of your new-city family budget.
Even your well-informed neighbors and colleagues won’t be familiar with all the up-to-date cost-saving information. So, keep an eye (and ear!) on local newspapers, news sites, leaflets, and radio stations for free events and happenings in your new city simply because they will help you get your share of new-city entertainment without having to burden your already stretched-out budget.
Also, by keeping a close watch on the local means of mass communication, you can come across special promotions, discount coupons, limited-time offers, and unbeatable deals which can really make a difference for you, especially in the first few months after moving to a new city.
Don’t be quick to pass up great opportunities for free music performances, film screenings, book readings, fitness classes, and free museum days.
Money-saving tip in 2 sentences:
Having moved to a new city, you should become a skilled extractor of priceless information about how to stay on the cheap side of your new-city life chapter. Your neighbors, coworkers, and newly made friends will be flattered that you turn to them for advice on how to save money.
3. See the new city through a smart shopper’s eyes
After moving to a new city, always watch out for great deals that may end up being not that great after all.
You may find out that sometimes even the great frugal tips you have received from a neighbor or a colleague of yours will not really work for you. In other words, good money-saving advice can still lack the practicality you are looking for and thus remain only good advice on paper.
It’s best to learn more about your surrounding area and its cost-saving options by exploring your new city on your own. The more you know what the new place has to offer, the more valuable dollar bills you should be able to save for the duration of your time there.
Believing that seeing is believing, you may as well just get lost in the city on purpose (your preferred map application on your smartphone can help you in case you really lose your way). The idea here is to explore unfamiliar city parts you have not been advised to visit until now and walk the streets of unknown neighborhoods in search of better deals.
The bigger the city, the greater the number of shopping opportunities you will have at your disposal, so take advantage of this and save cash through smart shopping – thrifty decisions combined with good timing.
When shopping for a product or a service, be sure to employ the following tried-and-true money-saving techniques:
Look for meaningful sales and store clearances that will keep more cash in your wallet;
Purchase products and services in bundles for reduced costs;
Ask your service providers /Internet, cable TV, mobile phone, etc./ to meet you halfway and offer you better deals than what you have at the moment;
Make a list of all the essential items you can’t go without during the first months or so after your move and make sure you stick to it in order to negate the detrimental effect of all the shopping temptations around you.
Money-saving tip in one sentence:
After the heavy blow your budget must have taken from the considerable relocation cost of moving to another city, be a smart shopper and avoid shopping for fun until your finances get back on their feet once more.
Save big by having a delicious home-cooked lunch at work.
It’s no secret that food expenses will eat up a large portion of your disposable income, especially if you have moved to a more expensive city. They may even go for a second helping if you fail to take advantage of a few proven common-sense strategies to lower your expenses on food and drinks after moving to a new town or city.
Big cities will surely have a wide variety of high-quality restaurants that may prove to be unfairly tempting for you as a newcomer. However, you’d be wise to cut back on eating out and later reap the fruits of this shrewd decision.
Forget about having overpriced meals at expensive restaurants, at least during the first few months when you’ll still be learning how to properly manage your finances in this new and unfamiliar setting.
Still, if you happen to have an important occasion to celebrate – for instance, your or a family member’s birthday, then you should be smart when choosing a catering establishment.
Besides, home cooking is generally tastier, healthier, and more satisfying, too!
If you follow the fundamental principles of smart shopping described above, you shouldn’t have any problems acquiring reasonably priced groceries either from big local supermarkets /look for sales or bundled products/ or from farmers’ markets in your area /get super deals when the booths start to close/.
Also, you can easily prepare sandwiches or home-cooked meals to have for lunch at your workplace instead of buying pricey meals on a regular basis.
It’s important to note that expensive cities are notorious for offering plenty of pricey bars and clubs which can really hurt any newcomer’s budget. Paying the average cost of $13-$15 for a single cocktail is the last thing you would want after spending a fortune on your move.
However, if you do enjoy having the occasional drink outside the confines of your new home, then you can either hang out at a new friend’s place or look harder for a well-hidden club or bar that’s clearly on the cheaper side.
Money-saving tip in two sentences:
The amount of money you can save each month by cooking and having a drink at home instead of eating out at overpriced restaurants and pricey bars will be much greater than you might think. So, just do it.
5. Be wise about transportation within the new city
Carpooling is another good option to lower your spiking transportation costs after moving to another city.
While having a car in your new city will probably be downright convenient, it can also be rather expensive. Depending on the city you just moved to, there’s a good chance that you will be able to save plenty of bucks from the typical commuting expenses you will incur by driving your own vehicle to and from work every workday.
According to a study called Your Driving Costs by the American Automobile Association, Inc. (AAA), the average American spends somewhere between $7,000 and $11,000 a year for the privilege of owning a car – the cost calculation methodology includes standard costs such as fuel, maintenance, tires, insurance, license, registration and taxes, depreciation, and financing.
Furthermore, unless you are lucky enough to come across decent and free parking places, finding good parking spots in bigger cities is a well-known problem and the high parking rates will only burden your post-relocation budget.
All in all, you shouldn’t underestimate your monthly transportation costs but look for good alternative ways to bring them down. For example, if your new city boasts a really good public transportation network (understand fast, convenient, inexpensive, and well-developed), you must take advantage of it.
Also, if you don’t live too far from your workplace, you should consider biking or even walking to and back from work as both transportation modes usually bring about plenty of fun, provide good exercise, and most importantly, are as cheap as cheap can ever go.
Money-saving tip in two sentences:
Transportation costs are not to be underestimated! You can really save a fortune in your new city if you are able to stay within your neighborhood for most of your daily needs and find a convenient and inexpensive way to commute to work – carpooling, public transportation, biking, or walking.
Learning to say NO to various temptations can be an excellent way to save money in the new city.
Our money-saving advice when moving to a new city will hopefully help you keep tabs on your new-city expenses and enable you to take full control of your finances.
Keep in mind that the most effective way to save money after moving to a new town or city is to learn to say NO to all types of temptations to spend money that are practically everywhere. After moving to a new city, there will be so many things to do, things to see, things to buy, and things to eat and drink that you are likely to find it a struggle to stay within your budget.
And yes, it’s perfectly doable to live in the city and stay on a budget but in order to do it, you will need to have the self-discipline to keep living within your means and never spend money that you don’t actually have. If you really decide to put your mind to it, city life can be a lot of fun even with a modest post-relocation budget.
The trick to living on a tight budget after moving is to always be aware of what you spend and to take advantage of the things that the big city offers for free.
Be extra careful not to spend money on expensive activities such as dining at fancy restaurants or going to pricey shows and concerts that you can’t really afford. In other words, be super selective when it comes to what you do for fun with your friends because it’s relatively easy to spend a fortune on entertainment alone.
The good news is that when you’ve moved to one of the biggest cities in the country, there will always be another thing to do and see even when you miss the previous one.
Money-saving tip in two sentences:
Learning to say NO to expensive temptations is critical. All you have to do is hold your purse strings the right way and things will be quite alright.
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