The Hidden Costs of Moving

The first weeks after a move to a new home are often filled with unexpected costs. Be forewarned! Some of these expenses can be planned for, and others will totally blow your budget. Here are just a few that we've encountered:

* Driver's licenses and titles for all of the automobiles.

* A new electric dryer for the laundry room (because our new house does not have gas hookup!).

*  A new lawn mower (because the old one died right before the move).

* Numerous trips to the local home improvement store to find everything from light bulbs to picture   hangers.

* New chair cushions for the outdoor patio set ( sold the old ones in a garage sale).

* Numerous trips to Target to find everything from shower curtain liners to cleaning supplies.

* Two new automobiles because the old ones did not pass state emissions and safety inspections.

Okay, that last item on the list may have been a bit more expensive than we'd planned. Sure, we knew that a van with 175,000 miles would probably have some issues. And we knew that a twelve year old Saturn was just buying time. But we really weren't prepared for the double whammy of two new cars in the same month. Ouch!

Needless to say, this is the summer of the "staycation", where we explore what our new city has to offer on the cheap.We're getting creative with our budget whenever possible.

We sold the old dryer on Craigslist, and used the money to finance the purchase of an ipad for my husband's work. I am scouring ebay to find the items I'll need for a bathroom remodel project. We're putting a moratorium on restaurants and opting to "eat in".

There are so many things we'd rather be spending money on now...like the countless home improvement projects we have in store. It looks like those projects will have to wait a little longer.