I'm moving from the West Coast to the Midwest and I'm trying to find the best method (balance of frugality, safety, and convenience).
Originally, I was going to drive (with all of my stuff packed in the backseat/trunk). According to a few road-trip planning sites, I would be looking at a 3-4 day drive spending ~$500 on gas, lodging, and food. On the other hand, based on current bids from uShip, it seems like shipping the car would cost $1000-1500 (still cheaper than the $1500-2500 I've been quoted from various sites for just shipping my stuff sans my car?) + ~$200 for the plane ticket and shuttle. There's also the fact that my move-in date for the apartment in the Midwest is 4 days after the day the lease for my apartment in the West Coast ends, which would mean if I fly out the day my lease ends I'd have to find temporary housing for a couple days before I can move into my apartment.
So it seems like right now the cheapest option is to do the 3-4 day drive. On the other hand, safety is a concern: I've never driven more than ~300 miles at once, and my car isn't super amazing (2006 Scion xA with 140K mi--according to my parents it won't survive the trip, but they're generally against any of their children driving any distance for any reason whatsoever and they haven't even seen the car yet, so they might just be saying that to keep me from driving--my second thoughts on driving for the move are largely based on my parents' insistence that I don't). Having someone ship everything for me would also save a lot on time and headaches.
I also thought about selling my car, but apparently it would cost about half as much to pack all of my stuff into my car and ship it than it would be to ship all of my stuff sans the car? Or maybe I have to do some more research.
So any thoughts? Is the extra cost of shipping my car and flying out worth my (and my parents') safety concerns? Or would it be perfectly okay to make the roadtrip and save the money?
July 06, 2017 at 02:09PM
