Moving costs money

It may seem like common sense to assume that moving a family to another country would be a long and costly process. But I confess that since this was my first full military move, I didn't realize just how expensive and frustrating it would be! I thought, hey, great, the military is covering all our moving expenses: moving company, shipping our vehicle, per diem stipends for food and hotels the week before we moved, and a reimbursement for the hotel the first week we arrived here, etc. They even gave us a "redecorating allowance" of almost $2,000 when we got here! Since we stayed with family instead of in hotels, and I wasn't planning to do any crazy 'redecorating,' we thought we might even make some money on it. Ha!

First of all, let me explain that even though certain travel dates might be 'covered for reimbursement' from the military, you still need to pay for them out of pocket. You save your receipts, submit a claim, and then wait for several WEEKS for your request to be accepted. You are probably going to have to make that credit card payment before the military money actually hits your account. So you need to have several paychecks worth of liquid savings ready to handle the unusual expenses. And if you travel on anything besides your approved dates (i.e. the hotel we stayed in the night we moved out of our house, which was 1 month before our actual pcs flight) those expenses won't be reimbursed at all because they are not on the correct dates.

Secondly, there are going to be unexpected expenses. In our case, it was the rental car when we first got here. We had discussed the possibility of renting, since our only vehicle would take a month to ship here, but we knew we would have to wait and see where our temporary lodging was, how far it was from my husbnd's work, and whether I could walk or bike to a grocery store. Well, our first week was in a hotel out in town--which the military reimbursed. But that meant we needed to drive 15 minutes to base--and the rental car was NOT reimbursed. And it cost $500 per week. THAT we did not expect. Can we say gouging the tourists? We turned it in as soon as we could and bought a beater for my husband to commute with, but of course we needed a few thousand dollars in cash to purchase a used car. So even though we had sold his old truck and saved the money, it was just another big purchase we had to make in our first weeks here.

Third, be prepared for huge inconsistencies in the military paycheck. There are a lot of adjustments that need to be made during a PCS move, and sometimes they don't get changed correctly in the computer payment system. So my husband had to check his pay schedule repeatedly, and see if it was accurately reflecting our situation. For a long time, it wasn't. For example, since we moved from a house we owned in North Carolina to base housing in Spain, his BAH had to be taken away, but that didn't occur on the correct date. We receive a cost-of-living allowance here (COLA) based on his rank and family size, but for some reason it was calculated as if he lived alone in the barracks. The good news is that anything they owe you they will eventually give you when you make a correction request. But it is your responsibility to stay on top of it, and be prepared for adjustments to take several pay cycles to get worked out. Going several paychecks in a row missing a few hundred dollars each time really affects the family's budget! Also, anything you owe them they will eventually take back. So if you got advance pay before the move, or if they somehow overpaid you in some of the pcs calculations, you may suddenly receive a paycheck much lower than usual because they subtracted what you 'owe.' So again, it's really important to have extra liquid savings to get through these paycheck inconsistencies.

Fourth, as for that 'redecoration allowance,' let me tell you it was not spent on picture frames and paint. Partially because it didn't hit our account until we had lived here almost 2 months! But mostly because, when you move, you throw away or sell a lot of your old items. I made over $1,000 selling furniture, children's clothes, toys, outdoor equipment, yard tools, etc. BUT... some of that you need to buy new after you arrive. All those liquids, flammables, batteries, and compressed items that the moving company wouldn't ship will have to be re-purchased. Your kitchen pantry will have to be restocked. And you will have to purchase household goods to accommodate your new home layout, number of bathrooms, etc. Luckily, we brought our curtains, and the major furniture for most rooms. But we had to buy rugs since this house is all tile and our former was all carpet. We bought a bedroom set for my daughter, an outdoor patio table and chairs, a new grill for my husband, a desk and tables to work on in the living room, and a TV stand since we now have solid concrete walls. In the 1st month here, we were living with 'temporary furniture' loaned to us from base, and whatever clothes and toys and kitchen equipment we had thought to send in our express shipment. But just to keep us same, we bought a few new toys and movies for the kids, and... a TV for my husband. (Yes, he has been wanting a 3D TV for years, so I finally let him get one). To find our way around, we had to get a gps. I canceled my old smart phone, and purchased a cheap Spanish prepaid cellphone. Are all of these NEEDS? Well, I can make arguments for each one, but some of them I had not originally thought would be needs and I intended to space out the purchases a little more. But in the first few months here, getting into a routine and finding comfort in the familiar is more important than you might previously realize. We tried to wait it out and not buy things we knew were coming in our main shipment, but it was a good time to get things we had been holding off on for a year or so. Unfortunately, when you first get here, you don't know good stores to shop around and get things, and you aren't sure what a competitive price is, so you are stuck paying whatever the NEX tells you is a fair deal. So, once again: be prepared for enormous credit card bills, and have a plan for paying them off!

Finally, closing out your former billing accounts can be expensive! I called in early August to schedule cancellation of our water, electricity, cable, internet, security system, cell phones, car insurance, etc. Most companies made me pay the final balance immediately upon cancellation, no matter where we were in the billing cycle. Others mailed me a bill a few weeks later asking twice our usual monthly amount for a 'cancellation fee.' And some made me pay ahead into the next billing cycle to process my request. So in short, our 'typical' monthly bills were all over the place for the months of August and September. We had to make extra phone calls to clarify and change some charges, others we just had to pay. We did receive a refund eventually from the car insurance since we were already paid through the end of the year, but that was the only one. If you are renting an apartment, be prepared to pay 2 months' rent, and don't count on receiving your security deposit. We owned our home, but provided a finder's fee to our rental company and gave the first month rent-free, since it is a competitive market, so we had to pay 1 month mortgage out of pocket. If we had not found renters in time, we could have gone on paying a mortgage indefinitely-- a situation we were prepared for, but hoping to avoid.

I am writing this now, because it is exactly 3 months since the movers packed up our shipment, 2.5 months since we moved out of our North Carolina house, and 7 weeks since we arrived here. Yesterday's paycheck FINALLY resolved some of the money issues we made claims for. All our former billing accounts are closed and paid off, and we have now finished 1 month of regular billing here, so we know what to expect for our phone, grocery, and gas payments. We are just now able to start a family budget again. Things have been, well--not normal--ever since July, so it has been very difficult to establish any kind of predictable budget. We got in the habit of just paying what we were told, buying what we needed to get by, trying not to make any excessive purchases, but at the same time not cutting back in other areas when making large purchases. But now, our credit cards are paid, we are back on track, and ready to actually start a saving plan again! I can't say I enjoy budgeting for the groceries, but I do enjoy saving for our children, and the sense of control and empowerment that comes from staying within a family budget. Moving is a long process-- it takes months, not weeks. And it IS expensive, even if the military supposedly covers most of it. So plan ahead, but most of all be prepared with lots of liquid savings. And know that USAA and the Marine Corps Relief Society offer low interest or even interest-free loans if you get into a tight spot!