Today's savings: Thousands

Making a long-distance move to a new home? You can save by doing some or all of the packing yourself.

It can cost thousands to hire a moving company to pack and move, but many companies offer a reasonable price to provide boxes that you can pack yourself, saving the fee of having the moving company do that hourly work. Companies often drop off the boxes, scheduling a pickup time for the packed goods.

Another way to save is to arrange for a PODS — Portable on Demand Storage — unit to be delivered to your house as much as a month before your move. You can pack these large storage containers at your leisure, and then have the company pick up the PODS and deliver it to your new home anywhere in the country. If there is some time gap between leaving your old home and moving into your new home, PODS will store your goods for up to 30 days at no extra charge.

If this is just too much work, make sure you get bids from multiple long-haul companies to make sure you're getting the best price. And, of course, if you're moving only a short distance, the savings will be in having good friends willing to help you lift and truck your possessions to your new home.

-- TipHero.com

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