I recently started a great new job that I am just in love with. The only catch – it’s 30 miles from where I’m living. So as I’m searching for that perfect new home, I have to start thinking about packing up my old one and hauling everything across town.

Since I started out at my current apartment right out of college and with very little in the way of personal belongings, a few trips with my parents’ van and I was good. Now I’m looking at a bedroom, kitchen, living room and bathroom full of stuff – a lot of stuff. Suddenly, ten trips across town with the van seems overwhelming. So now I’m thinking – no problem, I’ll just hire a moving company to move me. Right? Wrong. Unless you are working for a really generous company who will reimburse you for moving costs, or have a couple extra thousand dollars sitting in your bank account, forget this option.

So I need to be budget friendly. And single chick friendly. But my dad and brother can always get bribed into helping for food. I can rent a big U-Haul truck for about $60 for a full day locally, and I can actually buy tons of different types of boxes from the U-Haul website, and pick them up in any of the stores. They can get spendy if you’re buying ALL nice boxes, but for $8 apiece, a few hanging wardrobe boxes seem smart, as do glass packing kits for around $10 apiece.

I figure I can get away with spending about $60 on nice boxes, and then I can get thrifty. I noticed that there are always people selling their used boxes on Craig’s List (guess I can maybe recoup a few bucks doing the same when I’m done), and there’s always the local big box liquor store that is willing to give away a bunch of medium sized boxes – and when you think about it, most things in your home fit nicely in those!

If I go this route, I think I’m only out about $200, plus a home cooked meal. What better way to break in my new home!