Relocating to a New City for Work: How to Do It, Cheaply

I have recently relocated to a new city for work. I will be starting to work at Monolith, which is under WB Games as of now. This move has brought me from Austin, TX, to Kirkland, WA. I must say that the move and cost of living have impacted my finances and balancing everything is a necessity in order to survive and make it to your first day of work. Here are some tips that I have come up with and the procedures that I have taken to make the most out of relocation:

1. Make sure you have money saved before relocating. This is especially true if your position is planned to be temporary in the future (designers and artists), or if the company is not willing to pay relocation expenses. I thought that most companies would offer something for relocation, but this is not the case. Overall, my gas money through car travel, staying in inexpensive hotels, and stocking groceries and amenities items for a new apartment have been close to $1000, altogether. Add the cost of an apartment near $800-$1000 a month and the security deposit fee and a relocation will be about $2,500. And that is about the most inexpensive that I could make it.
2. Find a living condition with a short-term lease. My first choice was to do a short term lease in a shared housing situation, say three months, with month-to-month payment after that. You never know how long a contract position will last and you want to plan on being able to end your rental contract at the same time as your employer ends your employment contract. If you get a full time position out of it then it would be the time to look for an upgrade. I eventually ended up in a one bedroom apartment that was offering a 3 month or 11 month lease. I asked for a 6 month lease, since my contract is around 10 months in length and I did not want to have to pay the extra month on the 11 month term, but I also didn't want to ask for the full 10 months in case I find another job elsewhere or the contracted is ended early. This happened to a colleague of mine: his contract was ended a few months early and he is now staying in his apartment in New York to look for jobs because he doesn't want to deal with the hassle of subletting and finding someone else to cover his rent payment.
3. Try and find a place to live that is already furnished. An included bed, desk, and kitchen/cooking-ware and furniture is all a plus. This is why I usually prefer to share a house with someone rather than finding an apartment. Buying a new bed, desk, cleaning supplies, plates and kitchenware, etc., are all expensive and if you will be moving soon anyway you are not going to be able to store those things anywhere. I barely made my trip with all of my luggage packed into my smaller-than-average car, and now I have a couple of more items that I am either going to have to try and sell quickly on Craiglist, donate, or throw away once I move. The apartment I found thankfully had temporary tenants in mind and includes a bed, desk, microwave, mini-fridge, bookcase and chair. I've never seen anything like it before and it's in a nice building. SCORE!
4. For anything that you do need to buy that you won't be able to bring with you if you have to move again, buy it at Goodwill or a thrift store. I can't stress this enough: buying used and better-quality furniture is possibly the best tactic and secret for saving money than buying new junk that is higher priced. By the time you've used it for a few months it will used anyway. Also, this is the definition of recycling and you are reducing all of the unnecessary waste that is already putting too much stress on the environment. I like to go to the Goodwill locations in the best areas of town because they always have higher-quality items and are usually the same price as the poorer locations. Even though I can easily afford new items, I like to save money and use that for other things such as vacations or new video games or items that I am really passionate about: not another set of plates and eating utensils.
5. Don't make the trip a vacation unless you really needed one anyway. For my case, I had already taken a long vacation beforehand. I did not want to make additional stops along my road trip as this would add to extra nights booking hotels. Hotels are the single most expensive item in travel, other than gas costs--which are unpreventable--so I prefer to not have to spend many days on the road and get an apartment or room to rent as soon as I reach my location. After all, you are moving to work, not to have fun. You can have fun once you've settled down at your job and started earning a new paycheck and have some savings coming in. Again, I have savings already but I want to choose to go on a vacation on my own terms and I usually want to visit locations that can't be seen from a road trip (such as to other countries, or a beach or unique town that is away from common interstates).

This is my advice for relocating for a new job and keeping in practical. It is a bit daunting with the cost and time that it takes to get setup in a new location, and you still are not mentally-settled until a month or more. I think that most people are too afraid that they can't afford it because they are thinking in terms of retail and top price for everything, but this doesn't have to be the case. The last thing you want to do is to use a credit card for traveling and get into debt. Although I used mine so I don't overdraft my main checking account, if you are already in debt I suggest you learn how to handle your own financing before trying to use a credit card to solve your financial problems. You will be using the first couple of weeks at the job just to pay for your relocation expenses. I hope that I have encouraged you to take the risk and choose to relocate for a new opportunity. I am not sure about doing this if you do not already have a job secured, but it is definitely worth it if you do.

-Ken