After tallying up my totals and looking at “whats missing” in my apartment and what I have spend, I think I can give you a good idea.

First off to start, DONT MOVE ANYTHING, okay maybe clothes, personal valuables, and collectibles from the area your moving from. My first piece of advise would be to sell as much as you can before you move. This can save on gas money (especially if your moving from FL to CO!) as well you never understand how much crap you have until you put it in a car. Throughout college I moved about 8 to 10 times almost every summer I was in a new place and/or a different location. I found that what it comes time to pack, theres stuff that you thought would fit, doesnt.

As for money spending, take a look at the big items. Are you getting a new bed, are you transporting it, what would it cost to transport it rather then try and sell it and buy a new one. Maybe you want to upgrade from a twin or queen to a king or califoria.

Most of my big items were a bed, desk, bookshelve, vacuum, and frames. OMG i brought about 5 to 6 pictures/posts with me while moving, figuring I would get them framed when I moved out. Well after moving out and P off at Michaels it still was too expensive. I found a great place was IKEA. They got some nice frames and pretty cheap, but still a lot! When budgeting overestimate by a lot, I figured my bed would be about $1000, but it ended up being about $750. I went to Costco Homes and also held back and got a queen and not a king. The difference was almost $500, and I knew I wanted to spend the money on other stuff.

To sum this “long” comment up I would suggest somewhere from $5,000 to $10,000 depending on all the “new” stuff you plan to buy. This cost would NOT included paying a moving company. You should also understand that when renting sometimes you have to put up 2 months rent for security, so having this “pot” of cash can help with bills and “setup fees”. For example, my first months “setup fee” for electricity was $30! Yes, its a 1 time fee of $30 just to “have” electricity.

As for some other ideas, take the time and look online for coupons and discounts. Bed Bath and Beyond as well as Lines and Things are great to shop and always have 20% or 25% off coupons online. Google for them.

Hope this helps, Good Luck and let me know how it goes!

Well thanks for your time. The website I entered is a piece of crap the boyfriend made yesterday - so judge me not by my techno/www deficiencies. Thanks again!