Questions about moving and if we do it ourselves!

[kiley91]

My husband will be graduating A school in May, and we currently have all of our stuff already packed and in a storage unit. So if we want to move ourselves what exactly are the steps we need to do. I will be picking him up from Great Lakes when he takes leave after school (because we live 4 hours away) so is there anything he needs to do before I pick him up to arrange that? Do we still get a moving allowance even if we do it ourselves? Also how do we get the DLA that I keep hearing everyone talk about? Does he have to have a hard copy of his orders before he can apply for that? if not, can he apply 3-4 weeks before he graduates school?  and where does he go? 

[Jenn_NicksWifey]

Per diem is the amount of money you get for food and lodging while you're traveling.  It's a set rate per day/per person.  There is usually an amount set for the servicemember and the dependents over age 18 get 75% of that and dependents under 18 get 50%.  It looks like the per diem rate is $129/day.  So your husband will get $129, you will get $96.75 and the baby will get $64.50.  For a total of $290.25 per day of authorized travel.  That's supposed to be for food and lodging and incidentals along the way.  You don't have to turn in receipts for the food and hotels, you just get that amount regardless of how much you spend on food and lodging.  We did it really cheaply, packed a cooler and stayed at Motel 6, so we made money on the per diem.  But you could make a mini vacation out of it and stay at nice places or eat out every meal, that's up to you.  

DLA means Dislocation Allowance.  It is a set rate of $2065.72 for the move (for ranks E-5 and below with dependents).  It's there to offset random costs of moving that don't fall into the other catagories.  Think stuff like - cleaning supplies, I bought new baskets to organize the closets, new trash cans if you need them, deposit and rent for a new place if you don't do military housing, stocking the refrigerator, maybe easy meals the last few days before and the first few days after you move, while your stuff is still not unpacked, that sort of thing.  Moving is expensive, so DLA helps a bunch.  

If you drive to your new duty station yourself, there's another allowance called MALT, which pays per mile per vehicle.  If you're driving 1 car 500 miles, you'll get 23.5 cents per mile.  so you'd get paid $117.50.  The Navy doesn't pay to ship cars within continental US (called CONUS), so if you have a car and want to keep it, you'll want to drive it most likely.  

All the figures I've given you here I found on this site:  DTMO - other rates and allowances

[kiley91]

What about gas that we put in a rental truck? Does that go under the actual moving expenses? Speaking of, what do you suggest as far as that goes. Around here we basically have budget and uhaul.

[Anti M]

MALT, I think.  

[Jenn_NicksWifey]

The gas, tolls, weigh stations receipts, any other expenses you have that are for moving your "stuff" are in the moving expenses.  That gets submitted to the Personal Property Office.  The expenses you have for getting your "selves" there are submitted to the Transportation Office.  It will be one big packet, but they are separate expenses.  So when you itemize the moving receipts, the truck gas receipts go with the truck rental bill, along with boxes, tape, etc.  

The gas receipts for your personal vehicle don't get submitted, but I held on to ours anyway, just in case we needed them.  For getting yourselves there, you get paid MALT (Monetary Allowance in Lieu of Transportation).  That's just a flat rate per mile for each personal vehicle you drive, no matter how much you spend.  We had to drive both of our cars because neither was big enough to hold 2 adults, 2 kids and 2 dogs.  So we got paid the per mile times two.  But you only get it if you're actually driving the vehicle.

We used U-Pack and I highly recommend them.  We tried another company for our 3rd move and were really disappointed.  They drop off a 28ft trailer, you load it yourself and they pick it up and drive it.  It was the cheapest, had the best policies (30 days storage on their trailer for free, 4 hr windows for drop off/pick up, etc).  The best part was that you only pay for the space you use.  We reserved 17ft because we had a 3 bedroom split level with a fully furnished basement and a full garage.  The first 5 feet are a set price, that's like their minimum which is cover all their expenses, like the driver.  After that, it was a set price per linear foot.  The trailers are tall and wide, so you can fit A LOT into 1 linear foot.  Definitely price shop, check out PODS and that sort of thing, too.  See what can be dropped off at your storage site or if you'll have to bring everything somewhere else to load it.  

[kiley91]

Oh I seen where we can do it however we want if we are doing it ourselves. Still unsure if we get the money before or after though. Also to get the DLA does he need to apply for this before he takes leave? Also how does he apply to get the however many days of moving leave? and where does he go to get the DLA? that link was not working for me.

[Anti M]

You get some of the money beforehand, but he has to ask for it.  Been too long since I've done it myself for me to give you directions on that.  He needs to talk to his chain of command, get time to go to the travel office/personal property and so on.  Yes, he MUST do this before he checks out on leave.  

When he gets his orders, he lets them know he wants to take leave.  The orders will state how many days he has for leave, plus how many travel days he has in addition to that.  RAP is usually set up beforehand also, he needs to contact this recruiter and let them know he is planning on working with them.  This might not give him extra days at home, but the days he works will not be counted off his days of leave on the books.  He still has to abide by his Report No Later Than Date on the orders.

[kiley91]

OH, my husband's recruiter did tell him that he could do that RAP duty before he left for bootcamp. Does he have to apply for that through anyone? or how does that work, he never gave us anymore info on it. Also at the HEAT website do we want privatized housing? what is the difference between them?

[Anti M]

Privatized housing is "base housing" but it is not on base.  They take most or all of your BAH, that pays rent and utilities.  You never need to worry about budgeting, it comes out direct deposit.  You would have the support of Navy wives as neighbors.  If you rent privately, you can keep any BAh you do not spend, but you must pay your bills yourself, and find your own place to rent.  No telling who you get for neighbors.  Near a large base, it is likely to be military anyway.

[kiley91]

Ok, question. Like I said we basically have everything packed in a storage unit already. The house we had previously was very tiny (900 sq feet) and we left quite a bit of stuff that we didn't want to bring. So do you think it would be cheaper to rent like a uhaul truck and have my husband drive that as long as he gets leave. We also only have one vehicle. That I eould drive. Or do you think it would be best to do like PODS. Or something. I have never dealt with them before. My only concern if we do the uhaul is that I will be 34 weeks pregnant and couldn't help unload heavy stuff. And we obviously won't know anyone yet to help unload when we get there. Just not sure what the best plan is. Especially since we have a very small amt of stuff. To give you an idea when we moved the stuff to storage we moved all of on a 7x16 ft trailer give or take a few things that we had in the car etc. Also if we live on base or privatized housing what does that include? Do they normally have washer and dryers or only hookups? And what about electric and cable/internet. Do we have to get that ourselves? I understand they take most/all of the BAH so wasn't sure if it covered like water and electric.

[Jenn_NicksWifey]

I really couldn't tell you which route is best for the move, whether PODS or uhaul.  My suggestion would be to get several quotes for several companies and their different methods.  Don't forget to factor in the fuel for the Uhaul for your quotes.  Uhauls get terrible gas mileage, I think the stats are online.  Most companies have several options for equipment.  Like UPack has PODS-like units and trucks.  No matter which way you go, unless you do a full service moving company, which is horribly expensive, you'll still have to do the load/unload.  Luckily, if you look on communities like Facebook pages ahead of time, you might be able to make some acquaintances that will be able to help, or steer you to some cheap hourly labor.  If you hire someone to help load/unload, include it in the moving expenses you submit for reimbursement.  

Privatized housing usually covers the home, electric, gas, water.  They are in the process of rolling out a program called RECP, where the tenants will pay extra if they go way over the average for a "like-sized" household in the same area, or if you're way under the average, you get a rebate.  We've been in "mock billing" stage here for a few months and we're seeing that we would be getting rebates, so I'm looking forward to it.  I believe RECP is set to go Navy-wide, but the when will vary greatly by region.  Our live billing dates keep getting pushed back.  

I'm in San Diego and we have Lincoln Military Housing as the company that manages housing.  They also include an alarm system with 24/7 monitoring (great for duty days or deployments!), a landline with dial-up internet (which we don't use, we pay for cable internet out of pocket), they do the front yard maintenance, the back yard is fenced in, so it's our responsibility.  There are several housing areas here in different parts of the city. Some come with a/c some don't, some have a washer and dryer, some just have hookups.  I'm not aware of any that don't have hookups, but I've only lived in this one area.  Not all of them have backyards, either, some are more like townhomes or brownstones.  Also, not all of them here take all of BAH.  There's usually a trade off for getting to keep some BAH.  For instance, a 4 bedroom in Vista Ridge only takes about 80% of BAH but it's an hour drive to the bases in San Diego.  Or Ramona Terrace seems to have very small units, but you get to keep some BAH.  Once he gets his orders, you can get all the details you need because you'll know which base you're going to.  Before you really know, you can't plan too much ahead.  And if it's San Diego, let me know!  

There are also a lot of yard sales or moving sales around here.  People are constantly moving in and out and there are great deals on things like furniture and appliances, especially from people who are moving overseas and don't want to store their stuff for 4 or 5 years.  So don't stress about having or not having a washer and dryer, you'll probably be able to get one cheap.