# Lounge > General >  Moving across the country. Amy idea on costs?

## gmc72

My wife is from Newfoundland and has been thinking about moving back. Since my company is fully WHF, there is no issue on my end. I am just wondering if anyone else has done a cross-country move, and what the costs associated with it might be.

Thanks.

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## SJW

> My wife is from Newfoundland and has been thinking about moving back. Since my company is fully WHF, there is no issue on my end. I am just wondering if anyone else has done a cross-country move, and what the costs associated with it might be.
> 
> Thanks.



My brother moved from Manitoba out there but that was 6 years ago so might be outdated. I'll ask him.

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## Cagare

Depends how much you are moving and how little work you want to do.

Paying someone to move a 3 bedroom house, and just driving your cars across budget $10-20k just in move related expenses. Want to do it with UHAUL and one car trailer considerably cheaper, but still in the $5-10k range I am betting. It will really come down to how convenient you want the move to be. I have done two cross Country moves, they have cost about the same both times. Last time was in 2018. If I were to do it again, I would sell everything and just drive across with what I can carry and buy all new.

Also, this is not considering your real estate related costs, depending if you own out here or are buying out there.

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## gmc72

Thanks.

We would most likely sell a lot of our stuff here, and just take essentials. We would sell our place here and buy a place out there (property values are less there).

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## ThePenIsMightier

Companies can and will change their mind about WfH personnel at a moment's notice. Ensure that your employment agreement explicitly covers this before moving and finding yourself out of work in a foreign place.

Also consider a massive culture shock. 

Also consider 3hr time difference. I don't care what anyone says, you will be strictly adhering to the company schedule and not the place where you live. 
I've done it with Vancouver and that's how it is.

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## Cagare

> Companies can and will change their mind about WfH personnel at a moment's notice. Ensure that your employment agreement explicitly covers this before moving and finding yourself out of work in a foreign place.
> 
> Also consider a massive culture shock. 
> 
> Also consider 3hr time difference. I don't care what anyone says, you will be strictly adhering to the company schedule and not the place where you live. 
> I've done it with Vancouver and that's how it is.



Yeah, that's all incredibly valid right here. Also, when it comes to salary negotiations if you are not in the area will they use that as leverage to give you less, I mean all of those things.

If you are selling everything just the move expenses figure $5-10k. Get your wife to get a job before you move and then you can claim all of your moving expenses on your taxes. You can only claim if you move for work/school.

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## suntan

Keep in mind too if you're an employee your employer will have to remit payroll to the newfie gov't.

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## gmc72

> Companies can and will change their mind about WfH personnel at a moment's notice. Ensure that your employment agreement explicitly covers this before moving and finding yourself out of work in a foreign place.
> 
> Also consider a massive culture shock. 
> 
> Also consider 3hr time difference. I don't care what anyone says, you will be strictly adhering to the company schedule and not the place where you live. 
> I've done it with Vancouver and that's how it is.



I currently work for a company in Toronto, but I am here in Calgary. The time difference isn't that big of a deal, as I will actually be closer.




> Keep in mind too if you're an employee your employer will have to remit payroll to the newfie gov't.



I am sure it will be similar to the way it is now, just with Newfoundland instead of Alberta.

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## 2Legit2Quit

I moved to PEI in 2017 and back to Alberta in 2019, drove across the country both times.

You are either looking at a few options, if you have a truck already then you have the option of buying an enclosed trailer and filling it as much as possible and driving across the country and taking the ferry over. From here you have the option of keeping said trailer or selling it once you're there.

Otherwise for the self trailer move you have the Uhaul option, which is what we did both ways with the 6x12 trailer. We sold and gave away as much as we could, took more or less zero furniture with us and took only what we could and packed both our vehicles to the gills. The Uhaul trailer does not fit much so you really really have to downsize if you don't compensate with sending your property out via other means.

With either then you are looking at gas costs to which you can guesstimate based on your fuel economy and factor in the towing aspect and you will be driving through some very hilly/mountainous areas once you hit northern Ontario and other areas. Then just food/hotel/extra expenditures.

I can say driving across the country fucking sucks, more so towing a trailer packed to the nines. We did the move east in 4 days during May and they were solid 12-15 hour days of driving, very mentally/physically taxing. The drive West we did in November and it took us 5 or 6 days, a few winter storms screwed us over pretty hard, easily one of the worst experiences of my life.

Alternatively you go with the full paying someone to move you and depending on how much you want to move, as others have said, it would be an easy $10k-20k, I would guess on the higher end of the spectrum. This will be the best and easiest option however, moving in general fucking sucks and the less you have to deal with, the better.

Moving containers are worth looking into, we used Big Steel Box last year with our move out of Calgary, really good experience as you can choose when to get the container dropped off and picked up, was nice to take our time loading the container and then just have it picked up and delivered at our new home on our desired date. The container rental cost is not a big deal, the distance it travels is where the $$$ resides, also more so depends on how rural of an area you may be moving to as some container services will only ship to more populous towns/cities.

I've moved 6 times in the past 10 years so I'm way too versed in moving and what goes along with it than I'd like to be haha.

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## killramos

Does Newfoundland still do 30 minute daylight savings?

That’s going to be hilarious

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## ExtraSlow

While lots of companies permit permanent WFH, it's a paperwork hassle for them to have employees in a new province. Changes more than payroll deductions on their end. Maybe they are set up to handle it, maybe not. 

Also are you ready to pay 50% more income tax and 3x sales tax? Because that will eat into the savings you are banking on.

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## killramos

Plus. You have to live in newfoundland

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## vengie

Sounds like a terrible idea

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## gmc72

> Plus. You have to live in newfoundland



Meh, Happy wife, happy life.

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## killramos

Rip

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## vengie

If my wife asked me to move back to her home province of Saskatchewan she would be going alone.

Perhaps you're a better man than I, but fuck that... let alone moving to Newfoundland.

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## killramos

Have you considered a test run for a month or 2?

Hell of a lot cheaper than either a divorce or having to move back after you realize the newfies leave for a reason.

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## ExtraSlow

VRBO a place for 2 months in winter and see how it goes.

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## JRSC00LUDE

> Meh, Happy wife, happy life.



What an awful way to live, I hope that was said in jest. 

Newfoundland is pretty though.

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## ExtraSlow

Happy wife happy life is a useful philosophy when you have no other overriding concerns or are generally ambivalent. This situation requires a little more thought than that.

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## 2Legit2Quit

There's a lot of hate in this thread but I can't argue all of it haha. If you noted my previous comment regarding moving to PEI and back to Alberta, we only lasted 2 years there.

I grew up on the island and moved to Alberta when I was 18, took yearly trips during summers generally to go visit friends/family for a week and when it came time to buy our first home we figured why not, move to PEI as we both work from home full time and have our dollar go further as far as property/home ownership goes.

Living there is much much different than visiting there, I have a strong hatred for the province and its people now. I haven't gone back to visit since we moved back to Alberta in 2019, partly due to Covid but I'm still not planning to go back any time soon.

I don't want to go full rant/hate session, but also don't want to see others go through my pain/mistake.

I definitely made the move with rose tinted glasses on, get to see friends and family regularly, more property for cheap, quieter/smaller province to raise kids, etc. Can come back to Alberta whenever I want, tour around the maritimes, and so on.

None of that really played out, I learned my family is dumb and I rarely ever hung out or saw most of them, my older sister lived 5 minutes away and I maybe saw her 1-2 times a month  :ROFL!:  People have their own lives and are busy. Old friends who I saw once a year were fine in small doses but seeing them regularly I quickly found out I didn't want to be friends with some and missed my Albertan friend base that had more aligned interests.

HST fucking sucks, I began to hate buying anything, set of tires for a grand? extra 100 bucks goes out the window. Higher income tax fucking sucks, and where do the tax dollars go? Might as well be right into the ocean. Roads and infrastructure, trash. Furnace oil/wood/electricity to heat your home fucking sucks, not having natural gas fucking sucks.

I have never actually been to NFLD but if folks there are similar to PEI, the mindset of locals is brutal. The sentient way of "that's just how it is here" life is brutal to me, everyone just stomached basic grievances brought on by the province or gov. Terrible problem, do something about it? Nah, that's just how it is here. Terrible lazy folks, people who don't want to work and collect pogey, everyone blindly Liberal, it's a much much different mindset than what Albertans have.

Healthcare system is beyond bad, people shit on Alberta and Canada's healthcare system, some of it being warranted, but we were told to expect a 6+ year wait for a family doctor alongside any major services you'd have to go off island for.

We also ended up hating the time change with our work schedules, I worked off Central time and my wife off Mountain, we'd both end up working until 6, 7, 8pm and would make dinner and go to bed. That may not apply to you but it actually really sucks.

After a year and a half or so we sat down and talked about the quality of life we had, our bills and cost of living there compared to Alberta, and if we were going to full commit to living there or rip the band-aid and move back......we moved back.

All that being said, I could go on about other factors and experiences but I do also know that some people make the move to islands and absolutely love it....I actually don't have a problem with island life but for what we got out of living there, it made no sense to stay.

If you're actually serious about making such a move then really take into account cost of living, expectations and what is important to your lifestyle.

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## Swank

Happy husband, nobody gets shot. It doesn't have to rhyme.

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## gmc72

Those are all really good points. I know that there is a reason most of them leave and come here, hell my wife and most of her family did. I think she is feeling nostalgic for the Island, a lot of Newfie's do. She's had a rough couple of weeks, and floated this idea. It's not set in stone, and not happening anytime soon. I was just trying to find out how viable it could be, and what sort of costs were involved. 

I really don't have a preference on where I live (except for Ontario). Most of my family lives elsewhere, and I hardly see the ones that do live here. I have lived here most of my life, so a change of scenery is welcome. The only thing that is really holding me here is my wife and my son (24). 

Thanks for all the replies.

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## Jlude

I'm from New Brunswick. I lived in Winnipeg for 9 years and felt nostalgic, so I moved back to New Brunswick. Lasted 1 1/2 years. Want to travel? Going anywhere is a PITA. I remember a handful of times flying from Montreal or Toronto to Saint John and it was too foggy to land, so we had to go back. Best case, we land in Moncton. My entire family is from NFLD (Harbor Breton) & Cape Breton (Arichat), but I grew up in NB. I suggest you rent a place and spend 6 months before you go all in. 

Related to costs, I believe it was around 8k to get our stuff shipped.

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## Team_Mclaren

> Those are all really good points. I know that there is a reason most of them leave and come here, hell my wife and most of her family did. I think she is feeling nostalgic for the Island, a lot of Newfie's do. She's had a rough couple of weeks, and floated this idea. It's not set in stone, and not happening anytime soon. I was just trying to find out how viable it could be, and what sort of costs were involved. 
> 
> I really don't have a preference on where I live (except for Ontario). Most of my family lives elsewhere, and I hardly see the ones that do live here. I have lived here most of my life, so a change of scenery is welcome. The only thing that is really holding me here is my wife and my son (24). 
> 
> Thanks for all the replies.



Just because a couple of rough weeks shouldnt expand into a rough few years for the move...
Is your son going with you? I cant imagine a 24 year old want to fuck off to NFL with limited opportunities and things to do.

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## ExtraSlow

Your 24 year old son lives with you? This may be genius. Move somewhere cheap and shitty until the kid moves out. Then move somewhere nice.

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## Cagare

> If you're actually serious about making such a move then really take into account cost of living, expectations and what is important to your lifestyle.



Lots of positives and negatives about living anywhere tbh. As long as you are happy with it then that is fine.

I do agree, I wouldn't want to age on the east coast. I think the most ideal location to age in Canada is probably southwestern Ontario, somewhere rural near London, similar medical services compared to our biggest Cities and a lot more opportunities for small town living if that is your thing. Aside from that people from the rock seem to always miss it there.

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## eblend

Just going off a single point you made, and has nothing to do with moving to PEI in itself (i think it sounds cool, but I have never been but dreamed about the idea...this thread has changed my mind haha)...but work from home part.

I too was a permanent work from home, signed a new contract a few months after covid lockdowns that specifically said that you are now work from home ect ect..given some cash to outfit a home office, moved my monitors ect from office to house, lost my office cubicle, my spot in line for underground parking......and now, two years later, they are telling us all to come back into the office 5 days a week, because the CEO wants to "re-energize" the space....so one person can change the whole WFH at a whim and a personal desire...so just a warning.

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## Nufy

Moving to town or around da bay ??

Biiiiiiiiigggggg Difference in quality of life and amenities shit to do etc...

Newfie women move home usually because they miss their families (Mom mostly...) Plus if you have kids the support structure (again family) is usually a lot better there.
Always a teenage girl looking to babysit for a few bucks an hours... At least again...around da bay.

Most flatlanders I know who have moved with their NL wives end up coming back sooner than later...either with them or without.

YMMV.

Good luck.

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## ExtraSlow

If me or my wife moved "home" we'd end up in Airdrie. I don't think I could deal with the swinger lifestyle.

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## gmc72

Most of her immediate family is here now, but her Mom and Dad would end up coming with us back to the island. So there's that as well (UGH). We decided to hold off for a few years, but might move back later on.

It's been on her mind for the past few years, so I'm sure it will happen at some point.

Thanks for all the responses. Got some good info.

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## vengie

> If me or my wife moved "home" we'd end up in Airdrie. I don't think I could deal with the swinger lifestyle.



Come back to me  :Love:

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## suntan

Put the pineapple right side up you tease.

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