Tried renting a U-Haul instead of a moving company for my Atlanta move

I was moving from a 1-bedroom apartment in Atlanta to a house in the suburbs and thought I'd save money by renting a U-Haul for $60 a day. I figured it would be cheaper than the $1,200 quote I got from a local moving company. Turns out I spent $180 on the truck plus $40 in gas, and I had to bribe two friends with pizza and beer to help load stuff. One friend bailed last minute and it took me 6 hours longer than I planned, which was miserable. Learned that for moves with stairs or heavy furniture, paying a pro is totally worth it. Has anyone else tried the budget route and regretted it?

2 comments

2 Comments

dylan_ward5d ago

I saw a post online recently where someone compared renting a U-Haul to "paying your friends in pizza and resentment" and that pretty much sums up your experience. That part about bribing your friends with pizza and beer got me because I did the exact same thing for my last move and one guy showed up hungover. The stairs and heavy furniture part is the real killer though, I threw my back out on a cheap move and that $60 truck rental ended up costing me a lot more in pain and lost time. Did you at least get any good pizza out of the deal before everything went sideways?

the_faith5d ago

Man, that pizza and resentment line hits way too hard haha. And yeah, I did get the pizza but honestly it was like one of those cheap chain joints because I was trying to save money and nobody even ate it until after we finished because everyone was too tired. I grabbed a pepperoni and sausage but by the time we sat down it was cold and the cheese had turned into this weird rubbery skin. The hungover friend thing is brutal too, I had one guy who claimed his back hurt and just sat on the couch directing traffic while me and another dude did all the heavy lifting. That cheap move ended up costing me a lot more than the truck rental too with missed work and muscle pain for three days.