Insurance Switched

After hearing about how the cost of living will be lower where we are headed in Texas, our first exposure to the new costs was not positive. Our insurance rates will be higher in Port Lavaca than here in Phoenix. Shocking. Not only that, the new rate will reflect zero miles for commuting to our workplace. The new agent in Texas informed us that Texas has the second highest auto insurance rates in the country - behind New York. Our auto insurance will be about $20/Mo higher in Texas for almost identical coverage. There is a way we can reduce the premium though, and that is by installing a unique device in our vehicles for three months - called a Right Tracker (?). This device monitors your vehicle use for three months and can lower your premiums by up to 30% depending on results. The agent feels that, with our truck basically "parked" for three months, and only local, pleasure use of the Escape, we should get close to the 30% discount. I hope he's right.

I started loading the truck with our packed boxes and items we will be taking to storage. We also have to take our table and chairs which we will load tomorrow when we make the trip. We are doing a great job, I believe, in downsizing our load for the trip to Texas.

We want to clean our carpets yet before leaving and have decided to check out the cleaners that you rent from the grocery stores to see if they are cost effective. Our carpet is not the large, and we can possibly save some money by doing it ourselves and not calling somebody like COIT or Stanley Steemer. We'll check that out today...