Oct 20 2008
To DITY, or not to DITY?
So over at a friend’s house tonight, we were discussing our upcoming PCS’s. Our friend said, “Wow, Texas to Georgia. You could really make a lot if you did a DITY.” For those who don’t know, DITY means ‘do it yourself’ move. And I have to admit, I’ve already harbored thoughts of attempting a DITY for this upcoming PCS.
Which leads me to ask myself- have I gone completely insane?
My husband and I have done two moves since we were married in September 2006. Our last move was paid for and conducted by the military and it went very smoothly. Our first move was a DITY, three weeks into our marriage- and that was almost the end of it too. I had a few moments there, during our DITY, that I really thought one of us was going to resort to violence. I mean, it was BAD.
And yet, I’m flirting with the idea of doing it again. Maybe DITYs are like childbirth. I’ve never experienced the latter but I’ve been told that no matter how excruciatingly painful the birth is, no matter how vehemently you might vow that you’ll never put yourself through that again, most women find some way to get past those painful memories and convince themselves, “Well . . . it wasn’t REALLY that bad. I can do it again.” I’m feeling that way about the DITY now.
It helps that I found a little online calculator which informed me that we could possibly walk away from a DITY with an cool $6,000. I asked my husband tonight, “What if we made a pact, before the DITY, that no matter what happens, we’ll still stay married? We can shake on it . . . and sign our names in blood.” Yes- a DITY can be that bad.
I guess I have to decide how much my sanity is worth. $6,000 sounds like a lot of money when you’re in the process of quitting your job to pursue your dream career (which does NOT include a guaranteed source of income). Am I crazy to consider this?
3 Responses to “To DITY, or not to DITY?”
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Good luck! I hate moving, but tend to move around all the time.
By the way, you’ve been tagged, come to my blog to check it out!
three times a bridesmaid
You’ll probably have to learn all the ins and outs of the military move through a combination of advice, briefings, your own research, and good old fashioned experience. Learning all this military stuff seems like a part time job, sometimes!
However, I can give you the basics of the DITY:
-The AF will pay for you to move when you PCS (Permanent Change of Station). If you choose to move without DOD movers, however, the military will pay you 90% (or it might be 95%- not sure) of what they would have paid movers to get the job done. This can be a great deal for you because the government will pay as much as twice for a mover as what you would if you hired them yourself.
-You can “make” even more on the move if you skip the professionals altogether and do the UHaul thing. However, at that point you need to weigh the value of your sanity against the money you’ll be making. Moving yourself is . . . awful!