notjustamilitarywife

In reviewing my traffic resources I have noticed a handful of people have found their way here through a Google search on “DITY calculator.”  I don’t know if they’ve found my DITY post helpful or not- however, I know they haven’t found an actual calculator on my site.  I know it can be hard to get all the information you need when planning a military move (or, for that matter, any type of move!) and deciding on the best course of action.  I thought I’d take a little time to gather some resources that I have found, from the web, here for the next person who stumbles onto my site looking for a DITY calculator!  All this is stuff you could find yourself, fairly easily, with the help of an internet search engine.  By gathering it here, though, hopefully I’ll save someone a little time in trying to find it all!

Weight Estimator

Before you can even use a DITY calculator, you’re going to need an estimate of how many pounds of belongings you’ll be moving.  Here’s a link to a place that you can get that: AF Weight Estimator

Note that this can be used for any branch of the service, or for civilians as well- the estimated weight of your stuff isn’t going to vary based on who you work for. : )

Remember, this only gives you an estimate.  However, this ought to be good enough to give you a decent idea of how much you’re going to be entitled to- once you make it to the DITY calculator.

Your Weight Allowance

You’ll want to make sure that you are within the allowed weight limit (based on rank and whether or not there are dependents).  Find that here: Joint Federal Travel Weight Allowances

If I am not mistaken, this chart should be accurate for all branches of the military- not just AF.

DITY Calculator

Now, for the good stuff: find out how much you are entitled to for your move.

You’ll need the weight estimate from earlier, the city and state of your move’s origin and destination, and the pay grade of the service member.  Note that while this DITY calculator is from the Navy’s website, I found a link to it from the AF Move website, and the calculator makes a mention of Marine moves- so I think it’s safe to assume this link is valid for any branch of the service.

Before your eyes light up and you have visions of plasma TVs or diamond jewelry dancing in your head, however, remember that you are going to need to use your DITY entitlement to actually move.  Meaning, that big number you might be looking at on your screen right now isn’t going to go straight into your savings account (or next big splurge).  If done right you can walk away with a little bit of profit, but the expenses of moving add up quick, so don’t go doing your victory dance just yet.

DITY Options

Probably the best way to pocket as much of your DITY entitlement as possible would be to rent a truck, pack and load everything yourself, drive to your next home, and unload without outside help.  This is also the best option if you are interested in throwing your back out, losing your sanity, or breaking up your marriage.

Unless you are insane or enjoy pain in all forms, I don’t recommend doing everything yourself.  The next step up would be to hire local movers at each location to help with loading and unloading.  You could pay an hourly rate, or a flat fee, depending on what you negotiate, and this shouldn’t put too much of a dent into your DITY payment.

Personally, though, I’d recommend looking into hiring a full service moving company yourself.  They’ll do everything that you’d get from a military sponsored move: the only difference is they’ll charge you less than they would the government, and you can pocket the remainder.  You probably won’t make a killing, but you will have a little extra cash to decorate your new place, plus, most likely you’ll still be married and have your health at the end of the process.

Here are a few other helpful references for planning a DITY move:

AF MOVE home (where I found many of the above resources-this has some good guides and checklists as well)

BaseOps FAQ  Scroll down to the PCS section for some great advice and plenty of good links

If you are looking for more resources via Google, it’s important to note that what I refer to as a ‘DITY move’ is now called a Personally Procured Move by the government- so you might have more luck finding info using this as a search term!

Hope this is helpful to someone!  Happy moving!

Trackback URI | Comments RSS