standard expenses question

[justplaintired]

Can anyone tell me if this is still the standard expenses? Do the trustees still consider this amount for a family of 4 fair.

Food 752.00
Housekeeping 74.00
Apparel 244.00
personal care 65.00
misc 235.00

I found this on a sticky but it was dated 2005. I wanted to find out if this was still something that is consider ok by a trustee.

[lrprn]

JPT, there are no "standard" acceptable expenses except for the ones that must be used from the IRS (transportation, housing) when filling out the Means Test. The aveage figures for expenses vary widely across the US by neighborhood.

For example, food and gas typically cost more on the coasts than in the midwest. Therefore those trustees on the east and west coasts generally allow higher expenses for food and car costs than trustees in the midwest.

I wish there were average expenses to give you, but only an experienced lawyer who knows what the trustees are accepting in your local court can really tell you what's going to be ok in your area and what will be considered too high.

If you post what you decide to enter on your forms here, we can give you our opinions. However, understand that they are just that - best guesses. If you can tell us the state you live in, perhaps one of our members who also lives there can give you an idea of how your expenses compare with theirs?

[justplaintired]

Thanks!

I will post what I have come up with. I spent all last night going over income again and came up with $3177 a month by adding up all deposits into our cking acct for a 1 year period. Since we both have W-2 jobs along with 1099Misc jobs, I was curious how close we came and we were right on the money with our expenses for those self employeed jobs. So I believe our income is good and am not worried about that.

Now all I need to do is come up with a fair expense amount. I am calling my attorney today, they have my paperwork and I am hoping they have reviewed it by now. I called last week, but they hadn't gotten to it yet, they are overwhelmed with BK cases. I know they will be helpful and our attorney already gave us fair figures in some categories. He is aware of what trustees will not question and didn't want us going over on those expenses. The others he left for us to figure is what has me stumped. Gas for cars??? Since we charged gas for so long, honestly I don't know what we spend. What's fair. At $4 for a gallon of diesel for our truck, $30 didn't even give us half a tank. That will only run us about a week. My car (jeep) since my Kia has problems, $25 only give me about half a tank and that only runs me about a week. That's $55 a wk for gas. That doesn't even include repairs on older cars. ($800) in repairs on my Kia, which will sit until we can save that up.

Family of 4 living on $3177 a month doesn't seem like alot when you start thinking you have house payments, utilities, gas, food, clothes...... I know with budgeting we can do it. We just have to learn, if we don't need it, it can wait. Retraining our brains will be the hardest part. DH and I had an argument this weekend over exactly that. I am doing ok, he isn't.

[ejny65]

Hi Just plain:
I have not filed yet and I am a lot like you. The best way that I have done is to open a spread sheet or even on paper, right down everything you spent from your check book, and all the deposits, based on the date and category. I was amazed with expenses and deductions that I have to deduct. All yesterday we did this and I am a lot more comfortable now.
I don't ever think trustee will ask why you spent X amount of dollar for gas? and if you don't have luxury spending (I know you don't, I have read some of your posts) you will be ok. You probably have huge amount of heating bills, we do too, and trustees are well aware of that. I don't think anyone will object on auto repair, gas and utilities, unless they are way way higher than usual.
At first, when I saw the standard deduction I assumed that I should pay $200 for clothing per month! lol... what I have learned form here is that if you are broke, and if you just try to put food on the table and pay regular monthly family expenses and you have no money to spare you are fine. Good Luck!