Expense question

[otguy2003]

We are pending confirmation on our 13 case. We have been paying 300 a month for 3 months however. I have a car being paid outside the plan and daycare will be ending next year. My question is this...next year will my plan payment go up because I no longer have the 500 car payment or the 600 daycare? My income will not increase more than maybe 3000. a year.
One more question..if I DONT have to pay more can I save this money and pay cash for a car without approval since its not a "debt"?

[optimistic1]

Unless you were given specific instructions to report to the trustee about the change in expenses, I would not even bother.

The trustee could care less, he just wants the 300 a month until your plan is over.

The extra money that you would come into, could easily be applied towards other allowable expenses, like car repairs, gas, food, clothing, etc.

Yes you could pay cash for a car, thats the best way to buy one anyway.

[EricaCallaha]

Your plan could go up now because if the trustee looks closely at your auto loan, he will see that you will have $500 extra each month to pay into the plan. Just be careful. The daycare, I wouldn't worry about. The car is the one with the paper and he might look at it.

Good luck.

[otguy2003]

My car is being paid outside the plan. So after confirmation does anyone think the trustee will look at my plan and say hey this guys car must be paid off by now lets raise his payment? I thought once stuff was confirmed the trustee cant change it.

[Granny]

I was in a similar situation when I filed back in '06 except my car paid off in month 3 and my day care ended a year later. The trustee was well aware of the change in the car payment and took that into consideration when re-writing my plan. He did not however look at the change in day care, but my day care was only 165 a month.

I think this will be one of those YMMV (your mileage may vary) situations that depends on the specific trustee the same way tax refunds vary by trustee.

[UpsideDownMI]

In my district there court opinions posted on the courts website about this subject. The judge ruled that the trustee can not raise plan payments when the car was paid off. This is because the debtor had a higher mileage car that may need to be replaced shortly after it is paid off. If your car has over 100k miles on it I would use that argument if needed.