? about redoing budget

[helpless]

My husband got a new job and we have to redo our budget in a couple of months. Attorney said to wait 120 days to see how finances work out and wait out probation period. My 12 year old daughter needs braces, do you think it would be okay to go ahead and get those and then add them to the expense when we have to have new budget done. She will be in them for three years and if we wait until we are done with plan, she would be close to 16 and she is self conscious now about it, I can't imagine waiting until she is 16. TIA.

P.S. My husband doesn't really make anymore than before, maybe $100 a month more after taking higher insurance premiums, deductibles, and prescription costs. I have a son that is diabetic and needs insulin pump supplies and medications that are only covered at 50%, which means we will be spending close to $300 a month on his supplies, we use to spend about $45. The only thing that makes it look like we make more is my husbands car allowance, but I am told that that is exempt because it is not consider "income."

[SinkingFast]

Good advice from your attny to wait and see how things shake out with the new job and benefits. Now you have a few months of paychecks and a few months of receipts of increased expenses to show that the costs offset the increased income.

About the braces,............ Having gone thru that with one child, I know the younger they are, the quicker they respond to correction. What would take year to accomplish in an "adult" takes only days to a couple of weeks with a younger child.

Maybe get a statement in writing from your Dentist recommending braces as a course of treatment. See the orthodontist. Get a statement from him/her about the treatment plan that's needed and a cost estimate. Then you'll have written documentation for your attny and the court. I seem to remember that our orthodontia payment plan was spread out over 2 years.

We actually had to go 2 rounds with the orthodontist. First time was palate speading followed by partial braces for 18 months. Then we had to wait about a year or so for daughter to grow some more. Then back into full braces that time. Total, we spent 6.5 years and $6K with the orthodontist.

Daughter still has a "butterfly" on the inside of her bottom front teeth. Writing about this makes me realize that we really need to take her sometime soon to get that seen about. Since we've moved, we'll have to find a new orthodontist.

[13inOR]

We were able to submit the bill from the ortho, and because they needed a $2000 down payment, the trustee stopped our payment for 2 months so we could accrue and pay this. I didnt bother to have them alter the budget to allow for the $100 monthly payment because our car insurance that was figured in had just dropped $200 so I knew we could easily absorb the braces payment.

[aa06a47]

Only word of caution, before taking on a loan for the braces, make sure you clear it with the trustee.

[SinkingFast]

In our case, it wasn't a "loan" from the orthodontist. Just in lieu of his entire fee up front, he allowed people to pay for it over time. There wasn't any interest charged or anything.

Our orthodontist stated his fee in writing up front. Then there was a contract saying we'd pay $X dollars to start and continue to make monthly payments of $X/mo for the next 23 months. The total of the 24 payments equalled the total of the orthodontist's fee for the service he provided.

[13inOR]

same here, no loan, just payment over time after the down payment. And of course, we did have trustee approval.