What kind of items can you spend $ on before you file bankrupsy?

[nebraskamom]

We got our tax money back Feb 20th and talked with an attourney about filing bankrupsy. We dont even have half of what we need to pay off all of our debt.. so our attourney said we would be best to file for bankrupsy, chapter 7. He said to take half of our taxes, put them in a savings account, the other in a checking account. Spend half of it, he told us items such as food, clothing. We talked with him again today and he said we can put up to 2 house payments down. But Im wondering what else we can use our money on? Can we use it on medications? I have epilepsy and I have to be on 2 different kinds of medication or else I go into seizures. Could we use the money we have to spend on my medications?

Our lawyer basicly just said the things we need to live we could spend our money on.

I wish there was a place that listed specificly what kind of items you could spend your money on, that will be allowed for bankrupsy purposes.

Thanks

[StartingOver08]

You are safe with household items, repair items and medical items. I think putting the money toward your medications is the right thing too. No Trustee is going to take issue with your required medication. Natually your BK attorney fee can be paid out of that if it is not already paid. Most people stock up on supplies and do those things that have a tendancy to get put off when we are struggling - like going to the dentist.

[justbroke]

Spend it on

• your lawyer
• food (stock up)
• clothing
• car repairs
• home repairs (that you really need... e.g. don't install a new hot tub)
• dentist
• other medical needs

[lalap123]

On a similar note...

Will past spending on unnecessary items (ie, three to six months prior to filing) be an issue w/ the trustee? I'm not talking purchasing luxury goods or anything, but say we went out to eat too many times or bought the kids clothing at
Old Navy instead of the thrift store...will this be contested? In other words, do we need to wait to file until we can absolutely show nothing on our bank statement but bills, utilities, food, gas, and the like?

I thought they would assume that some people who file BK are doing so b/c they have lived over their means, so I wouldn't think they would hold it against you unless you were very frivilous...does anyone who has filed have experience w/ this?

[nebraskamom]

Well thats great that we can use the money for my medications! I was curious as to if we could use it for that.

So far, We've spent over $1300 on tons of things... mostly foods... canned foods, any of food items, torliet paper, hygiene items, clothing. We included our lawyer fee in the money we have to spend...

what we calculated now are the following:

$1300 food/clothing items
$300 home repairs
$1300 Lawyer fee
$1200 for 2 house payments

Which comes to $4100.00

We got back over $10,000 in taxes and were told by our attourney to put $5,000 in our savings, the other $5,000 in our checking and spend the money we put in our checking on items that we could for the bankrupsy. Then we are to take the reciepts and go back to him after the first half is spent and he will inform us if we have to spend more of the money.

So, were still needing to spend another $1,000 or so before we go back to him, to see where we go next.

My husband has went to the meetings, I never have been to one, but our lawyer told us to put our tax money in our bank account. I thought we were not suppose to put money in our account because the people we owe money to can get access to that and take it. But my husband came home saying this is what our lawyer said to do. Anyone else think its an ok to leave our money in a savings and checking account and have creditors calling us wanting money? I just dont want them to be able to get into our account and take money.

[nebraskamom]

Will past spending on unnecessary items (ie, three to six months prior to filing) be an issue w/ the trustee? I'm not talking purchasing luxury goods or anything, but say we went out to eat too many times or bought the kids clothing at
Old Navy instead of the thrift store...will this be contested? In other words, do we need to wait to file until we can absolutely show nothing on our bank statement but bills, utilities, food, gas, and the like?

I thought they would assume that some people who file BK are doing so b/c they have lived over their means, so I wouldn't think they would hold it against you unless you were very frivilous...does anyone who has filed have experience w/ this?

I dont think you need to... what we were told by our attourney is as long as we have $2500 or less in our bank account, and have reciepts to show that we spent the money we had on items such as food or clothing, things you NEED to live off of.. then we would be alright. Heck our lawyer told us to go out and buy half a cow! Stock up on food... buy clothes for the kids. Buy hygiene items, if we needed any house repairs, do them. We even asked about furniture... we have never been able to buy furniture of our own. Everything has been handed to us. Our attourney said we can spend up to $2,000 on furniture we need.

[StartingOver08]

Do you have any loans outstanding with your bank? If you do, you need to open an account with another NEUTRAL bank.

If your money is with a neutral bank and you have no judgements against you, then your attorney is right. He probably said to put it in your bank so you can show exactly where the refund money came from and where it was spent. Because the Trustee will want to see it. Sounds like your attorney knows what he is doing.

Nabraskamom, I don't know if the Trustee would consider furniture a necessary living expense, but your attorney knows your Trustee best.

[nebraskamom]

Do you have any loans outstanding with your bank? If you do, you need to open an account with another NEUTRAL bank.

If your money is with a neutral bank and you have no judgements against you, then your attorney is right. He probably said to put it in your bank so you can show exactly where the refund money came from and where it was spent. Because the Trustee will want to see it. Sounds like your attorney knows what he is doing.

Nabraskamom, I don't know if the Trustee would consider furniture a necessary living expense, but your attorney knows your Trustee best.

No, we dont have any outstanding loans with our bank.
My husband asked about furniture, I didnt think it was possible to use the money on furniture, but our lawyer said they allow up to $3,000, but only recomended we spend $2,000 if wanted to purchase furniture.