A few expense questions

[InLimbo]

Just going over our expenses again before we file this month and I have a few questions. I know that everyone's expenses are different in what we each spend each month but I just wanted to know what you think the average would be in some of the catagories. Im putting down exactly what we spend, but its a bit hard to know exactly what that is since we have deprived ourselves of some of these things for so many years. I just want to check to see if I am close to what it actually should be and not cheat ourselves.
Im in NC and we are a family of 4.

Home repairs ?
Clothes?
food?
Medical?
gifts (holidays and birthdays, etc.)?
pet food?

We have a house that is over 50 years old and truely needs alot of home repairs and have no idea what to put for this. Is anyone including gifts for the holidays and birthday gifts in your expenses?
Our attorney didn't ask us about the gifts and there was no place to put it on the schedule J.
It will help I think to get an idea as what some of this stuff IS suppose to be (we've just been going without for so long) Thanks so much!

[lrprn]

Just going over our expenses again before we file this month and I have a few questions. I know that everyone's expenses are different in what we each spend each month but I just wanted to know what you think the average would be in some of the catagories. Im putting down exactly what we spend, but its a bit hard to know exactly what that is since we have deprived ourselves of some of these things for so many years. I just want to check to see if I am close to what it actually should be and not cheat ourselves.
Im in NC and we are a family of 4.

Home repairs ?
Clothes?
food?
Medical?
gifts (holidays and birthdays, etc.)?
pet food?

We have a house that is over 50 years old and truely needs alot of home repairs and have no idea what to put for this. Is anyone including gifts for the holidays and birthday gifts in your expenses?
Our attorney didn't ask us about the gifts and there was no place to put it on the schedule J.
It will help I think to get an idea as what some of this stuff IS suppose to be (we've just been going without for so long) Thanks so much!

Here's a good expense calculator to see if you've forgotten anything - http://www.ca-bankruptcy-attorneys.c...alculator.html

And here's a good website to show what the average costs are in your community for some of the bigger ticket monthly items - http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t01.htm

We kept detailed records of our utility payments, groceries, medical costs, living expenses, etc for four months before we filed. That way we could defend questions if our trustee had issues with any of our flexible costs (we live in the most expensive county in our state).

Hope this helps!

[SinkingFast]

We kept detailed records of our utility payments, groceries, medical costs, living expenses, etc for four months before we filed. That way we could defend questions if our trustee had issues with any of our flexible costs (we live in the most expensive county in our state).

Hope this helps!

We've been doing the same thing. Hanging onto all receipts since we realized we'd be filing BK.

I also kept a notebook going to jot down how much I'd spent on what as I remembered things from the previous 6 months to a year. Like shopping for dress clothes with son for HS graduation. $300 in May. Back to school shopping with the girls. $300 for clothes in August. Cat to the Vet for a bladder infection. $125 in September. That type of thing.

InL,..............

The link Lrprn gave you for the BK Calculator is a very good list to help jog your memory.

Since you're using an attny, he/she will help you a lot. The attny will know what's acceptable for food, and clothes, and such with the Court in your area.

[anonymuse]

Here's a good expense calculator to see if you've forgotten anything - http://www.ca-bankruptcy-attorneys.c...alculator.html

And here's a good website to show what the average costs are in your community for some of the bigger ticket monthly items - http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t01.htm


Hope this helps!

What an excellent link! Thanks for sharing.

I can't exactly use my receipts for the past few months--it's been the top ramen and mac'n'cheese type of eating to save money for the lawyer!

[lrprn]

What an excellent link! Thanks for sharing.

I can't exactly use my receipts for the past few months--it's been the top ramen and mac'n'cheese type of eating to save money for the lawyer!

I know what you mean, Anon. Before we went down the Ch 13 road, when we realized how overextended we were, for a year we bought nothing extra - no clothes, no eating out, no cable, clipping coupons....you get the idea. That was followed by eight months of credit counseling trying desperately to avoid bk if we could - same thing to swing those monthly payments (a total waste of time, btw - should have filed then). A total of twenty months doing without anything we could possibly do without. The best thing to come out of this time is that we did learn very well how to budget and live within our means. Amazing what you can do without when you have to!

When we finally decided that bk was our only option, we were able to stop paying all our credit cards and unsecured loans and catch up on all the secured loans (cars, etc), fix the cars, and buy a very few new clothes. After 20 months, hubby and I were looking a little threadbare on the surface and underneath as well. Still no eating out, etc, but so ironic that our family budget looked more normal the four months before we filed bk than it had the whole 20 months previous!

[jane taylor]

Lrprn,

You are so right! It is amazing what you can live without when you have no other choice. I have to admit that sometimes I get down about what I am not able to do, but then I stop and think about just how much I do have and am blessed. I am really trying to see this as an exercise in learning to be truly content.

If we know we will spending more on gifts than usual, we have to trim back in a couple of other areas. We know every month what we have coming in and have to make it stretch.

[Minnymouth]

IT'S AMAZING at what we can really eliminate from our expenses if we KNOW WE HAVE TOO...... and surprisingly a lot of times, we never even miss it...... And when we really realize HOW MUCH WE WERE SPENDING (by using cash) then it is really shocking to us..... Cause we could have used that money for something so much more important in our lives....

Things to ponder about, huh.....

[InLimbo]

Thanks so much for the links Irprn I used the calculator and it hopes a bunch...however the second link I just couldn't figure out how to use the numbers it was giving me...I'm I looking at it wrong (looking for dollar amounts) or have I totally lost it already lol. Please vertify how I should use that table if you can...thank you so very much in advance!
We are the same as you all, we have gone without for so long and even our receipts that we have saved for our expenses this pass month don't totally add up to what they should be (trying to save up another 700.00 for the lawyer) and saving them at this point may not really be helping us. We still don't buy the groceries that we truely need, or the clothes, or go out to eat, or gifts, etc, etc Im just hoping that the trustee will not need any of them We need to file this month, as our cc are behind now over 4 months and we just want to get this over with.
Thanks for all the advice!

[lrprn]

Thanks so much for the links Irprn I used the calculator and it hopes a bunch...however the second link I just couldn't figure out how to use the numbers it was giving me...I'm I looking at it wrong (looking for dollar amounts) or have I totally lost it already lol. Please vertify how I should use that table if you can...thank you so very much in advance!
We are the same as you all, we have gone without for so long and even our receipts that we have saved for our expenses this pass month don't totally add up to what they should be (trying to save up another 700.00 for the lawyer) and saving them at this point may not really be helping us. We still don't buy the groceries that we truely need, or the clothes, or go out to eat, or gifts, etc, etc Im just hoping that the trustee will not need any of them We need to file this month, as our cc are behind now over 4 months and we just want to get this over with.
Thanks for all the advice!

Glad the expenses link helped! Sorry about the cost of living link - in my haste this morning I copied the wrong favorite. Here's the one I meant to post - http://realestate.yahoo.com/Neighborhoods .

Enter your zip code or pick your state and the the city you live in or are closest to. Scroll down to the Cost of Living section for the average yearly utility costs, and consumer, education, entertainment, transportation, and retail and non-retail expenditures in that community. It's an objective place to start to figure out what reasonable monthly living expenses living normally are.

This is what your expenses need to reflect on your forms - not the very least amount you can get by on (that approach will cause a major crash and burn quickly if you are filing Ch 13) but what's reasonable for your community. If you have a lawyer, he/she will be familiar with what's accepted for living expenses in your area by the trustees.

One last tip - be sure to use resale prices for estimates of your household goods - figure what could you get for an item if you sold it yourself at a garage sale or on eBay. I can't remember now where I read this, but the average American household 'stuff' sold in a public sale would net about $3,000. Ironically when I totalled up what our household contents were worth after estimating their worth this way, everything added up to....you guessed it.....$2950! In bk it's great to be average

Hope this helps!

[InLimbo]

aw that was a great link! thanks so much Irprn and for all the information.
Looks like we are under a ton of these for our area, so I think I should be ok.
Thanks so much again...ur an angel

[InLimbo]

I might have responsed too quickly before I studied the averages on that link lol. Looks like we are well over the income for our area, over on most of the expenses, except we are below for entertainment lol well I believe that one! Oh well, we have never been average anyways