With gas & food prices rising, does the trustee take that into consideration?

[busbis]

My husband is in sales and paying around $160 a wk in gas, I am paying additional $100 week in gas. Our cars are paid for, but we live in a Atlanta so average commute is about 45 miles each way. We drive to work, come home...no running around. Because of the gas prices and rising food prices I'm having a real hard time making my regular bk13 payment each month. Does the trustee allow to go back and adjust the payments. I have kept all of our grocery receipts and gas receipts and who ever looks can tell we are only buying the basic foods to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner...alot of pb&j, beans and rice. Has anyone had to face this problem.

[soleprop]

i'm curious too, as i also drive around 500 miles a week for work. it definitely pushes the transportation expenses above the current 'allowable' amount listed by the fed.

[HHM]

So long as you can prove that is what you spend, yes, you can use your "real" expenses.

[Cali]

500 miles a week, I would be pissed everyday.

i'm curious too, as i also drive around 500 miles a week for work. it definitely pushes the transportation expenses above the current 'allowable' amount listed by the fed.

[soleprop]

500 miles a week, I would be pissed everyday.

yeah, i definitely don't like it. i can't afford to move to the city, and there are no jobs i qualify for that pay in my necessary range in my town. it's worse than a rock and a hard place.

[chloe0724]

I work outside DC and i have a 40 mile commute one way each day. It's not the greatest, but it's what I've got. I've learned to enjoy NPR and other talk radio shows.

As long as you have the proof that you pay that much, you should be able to get it adjusted.

[planted]

I am a carpenter. Work came to a dead stop when the news came out about the banks going under. We applied for an adjustment and never ever heard anything back except that they were going to dismiss our BK 13 unless we made up the missed payments. It was cold. I prayed to God so very sincerely that the phone rang once in a long time. Now you hear stories that make me feel I have had about the only construction job in the whole state. We made up every payment. Still working. Thank God so very very much everyday.

[enginegirl]

yeah, i definitely don't like it. i can't afford to move to the city, and there are no jobs i qualify for that pay in my necessary range in my town. it's worse than a rock and a hard place.

i have the same issue... 55miles each way.. I am grumpy every single day... 3 pus hours of commuting.... grrrrr

[momofthree]

My hubby drives 120 miles per day and we were able to claim above the standard IRS transportation expense. We had receipts, but the trustee never even questioned the expense.

[RunningMan]

I have to travel for work. There are no jobs in my field within 20 miles of where I live and I would have to go out 50 miles or more to find one that would pay anywhere close to what I make now. My current employer bases me out of an office that is two hours away when there is no traffic. I am allowed to work from home about one week a month. Two weeks a month I travel for business and the other week I work out of the office they base me out of. I rent a room there during the week and don't do the commute daily. I live in a very beautiful resort community and I love coming home to it. You can't find anything like it in the city. My wife and daughter hate me being away so much, but they don't want to move either. There are other factors keeping us here too, like my aging Dad who lives near by. None of my brothers and sisters are close enough help him out.

I have started and run successful businesses in my field in the past. I tried to start a business closer to home, but ended up travelling for the business because you have to go where the work is. It was a catch 22 because it is hard to run a business and manage employees when you are travelling so much. The business didn't grow the way I wanted it to and when I left it to take a full time job, much of the debt followed me.

[Flamingo]

i have the same issue... 55miles each way.. I am grumpy every single day... 3 pus hours of commuting.... grrrrr

There are many commuters who travel long distances each way to keep a good job or because there is nothing close by they can obtain or in their field. I drive over 120 miles round trip daily and have been doing it for over six years and when we were still in Chapter 13 bankruptcy. The expense of that commute were my own as it was expense after filing so I cut corners elsewhere and rotated vehicles. Gas prices rose and rose at times but with cutting back and budgeting, taking lunch, being careful, etc., we got by, finished the 13, and now the commuting expense is nothing. The time in the vehicle hurts the most as it is about 4 hours of wasted time a day to me and, of course, the commuting mileage expenses or tolls are not tax deductable.

[andy158]

For those of us who can take a mileage deduction on our taxes, the fed is going to have to raise the allowable standard mileage deduction again if gas prices are going to be $4.00 (predicted) by summer. So much for an economic recovery. The rise in gasoline is going to directly affect the suffering middle class that is already watching every penny. Higher fuel prices will directly affect everything we purchase.

[shark66]

There are many commuters who travel long distances each way to keep a good job or because there is nothing close by they can obtain or in their field. I drive over 120 miles round trip daily and have been doing it for over six years and when we were still in Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

Oh so true. My daily commute is 130 miles one way...total of 260 a day, or 1300 a week which equals something like 5200 + a month...

Does it suck? Absolutely. Squared.

Do I still count my blessings that I still have a decent-paying job with excellent benefits package? You bet.

Am I looking left, right and in the middle to find something, somewhere that would stop this travelling nonsense?

Hell, yeah. I've been on this route this for five years and if I never had to see the metropolis I've been employed in for the past eleven years again that would be to soon...

I'd take a 25-30% pay cut in a heartbeat to be significantly closer to home. Unfortunately, reality would call for a 40-50% cut and loss of most of the aforementioned benefits. That I simply can't afford...

OK, enough ranting on my part...

Good luck to all, especially fellow commuters...

[BKOnce]

Move closer to city, take bus or metro if you can

[enginegirl]

Move closer to city, take bus or metro if you can

if that was an option I'm sure people would do it...