Show My Your............................Budget

[ameangreenbe]

Show Me Your..........................................Budg et

I think the recreation, clothing, medical/dental, and home maintenance all might be questioned.

We're a family of 4 in the northeast (high cost of living) and my lawyer cut clothing to $125/mo. and only gave us $25/mo. for house maintenance. We were given a total of $200/mo. for all out of pocket medical. Unless you have a family member who has a need for chronic medication or specialist care, I'm not sure how you could justify $125/monthly for prescriptions, etc.

And I agree with previous posters - the 401K contribution will be out.

Hi, thanks for the insight. One thing I'm seeing in replies to my post is that people's lawyers are making the call on the budget. I'm assuming that if I can prove (especially in the case of health conditions) that the conditions are ongoing and require care and medication that my attorney is going to go aggressively argue the fact with the trustee.

Am I being naive?

[Ifonly]

No, I don't think that's naive. If there is a genuine medical condition that requires that level of care, then I would argue those expenditures as being necessities. Also, if you have a good lawyer, he'll give you the most he can knowing the trustee. When I said I didn't need $500 for oil, I could go with $433 average for example, he would say, "You have to live with this for the next 5 years"...and then put in the $500.

[ameangreenbe]

Thanks for the info. Being new to this I find you really have to educate yourself, ask a lot of questions and not be too timid to ask for someone to "call BS" if needed. Hope the weather in PA is nicer than FL this week. After months of no rain, we're on our 7th consecutive day. Feels like Seattle. Thanks again for the insight!

[falken]

I think the recreation, clothing, medical/dental, and home maintenance all might be questioned.

We're a family of 4 in the northeast (high cost of living) and my lawyer cut clothing to $125/mo. and only gave us $25/mo. for house maintenance. We were given a total of $200/mo. for all out of pocket medical. Unless you have a family member who has a need for chronic medication or specialist care, I'm not sure how you could justify $125/monthly for prescriptions, etc.

And I agree with previous posters - the 401K contribution will be out.

I have $200/month for prescription copays, and another $300/mo other medical expenses. No problem with medical, as long as you can document them.

[albacore44]

401K loan payback

I believe there is Case Law out there allowing 401K loan payback. It will be going into my budget either in ch-7 or ch-13 Mine is a whopping $700 a month payback. I used it to pay back some CC's before I got educated and found this forum

[aces67]

You're fine on the medical as long as you keep receipts. We are a family of 4 and we spend $4,000 a year just on insurance premiums and another $3600 a year on copays, deductibles and prescriptions.

Last year we even went over that and still ended up paying out of pocket. The first $3600 was pretax that we put in a Health Savings account. We exhausted that by September and had to spend an additional $500 in cash but I kept all my receipts.

[BnkrptcyLwyr]

401k contributions are allowed within the legal limits. The question is whether or not you are acting in "good faith" in proposing to maintain that level of contribution.

Food is a little high for a family of five (but I've seen that level before).

Recreation at $200 per month is high.

Clothing at $325 is high.

How is it that you get $600 for transportation and another $100 for gasoline? Transportation should include gas, licenses, maintenance, etc.

Seems like some of the stuff is being doubled up.

Furthermore, your expenses are *actual* expenses ... not "budgeted because I want to allow for it even though I don't spend on it yet."

[Ifonly]

Re: 401K Loan payback, our lawyer put that in our budget since it comes right out of my husband's check. Not sure if the trustee will object though. Lawyer didn't mention it to us as being a problem.

[ameangreenbe]

@BnkrptcyLwyr

Thanks for the feedback! I wasn't sure if transportation included fuel or not. Your comment on actual vs. budgeted is helpful as well. Thanks to everyone's comments I have a better understanding of how to prepare this.

[HHM]

To the OP, the expenses that may be questioned are

Clothing 325 PER MONTH, no.
Food seems a tad high, that will probably need to be under $1,000
The medical seems high, even with 3 kids, the trustee will question whether you are going to the Doctor/Dentist every month and spending $300. If you can prove it, great, if not, it will be questioned.
401K, as others have pointed out, that seems high. With 401K's, you might be allowed to contribute up to your comnpanies matching percent. Also, you have in there a 401K loan repayment. You generally must make a choice as most districts won't allow both a 401K contribution and a 401K loan repayment.
Gifts, probably won't be accepted.

[holding on]

Some of my experience:

I have $300 medical expense for just me and wife. That's because that's how much my medical plan insurance costs. It comes out of my paycheck pre-tax, but is still listed in my plan as $300 medical expense.

I also have 401K loan payment expense in the plan, that is an out and out expense. Can't drop it cause it has to be paid back. Trustee had no problem with that. now 401k contribution...Lawyer said don't even think about it. Another example of how BK law/rules are applied differently.

[ameangreenbe]

I think it might be wise in my case to be armed with relevant case law that supports my position. Just in case my lawyer wants to act as a mere paper processor.

[MommyMc]

Hi!
We are a family of 6 (4 kids) in Texas... here's what we were budgeted...
Entertainment- $100 per month
Food/Apparel/services/houskeeping supplies/personal care/misc......$1894 per month (this would include your lawn or bug service)
Healthcare.. medical/dental copays and prescriptions... Allowed for the state of Texas is $57 per person per month.. total... $342, we were given an extra $131 per month because I could show receipts for our chronically ill son, his medications run us about a $100 a month.
I don't see anywhere on my sheet for "gifts", it must be included int the food/Apparal.
Pets- $40 per month (we have 1 cat)
Our payments change periodically because we have our 2 sons orthodontic work payments built in... we had to get a written statement from the orthodontist to prove what and when we would be paying it.
Also, Texas legal limit for 401k contribution is 5%, we had to decrease to 3% because our payment was not high enough per the trustee.

I hope this helps you.
Good luck to you!

[Justpoor]

MommyMC, how are you making out on this plan? It sounds scary to me.

[MommyMc]

MommyMC, how are you making out on this plan? It sounds scary to me.

It was scary, terribly scary... at first. The first 2 months is the hardest, getting use to living without what use to be normal things.... ie: run thru a drive through for a snack for the kids, trips to the mall to "get the kids out of the house", buying things on impulse...but they really weren't needed, etc.
It's amazing how now, just 5 months into this, how irrisponsible I was with my money. I can now tell you where every penny goes. I'm saving money...yes, saving money! It's small amounts each paycheck, but the pot is growing! I have 2 kids birthdays coming in June, I've been saving for the past two months for these. My 4 year old is getting a new bike and is taking one friend to Chuck E Cheeses for his birthday.... hopefully all total <$125. My daughter is turning one and we are having a family cook-out to celebrate. A few friends are coming and Grandma and grandpa. Fortunately she doesn't understand it's her birthday so all I need to give her is one little simple toy for her birthday! I cut coupons, I shop the sales and it does save money! Also, not eating fast food saves us a TON of money.
So many other blessings have come out of this. Instead of the mall we now go to the park, we have fun as a family. No more fast food means we are eating healthier now. What was once chicken nuggets as a snack is now a banana.
The kids are adjusting well and I constantly wonder what took me so long to do this. I now lhave a new normal to my life.
Your life is what you make it, scary? or not?
Good luck to you!!