Newbie with Disposable Income Questions

[Jammed]

[optimistic1]

Answers,

1. As long as you can document those repairs and they are justifiable, this would have no effect on your dmi, unless of course the repairs would increase the value of the car beyond what the exemption is, but that is far-fetched.

2. Your dmi of $342 is what your unsecured creditors would receive, your payment may vary up or down from their based on your class of debts, and non-exempt assets, etc.

3. This would increase your payment, as noted above, if you have arrears.

4. Can you live without utilities? Have you tried donating blood, having a yard sale, getting food at the food bank, taking the bus? Taking that route seems like more trouble than its worth, if the utility company turns you off, they likely will want a large deposit to turn it back on.

[Jammed]

You may be right about the utilities Optimistic1. I'm just starting to panic about the possibility that I may not be able to afford a chapter 13 payment since the payment may not leave me with any breathing room for anything that may come up. I have older, high milage cars that tend to require expensive repairs (and I can't get financing to buy a new vehicle).

[parsoc48]

How about not making the CC payments and rental mortgage payments and save up for an attorney, as well as starting an emergency fund? Not sure if you even wanted to keep the rental property, I might have missed something.
Paying on CC you're going to BK is throwing good money after bad, it won't do you any good in the long run.
Good luck to you on this journey

[Jammed]

I already stopped paying the mortgage on the rental property and CC because I can't afford them. It is difficult for me to keep afloat with paying the mortgage for the house I live in and my normal household bills (daycare, food, utilities, etc). I really don't have anything left over to save. Up until a few months ago, I was relying upon CC to pay daycare, food, etc. to help cover my monthly shortage. Then the minimum payments got too high, the interest rates went up and the CC got maxed out or cancelled by the CC company. That's when I realized how bad my financial siutation really is now that I have to rely on cash.