My payment is going up after getting married?

[Kimari27]

Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum and I'm looking for some advise or guidance. My wife and i had filled bankrutcy when we were single. We got married in October and they lawyer requested a new expense report. We summited the report and we were told that our payments are going to go up $350 each for the reminder of the plan which is 3 more years. We talked to the lawyer's assistant and she told us that is due to our new combined income. She told us to re check our expenses for a month and resummit the report. We did and we actually end up spending aound $800 dollars more. According to the lawyer's assistant the payment stayed the same. It didn't droped a penny. Some of the expenses were too high according to her and they had to be adjusted to less. They say that after our new bankruptcy payment and all the expenses we have $94 left a month. When in reality we are coming short.

I didn't knew this was going to happen. No one told us that getting married will create this issue. In our case i make more money than my wife by 50% more. I feel that now i have to be responsible for her payment too. How could it be possible that I make more money than her and her payment went up as high as mine?

I keep reading that this is the way the law is. Is pretty damm unfair to me. Why someone has to be responsible for someone else debt when the cases were filled as single individuals? On top of that I'm not paying off the debt early despite of all the extra money. Where is this extra money going to? i know it goes to the creditors but they already estimated how much money they are going to get when I signed my case and was given my payment plan. We are pretty upset about this. We just wanted to get married and enjoy our lives together and now we are been kinda punished for doing it financially. My salary has been the same since the beginning of my case and so has my wife's.

We are going to meet with the lawyer next week to discuss this. We have until March before we have to sign the documents. Do we have any options? Can anyone shine a light in this situation? Thanks.

[MSbklawyer]

Generally speaking, it's cheaper for two people to live together than it is for them to live separately. Since bankruptcy looks at your household income, you're living cheaper now as a couple, and your incomes haven't changed, thus more disposable income and the higher payment.

One solution, especially if you were headed this way anyway, is to have a baby or three. An added household member will increase your allowable expenses. Plus you'll have the doctor bills and the daycare, &c, &c, that you'll get to deduct.

[LadyInTheRed]

So, get busy and multiply!! Triplets would me most efficient.

[momofthree]

Yup, you now only get to claim 1 rent expense, 1 set of utilities, etc. Separately, you could each claim to be running your each individual household, thus you should have more money now that you only have 1 house rather than 2.