Surviving Ch. 13 with inconsistent income

[brtb]

DH and I have been in Ch. 13 for 2 years now. How do you survive it with inconsistent income? When DH is working he makes good money. I make half of what he does. However, I've been at my job for 13 years. His employment has been scanty at best (why we're in Ch. 13). It's frustrating because if he works a few months in the year our tax returns look like we've made big bucks. But, it's hard surviving on inconsistent money. The trustee gets our returns and wants to jack up our payment. Meanwhile, DH is unemployed again.

Has anyone been in this same situation? How did you get through it?

If DH had a steady paycheck we would definitely be in a 100% plan. I don't know how we'll make it through the next three years of this!

[dmc-2008]

I am sure someone here will come along and give you good answers, I just wondered if you talked with atty? I think it would be really hard without consistent income! Sorry

[brtb]

It's very hard. Right now, our payment is a very small amount and get automatically deducted from my paycheck. However, when we originially consulted with our attorney we did not qualify for Chapter 7, which our attorney prefers to deal with. So, we're in a Chapter 13, knowing that DH's income is inconsistent. It's worse when we submit our tax returns because the trustee sees a high AGI, but that's only because DH was working for a few months, but then gets layed off or whatever. It's more stressful on me, honestly.

[LadyInTheRed]

You need to be very disciplined. When, your husband's income is higher, you should put money in savings as soon as he gets paid so it is there for the low income months. Always spend as little as you can. Don't spend more just because you have more at the moment. You should have a budget that starts with annual income, subtracts expenses that don't occur monthly, then divides the balance by 12. Then try to spend even less than that each month. If you spend less than your budget in any one month, put what you didn't spend in savings.

You're plan is based on annual income and you need to budget that way. Once you get in the habit of sticking to the same budget every month, no month should be more difficult than another unless there are significant unexpected expenses.

[brtb]

You need to be very disciplined. When, your husband's income is higher, you should put money in savings as soon as he gets paid so it is there for the low income months. Always spend as little as you can. Don't spend more just because you have more at the moment. You should have a budget that starts with annual income, subtracts expenses that don't occur monthly, then divides the balance by 12. Then try to spend even less than that each month. If you spend less than your budget in any one month, put what you didn't spend in savings.

You're plan is based on annual income and you need to budget that way. Once you get in the habit of sticking to the same budget every month, no month should be more difficult than another unless there are significant unexpected expenses.

Thanks LadyInTheRed, you always give good advice and always put everything in perspective! Appreciate it!

[justbroke]

I had a similar issue, but I'm high income but consistent. However, my electric bill changes drastically in the Summer compared to the Winter! Living in the subtropics of Florida and being in a Chapter 13, I needed to quickly learn to save money in the Winter, so that I had the money for my air conditioning in the Summer. I have since added a smart thermostat (that is on a schedule and I can change it). My Summer electric bill went from $850/month down to about $450/month. Yes, it is still high, but it's a large house with gratuitous windows (I count 36) which seem to have been arranged to maximize the amount of sun that comes through them.

In any event, I needed to learn and I did. I learned to save for other emergencies as well. About 12 months into my Chapter 13, my sewer line broke (not just cracked, but broke. That was not cheap to fix as they had to remove concrete from my driveway to reach the sewer line, and then repair the concrete.

The key to a Chapter 13 in every single case is budgeting AND saving. If you can do neither one nor the other, nor both, then you are doomed to fail. Best wishes to you.

[dmc-2008]

The key to a Chapter 13 in every single case is budgeting AND saving. If you can do neither one nor the other, nor both, then you are doomed to fail. Best wishes to you.

JB your house sounds like a mansion! You are so right!!!!

[justbroke]

JB your house sounds like a mansion! You are so right!!!!

It doesn't qualify as a McMansion but it has way too much wasted space and way too many windows!

[dmc-2008]

Lol!!!! JB you gonna have to wash them yourself!!! :-)

[TheBajan]

I have to laugh JB... I LOVE LOTS OF WINDOWS! Growing up, I almost always living in trailers. I think the politically correct thing to call them now are 'manufactured' homes. At any rate, to help keep things cool, my mother would cover all the windows with foil to keep the sun out. It was always dark, dingy, and depressing. Fast forward to 2003. I designed the house we now live in. It has two banks of french doors totaling 33 linear feet of windows. Aside from that, we counted 63 individual windows throughout the house! I wanted light everywhere. Everyone said it would be horrible to heat the home but our heating bill is great due to our geothermal system that uses our well to heat the home.

and yes... we do wash them ourselves.

[AngelinaCat]

Hi TheBajan. I agree about the windows. The house I grew up in was a Craftsman's Bungalow type that had dark woodwork and dark wood beamed ceilings--albiet 10 ft. tall. But it was always dark in the house, and the first thing one had to do when getting up in the morning, was to turn on a light.

I designed the house we are in with lots of windows, a cathedral ceiling and clerestory windows. If we could open the windows, the house would function as designed with a good air flow. But the windows are in disrepair, and we can't open them until we get them repaired, which is far down the list after other things are done....

Lest anyone think this is a mansion, it is a cottage of about 870 square feet--one thing some insurance companies do not like, square footage less than 1000...

[TheBajan]

Hi TheBajan. I agree about the windows. The house I grew up in was a Craftsman's Bungalow type that had dark woodwork and dark wood beamed ceilings--albiet 10 ft. tall. But it was always dark in the house, and the first thing one had to do when getting up in the morning, was to turn on a light.

I designed the house we are in with lots of windows, a cathedral ceiling and clerestory windows. If we could open the windows, the house would function as designed with a good air flow. But the windows are in disrepair, and we can't open them until we get them repaired, which is far down the list after other things are done....

Lest anyone think this is a mansion, it is a cottage of about 870 square feet--one thing some insurance companies do not like, square footage less than 1000...

I have designed, remodeled, and/or built several homes under a 1000 square foot. I love them! The house we are in is pretty large due to us having such a large family. At this point in our lives, it is much bigger than we need (all the kids are grown). It's just myself, my hubby, and in a week, my mom. Our youngest son is still here between semesters and military duty.

We are still pretty upside-down on our mortgage. Somewhere down the road, we will eventually reach a point we can sell and move into something much smaller. The apartment for my mother is about 600 sq ft and it's simply charming. I look forward to someday being in a home (or apartment) like that. Small spaces are cozy and I love them... dark places are dreary and I can't stand it. I also can't stand hallways. When I design or remodel a space, I take extreme care to avoid having any hallways. Funny the things that bother us. It goes back again to my days living in trailers with the long, narrow hallways.

[jcsawyer]

Growing up i lived in a house that was around 1100sqft. I can count the windows on one hand!

I hated it with a passion and it had that wonderful wood paneling on the walls *insert eye roll here* I then moved in with my grandparents when i was 14 not much bigger of a house but it seemed so much bigger because of the windows. It was around 1500sqft the difference was the HUGE bay window in the living room and the HUGE picture windows in the den.

I then got married and what did we do? we bought a house with over 20 windows and we have 3000sqft plus full basement and two car garage. heating and cooling this thing is crazy. Summer months for us is around $150 winter months are $300. We have learned to use heaters depending on what room we are in and our wood burning fireplace. We are on an inconsistent income as well as I am a school teacher now and we dont get paid over the summer (given we work so hard and I put up with 6-8th grader crap we should get paid much more than we do).

This is our first summer in bankruptcy we are 11 payments into our 60 months, we cannot save as his income is just as inconsistent as mine is (truck driver who works sometimes 4 days and sometimes 5 days we never know what it will be from one week to the next).

We are making it but only because I have cut off 2 of our 5 cell phones, changed cable tv services to att and direct tv, turned up our thermostat to 76 and use a window unit in our bedroom plus my car accident was finally put on the other person not me so it dropped my insurance by $100 per month. This has really helped our budget.

There are many ways to make sure you are able to make it every month it just takes consistency and dedication. Personally I love taking the tab off of the countdown I made to show me how many more payments we have to make and watching the balances go down on 13datacenter.com.

It will get better if you stay at it and constantly are looking for ways to cut your expenses and put back into savings.

[LadyInTheRed]

Hi TheBajan. I agree about the windows. The house I grew up in was a Craftsman's Bungalow type that had dark woodwork and dark wood beamed ceilings--albiet 10 ft. tall. But it was always dark in the house, and the first thing one had to do when getting up in the morning, was to turn on a light.

I designed the house we are in with lots of windows, a cathedral ceiling and clerestory windows. If we could open the windows, the house would function as designed with a good air flow. But the windows are in disrepair, and we can't open them until we get them repaired, which is far down the list after other things are done....

Lest anyone think this is a mansion, it is a cottage of about 870 square feet--one thing some insurance companies do not like, square footage less than 1000...

You've got us beat by 35 square feet! Our little bungalow only has 8 ft ceilings and no beams. The wood has been painted over and we decided not to embark on the project of stripping it. I love all the windows in the living room, dining room and kitchen! The 2 bedrooms stay pretty dark, but that's a good thing. Many of the windows don't work or are very difficult to open. The ropes on the weights break. The joys of owning an old house! We may pay somebody to come fix them after I'm done with my BK. Fortunately, the S.F. Bay keeps us from having very few real hot days. And even on a hot day it is rare that a cool breeze doesn't cool us off in the evening. We have just enough operable windows to cool the house down when there's a breeze.

[justbroke]

My thermostat is set to 78F during the day and 80F at night. My bill is still too high!