Figures don't match

[yomama]

Okay...several weeks ago my husband and I met with our lawyer and my husband giving him a list of our monthly expenses and I remember us all more or less coming to the conclusion that our monthly expenses are a little more than our monthly income. The lawyer hasn't filed yet because he wants us to go down through everything and make sure we agree with information on the papers and to make any corrections if we don't agree with something. I don't know how we went from being in the red every month (what we agreed on at the meeting) to coming out $322.75 in the black. Isn't that saying that we have that much disposable income each month?! I know darn well that we're always scrounging for money and we don't have any money saved up. If we'd have over $300/mo left over every month, you'd think that we'd be able to save up money, but the fact is that there is nothing left at the end of everything month. If something would come up right now like a car repair or medical bill, I don't know what we'd do to pay it, probably have to borrow from my parents. Just how close do the monthly income and expenditures have to be to each other? If I were someone else looking at these papers, I'd think that we have extra money, which isn't the case. I'm thinking that my husband and I ought to sit down and try to figure out what we're missing because I know we must have estimated things on the low side. Now I just don't hope that it looks like we were lying if we go and make a whole bunch of corrections, but I don't think I want it to get filed in its present form.

One other thing I'm wondering about is how the lawyer determines the value of my husband's car (claimed exemption). In the first column it lists $2,900.00 under "Value of Claimed Exemption", and under "Current Value of Property Without Deducting Exemption", the value of his car is $10,000. He is going to continue to make his car payments, but I was just curious about the $2,900.00.

I don't even know if some of these things are even important, like the value of my car, which the lawyer lists as $3000 under both columns. I don't think my 1993 Mazda Protege is worth that much, but I don't know if $1000 or so is going to make a difference in anything. I don't want to make a big deal out of some things if they item in question is insignificant anyway.

I'm sure I'll probably think of some more questions later on. Thanks for any help you can give me.

[SinkingFast]

Re the vehicles and your exemptions,...........

You said Hubby is gonna continue to make payments. Sounds like from the numbers you gave, $10K for value and $2900 for Exemption, that you still owe $7100 on the loan. Does that sound right??

About your car,......... Doesn't matter what the attny puts as a value. If you have a $3K Exemption, even if the car is really only worth $2K, it makes no difference. You can't take the extra $1K vehicle exemption and apply it elsewhere.

As you're going thru your monthly expenses, do you feel you are still in the red when you take out payments for bills you're going to discharge in BK??

Once you take out payments for CC's and such, you should be able to support your other living expenses. Regular monthly bills like house payment, utilities, car payments, and food. Budgeted amounts for periodic payments like car repairs, auto insurance premiums, and such.

Could be the attny changed some numbers to bring them in line with what the Court is used to seeing in your area. Like the amount you spend on food. Could be you spend $1200/mo but the Court is used to seeing $800/mo for a family of your size. Look for changes like that as well on your new list of expenses.

[yomama]

Sinking Fast, You're probably right and I suppose that's what he owes on his car yet. I guess it's probably a moot point then arguing the value of my car according to what you say. I trust our lawyer and have confidence that he knows what he's doing. Maybe he found out somehow the my car is actually worth more than what it is, but I found it's not worth nearly that much according to the Kelley Bluebook website.

Yes, I think we're a little bit in the red each month after taking out payments for bills we're going to discharge. Up until last October when we starting working with the debt negotiating company, we had been paying on our credit cards. Once we dealt with this company, we started paying $750/mo into a trust account and as it built up they would negotiate our debts. The thing is, our first 3 months went to pay the company's retainer fees, so it took awhile before we actually had anything in the account that could be used towards our debts. My husband lost his job this year and we could no longer put any money into the account because his income went from $32,000down to only about half of that.

My husband just told me that he set up a meeting with our lawyer for Thursday, so I'm going to make a list of questions to ask. Thanks for your insight.

[CindyLou]

You should also see how he calculated your monthly income vs. how you calculated. For example, most people take their biweekly paycheck and multiply X 2 to get their monthly income. When in reality your monthly income is actually 1/12 of your yearly. Take your biweekly income multiply by 26 and divide by 12. Or is you get paid weekly then multilply by 52 and divide by 12. (this does make a little of an upward difference) Also check your expenses and make sure your attorney didn't miss things like personal grooming, household expenses. You can add an additional sheet for things not included on the list.

[yomama]

CindyLynne, That makes sense about how to figure out a biweekly paycheck and knowing me we'd have done it wrong. lol I'll ask my husband if that's how he figured. I didn't really think of that. We'll also make sure we didn't forget any expenses. I think we have to sit down and go over these better because I know we don't have anything left at the end of the month. I imagine that your goal would be to try to get your expenses to match your income as closely as possible...I guess.