Tax Refund Spending Plan - do these numbers look ok?

[Trixie007]

you are living my dream trixie! We have been soo broke for soo long! I haven't gotten my hair cut since July so that would be on my list of must dos. Can you do that? I know what you mean about the Dr. bills, since I plan to continue to see my doc I would like to pay rather than discharge. Enjoy!!!

It is a bit like a dream at this point! And, yes, I've already booked hair cuts for all of us!!

[HHM]

Okay, I'm really going to let it all hang out there! So I just filed my taxes (e-filed) and for whatever reason was not able to stop my State return from being filed!! I said no in the interview, but my receipt came back that I paid for it... so now I have 11,600 coming in next month (assuming the Ca return gets processed prior to Feb 1) and here is how I am planning to spend the $$ prior to what now looks like a mid-April filing date...

2,226 regular liv. exp. budget shortfall
2,200 attorney, cert, filing fees
1,420 est. auto repairs (200 exhaust leak Nissan, 400 new tires Mits., 300 new tires Nissan, 120 oil changes, 250 for the 30k mile check-up on Mits., 150 registration Mits.) I haven't priced these things out, but that should be close
1,250 6 mos auto insurance
340 medical bills from last year
500 est. dental work for the 4 of us... cleaning and DS has a few cavities
750 clothing for the 4 of us - does that look like too much?

That leaves about 2,900 still to be spent!

We have our reg. grocery budget set at $1,000/mo - how much more do you think we could spend stocking up without looking rediculous? That may seem high to many, but DS is 5'11" and 150 #'s - he eats around 12,000-15,000 calories a day because he's so active and has such a high metabolism. He had the flu for 3 1/2 days recently and lost 10 pounds! He was still eating a bit, but only laying around for that long and still lost that much! He hasn't quite re-gained it all since!

I've read on here about not pre-paying rent, but I'm not sure how that works with utilities. As it is, I have April set up to pay all bills for the month prior to filing.

Any other ideas for this windfall? We don't own a home anymore, so no home repairs... I'm unsure about our ability to claim cash in the bank under the Federal wild card exemption - I know I could when it was unliquidated, but not sure about cash.

Thanks for your input!

-Living expenses, Good
-Attorney, Good
-Auto repairs, Good
-Auto insurance, questionable (the risk is, by prepaying, you may be denied the monthly expenses on I & J)
-Medical Bills, Bad...these are debts, they will be discharged, however, because the amount is so small, it won't matter. I would only pay these if the med bill was for a Doctor you like.
-Dental Work, Good
-Clothing, Good (just don't go overboard, the limit is about $1,000)
Other avenues to consider after you consult with your attorney, put some into an IRA.

[Trixie007]

Auto insurance, questionable (the risk is, by prepaying, you may be denied the monthly expenses on I & J)
-Medical Bills, Bad...these are debts, they will be discharged, however, because the amount is so small, it won't matter. I would only pay these if the med bill was for a Doctor you like.
-Clothing, Good (just don't go overboard, the limit is about $1,000)
Other avenues to consider after you consult with your attorney, put some into an IRA.

Good point on auto insurance!! I definitely don't have room on I & J to remove that monthly payment! I looked at the 340 in medical bills - they are actually all for lab work/ultrasound, the Dr is already paid... so, good point there! I was just thinking about the Dr!

Woo-hoo! I like the idea of $1,000 for clothes! I thought $750 was pushing it!

Attorney already said no to IRA - since this is not something we've done in the past year.... I guess I'll ask him again when I drop off paperwork in two weeks.

Thanks for your input, I appreciate it!

[HHM]

The IRA thing is district specific right now, some districts allow "exemption planning" to the extent that you can move non-exempt cash into exempt assets (i.e. 401K) and others don't.

[Help!]

Are you above median?

[Trixie007]

We're about 5k below the median.

[dogbone33]

Can medical bills that close to filing be discharged? Everyone took such good care of me at the hospital, I think that would really bum me out to not pay them... Incredible people doing an incredibly demanding job! I even had my own nurse assigned to me while I was in recovery - I think that's something specific to my doctor though.

I had my surgery that turned into a major surgery a week before we filed. My son was also in the hospital the same time. Our lawyer included them and said they will be discharged. They will still get paid, don't worry. They prolly already got their paycheck.

[HHM]

Just a general point about medical bills, nearly every major medical practice and provider has loss insurance. What this means is that if a patient does not pay or eventually files BK, the Dr. files a claim with their insurance company and gets paid the "insurance" rates for the service.

Note, if you don't have medical insurance, the doctor receives more money than if you have medical insurance. That Doctor will get $100 from the uninsured for a Dr. visit, whereas he only gets $40 for seeing the person with insurance.

So, don't ever feel guilty about discharging medical bills. The only time I recommend paying a medical bill that could otherwise be discharged is to your personal Dr. if you like that Dr. The Dr. can refuse to keep you as a patient.

[eddiep]

I don't want my doc to know I am filing bankruptcy, I guess I am going to have to get used to it though huh? I'm sure this subject is going to come up many times in the coming years. I guess I have become somewhat proud of the things I have, the things I "own". Truth is I don't really own any of the stuff I have, I havent paid for it, and now I never will. Prepare to be humbled, I guess.

[Over our heads]

This is my take on medical bills.
We have a SN daughter who sees specialists on a regular basis.
She needs minimum 2 braces a year.
The good part is that our association does have funding for the unpaid parts of those.
However, she has the best ortho imo I could ever hope for.
She has the best orthotitist/pt period.
She had surgery and a brace after we retained our attny.
We *will* pay just as much of those bills as we are allowed to w/o going over the preferential payment amount.

I know that the hospital got a large chunk from the ins payment, and since there is still well over 5k that we owe, there isn't much I can do there. But, being the large children's hospital it is, I'm sure it is something they are used to. And a big hunk is about to be turned over to collections anyways. I purposefully didn't respond to that letter, as I don't mind telling a CA to shove it.

But the individual dr's themselves, will get paid.
And more than likely, the dr. themselves won't know that we filed, as I doubt the accounting personnel keep them up to date over who doesn't pay their bills.

[Trixie007]

We *will* pay just as much of those bills as we are allowed to w/o going over the preferential payment amount.

Uh-Oh! Every time I think I've got this stuff figured out something comes up that bites me! It never occurred to me that paying these bills would be preferential payments! Is the limit $600 in the previous 90 days? I'll have to watch that.

We do have insurance, and I know that we have a deductible of $300 and then we pay 15% of everyone's charges, so all in all we're pretty lucky. I have no idea what all the bills will come up to as I haven't started receiving them yet. I've heard the total could be as high as 40k, even though I did the surgery as outpatient to keep costs down (which no one at our hospital had ever heard of!).

Thanks for your input - it sounds like you've got it all figured out!

[bkchap7filer]

On the discussion of the medical bills....do what you have to do.....but want to clear up misconceptions about who gets paid. The pieces posted by HHM might be true for physicians, but the hospital (lab/ultrasound services for OP) does not.....they lose money every single day for "bad debt" and people not paying. This is not to say that you should pay the bill before your bk, but just wanted to make sure the word got out that hospitals are not cash cows that get paid anyway....some hospitals lose millions of dollars a year to bad debt (not counting charity care for those that meet criteria). When people lose their jobs, they lose their insurance too...but they still get sick and hospitals take care of them....but there is no one to pay the bill...no insurance...no money to pay themselves. This economy is hard on EVERYONE no business is immune!

[tknj99]

Home improvements

I may be in the same boat with a large tax refund. Do you think it would be ok to use that money to make home improvements, such as patio pavers, new windows, tiling balconies, etc...
thx