Spending Money on Furniture?

[loveends1981]

I have a question in regards to spending our money on the items we can, like clothing, food, etc.

We recieved our taxes back on Feb 20th of this year and was told by our attourney to take half and put in checking, the other half into our savings. He said to spend the half we put in our checking and get back with him.
We got over $10,000 back this year in taxes. So that means we had to spend $5,000 in our checking and get back with him.

We asked about furniture since the furniture we had was given to us by my parents, and it was their old hand me downs.

Our attourney told us the max amount we would be able to spend was $3,000, but he tells his clients to only spend $2,000. So thats what we did. We spent that much on new furniture, the rest was spend on food, clothing, etc.

Have you heard of people spending money on furniture before filing for bankrupsy?

I have came across some people saying that our attourney letting us spend such a large amount on furniture didnt seem right?

Thought Id ask here. Thanks

[Brighterdays]

claim you spent it on his fee. usmint.gov has some good deals.

[loveends1981]

claim you spent it on his fee. usmint.gov has some good deals.

We took his fee out of the money as well. When he told us to spend the $5k we got back on our taxes, $2 went towards furniture, $1,250 went to him for his services, and the rest went to clothing and food, and to repair our garage door.

[StartingOver08]

Please do not take this the wrong way - I do not understand spending $2k on furniture on the eve before filing - I would think that it fits into that "750 for luxury purchases" in the BK abuse definition.

[loveends1981]

We havnt filed yet. We went in to talk to him about getting our taxes back and he told us what we need to spend the money on.

[loveends1981]

We have credit card companies wanting FULL payment and when we got back our tax money they wouldnt accept payments. So our attourney told us becuase we didnt have enough money to pay in full, we would have to spend the money on items that we could. He told us about food, clothing, housing repairs, etc. I asked about furniture since ours were broke and hand me downs. He said he tells his clients they can purchase furniture up to $2k. Nothing more. I kept asking him if he was for sure and he said yes. that he has told others they can and hasnt had any problems. He said if our furniture was broke and we didnt have any, then it would be considered something we needed.

[StartingOver08]

Specifically ask your attorney about the BAPCA abuse provision on luxury purchases - $750 or more within 90 days - but they can go back 6 months to look.

[loveends1981]

Ok, I'll have to write this down to ask him.
Gosh I will be so mad if what he told me was wrong!

Thanks for the info!

[eddiep]

Your attorney should know what your local trustee will let you get away with. It sounds like he was very specific on how much you could spend and on what, I wouldn't lose sleep over it. Now you have to list the new furniture as an asset though bummer!

[BkinTX]

Wow.

Our furniture is falling apart (4 kids). It's going to be years before we replace ours.

We also got an ITR (DH is military and only base pay is taxed + 4 kids). We paid bills, got some much-needed clothes for the kids, and paid the lawyer at 2700.

If it's allowed -- good for you! Furniture that hasn't been peed or barfed on is always great, LOL.

[Brighterdays]

Wow.

Our furniture is falling apart (4 kids). It's going to be years before we replace ours.

I am having a moving sell, if your in the toledo area,I have a sectional(great shape), couch and a chair. I have a couple nice dressers, and china cabinet. Just look for my yard sale(coming soon). it sure beats the heck out of trying to move all this stuff.

[BkinTX]

Too bad we are so far away, LOL. I am embarrassed by the couch I bought only 3 years ago!

[Brighterdays]

Too bad we are so far away, LOL. I am embarrassed by the couch I bought only 3 years ago!

I wish I could attach a picture, I would show you what my cocker puppy did to my last couch. He literally ate the damn thing. That and 2 pairs of oakely sunglasses, windows 98 disc, 3 dvd's, my wallet and all my credit cards, and the worst was the partial set of 70 1955 baseball cards(little bastard must have smelled the gum residue, as he chewed at least one corner off each and made them all worthless. He is much better now, actually he hasn't chewed anything else since then(damn lucky for him, as the cards were damn near the last straw).