Having 2 Automobiles & Mthly. Expenses

[LuciluS]

I'm having a hard time distinguishing the Gasoline Receipts from my Van or Dh's Truck (both are gas). How did ya'll put this stuff on your BK papers.

Also, did most of you use your Bank Statements in justifying your other expenses or did you use the 'Local Standards'. OMG! I can't believe Food is only $537 a month for two people. That's about $17.34 a day. My dh is 6'6" tall with size 16 shoes...a Big Man. Also, he is a Cardiac Patient and we do not buy ground beef or pork. We buy mainly Ground Turkey, Turkey Bratwurst, Turkey Sausages, Turkey Breakfast Sausaged & Turkey Cutlets.
That is when DH feels like cooking as I'm 100% disabled.

Anyone over the $537 a month for food and was it allowed. We eat out a lot too on weekends as DH usually only has 1 day off. In that 1 day off, he has to buy the groceries and mow our big yard. He buys a lot of truck food (bread, milk, cereal, lunch meat, diet rites & snacks) at the same time. It's a nightmare figuring the Wal-Mart receipt separating Food, Trucking Expenses, Personal Care & Household items & then trying to figure what's taxable and what's not. Plus Dh goes to 2 different Wal-Mart in different towns & the tax is not the same. I can see the Trustee if he ask for the paperwork when he gets it as dh is an long haul truck driver and has tons of little tiny receipts I have put in date order & ran a calculator tape for each week.

I don't know why, but for some reason I shredded most of December receipts and honest to Pete, I don't know why I did that?? I guess I will just give receipts for the 6 month look back period. But I have figured my utilities, my medical insurance, breakdown on auto insurance and our life insurance which is all accidential death except for one which is a cancer policy.

This paperwork is about to get the best of me

Luci

[Naomi]

Also, did most of you use your Bank Statements in justifying your other expenses or did you use the 'Local Standards'.

It seems like it would be easier if allowed to just use the IRS standards.
We have a 3 person household and the IRS allowances are:
Food - 626
Housekeeping Supplies - 66
Apparel and services - 209
Personal care - 59
Misc- 197
Total: $1152

http://www.usdoj.gov/ust/eo/bapcpa/20090315/bci_data/national_expense_standards.htm

I have no clue how much we actually spend on any of these things. I don't plan on filing until Jan or Feb, though, so time to finally start budgeting and see what we can really afford w/out the cc's.

I hope we don't have to save receipts and all that...the $1152 is probably more than we actually spend so I would rather use that number.

[aces67]

I used my bank statements. For gas though we live in a tiny community and we have a store account at the gas station. We put all our gas on the account and pay it once a month. I used those receipts for my gas average.

That paperwork is stressful. It took me forever to complete mine b/c I had problems focusing and staying on task. I kept wanting to give up halfway through it.

[OhioFiler]

Don't kill yourself in the minutia. Unless you are audited that kind of detail is not necessary.

[AngelinaCatHub]

Don't kill yourself in the minutia. Unless you are audited that kind of detail is not necessary.

Yes, we never itemized every item. I took my quicken, extracted every item individually, put it into Excel and got an average. My lawyer changed a lot as to the allowed amounts here and there. I would take the standards as suggested. 'Hub

[StartingOver08]

OhioFiler and Hub are right, as usual.

The receipts are for backup if you have expenses running over the alloted allowances and if the trustee asks for proof. Very unlikely except in certain circumstances. It is great to have the receipts, but don't stress over it.

[OhioFiler]

OhioFiler and Hub are right, as usual.

The receipts are for backup if you have expenses running over the alloted allowances and if the trustee asks for proof. Very unlikely except in certain circumstances. It is great to have the receipts, but don't stress over it.

Any way to make that comment a sticky?!

[LuciluS]

It's required I have receipts to justify Dh's over the road truck expenses (tons of tiny receipts each week) as he is usually gone from Sun. am - Fri. pm. And he buys his breakfast stuff, bread, deli meat & some snacks at the Grocery Store.

So I guess I could just pull out the grocery receipts where he bought stuff to go with him in the big truck & his weekly receipts nad give them to the Attorney? I mean we are talking like $100 weekly of truck receipts.

Yes, I'm stressing. My fault as I have procrastinated.

Luci

[liz417]

Hi Luci,

I stressed out myself worrying about the samething...you know what? The Trustee didn't even ask me for anything! Here I had been saving EVERY receipt for over a year (some of our expenses REALLY passed the allowable expense) and nothing was asked. Like others said, save them "just in case" you need to prove anything or if anything is questioned.

Good Luck!

[BkinTX]

WOW, do you live in a high COL area?

[bkmaggster]

We didn't save any receipts, just guesstimated using our bank statements and the IRS guidelines. No one asked for anything.

Don't stress! You always sound so organized and clear about everything, keep up that voice of reason.

[RainMoM]

We didn't save any receipts, just guesstimated using our bank statements and the IRS guidelines. No one asked for anything.

Don't stress! You always sound so organized and clear about everything, keep up that voice of reason.

I did the same thing, I never even knew you had to save receipts untill i found this site and read it here..
Luci, just take care of you (no stress) and everything will work out just fine

[aces67]

I've been saving all my receipts also but I've never been asked for them. I have lots of papers piled up now.