How much money to have in checking on file day.

[adviceplease]

I will be receiving money from a student loan refund and will have about $700 left on file day after paying my lawyer. I plan on stocking up on groceries and hitting Sam's club and spending about $300 on meat etc. since we are really low on groceries. So I will have about $400 left in the account.

Should I go and take it down to $50 by withdrawing cash, is withdrawing $350cash a red flag, what should I say it went for? The other option is I can pay up a couple months of school lunches for my daughter and pay my utilities ahead of time. Any advice on what I should have in my account? Thanks.

[lovebirds]

I will be receiving money from a student loan refund and will have about $700 left on file day after paying my lawyer. I plan on stocking up on groceries and hitting Sam's club and spending about $300 on meat etc. since we are really low on groceries. So I will have about $400 left in the account.

Should I go and take it down to $50 by withdrawing cash, is withdrawing $350cash a red flag, what should I say it went for? The other option is I can pay up a couple months of school lunches for my daughter and pay my utilities ahead of time. Any advice on what I should have in my account? Thanks.

Yes it will. You can't just take out cash. You need receipts that you've spent every dime. Pay any utilities that you haven't paid this month.

Make sure you keep every receipt! The trustee will ask for them.

You should keep whatever cash exeption your state allows. Louisiana has ZERO exempt cash.

[gwar11d2]

Probably depends on the state. In NC, we can exempt up to a certain amount of money. My attorney advised me to put down what my direct deposit was for an exemption. Oh, one big thing, if you owe that bank money in a CC, overdraft protection, etc they will take it. Since one of the CCs we are getting rid of is from that bank we had to open up another bank account at a different bank.

[mike258]

Fill up your gas tank.
Pay auto insurance.
Pay next months electric bill.
Go to the dentist.
Buy toilet paper.

...just keep the receipts.

[lovebirds]

Fill up your gas tank.
Pay auto insurance.
Pay next months electric bill.
Go to the dentist.
Buy toilet paper.

...just keep the receipts.

Lots of toilet paper...

[adviceplease]

lol...I probably need alot of tp with 2 girls in the house. What about taking $20-$40 extra a week out when I go to the store through the check out? Will this seem fishy and I have to show where I spent it. I always take some money out in case we want to eat out etc.

I do have late fees on my cars that need to be paid, the lender told me that I do not have to pay those to be current with them just pay them when I can. What if some things take a couple days past file date to clear, should I wait for them to come out before I file?

[lovebirds]

You should make sure everything clears before you file b/c the trustee is going to pull your bank account balance for that day and ask for that money in a check (minus any state cash exemptions).

Just make sure you spend the money on things you would already buy (Schoolbooks, utilities, food). The thought of spending down student loan money for the sake of it would make me nervous. Student loans repayment sucks.

[Amy26]

I was able to exempt most of my balances. I had one checking account that was used to pay my second mortgage and I just withdrew the money that was there and brought the balance down to 10 dollars. From my main checking account I had about 50 bucks or so file day. If I wanted cash, I did as someone else from the forums suggested and I took cash back from the grocery store when I used my debit card for groceries.

I was never asked for any receipts or justifcations of what I spend money on.

[adviceplease]

Lovebirds- yeah I hate to take the money but I needed it to pay the lawyer to file. I will not be taking out any extra money from this semester on because my tuition is going up. I will be putting the rest on past due car fees and my utilities.

Amy- I will start taking $20 a week out at the store, I just want about $100 to have on me in case we need it.

[2manybills]

We had about $800 in the bank that we exempted. But I paid my mortgage, groceries, etc. on the date we filed. We actually paid cash for car repairs that were about 1 year overdue.

If you can't exempt what you have, then spend it on essentials. If you owe money to the bank that holds your accounts, then get a new checking account.

[debtBgone]

Yeah, you can take out an extra $20 or $40 a week. I do it all the time. Just keep your receipts on everything you buy. I doubt they'll ask to see my receipts but I got 'em if they need 'em!

And, as far as money in the bank goes on filing day...My lawyer waited an extra week to file my case because he wanted the check I wrote him ($999) to clear my bank first. So on filing day I had less than $10 in my account.

Good luck on your filing! And, yes, make sure you have plenty of toilet paper!

[liz417]

I started getting "extra cash" out ($50) every time I went to the grocery store (I started this about 6 months before I file). I had a nice little "nest egg" right before I filed, although it didn't matter because my attorney jumped the gun and file a day earlier (he must have thought I got paid on Friday), he filed on Thursday, payday I was really concerned because my checking account balance was high but the Trustee didn't even ask about the balance or ask to see the grocery receipts (that I took $$ out). Nothing...nada...done it 5 minutes...

[leena]

Receipts are a thing of mythical proportions in bankruptcy world it seems. My attorney said you only get asked for them if you take out large amounts of cash (like $600.00) at one time (or you know, 200 bucks every week!), are self employed, or operate on a cash-only basis. Thanks to debit cards, bank statements show pretty well where your money went, and again from what the attorney is telling me in most cases the trustee does not really scrutinize that either (accept to see that you are actually paying rent/mortgage/insurance and so on). Your district, trustee, whatever may vary and for all I know I will be in a buzzsaw at my 341 next month but this is what the attorney tells me.

As to cash on hand, I was told that on the day of filing my bank accounts had to be pretty dry and cash on hand had to be spent on needed items. On that day, I had $10.00 in my checking, $140.00 in a HSA (I used almost all my HSA to pay the attorney, guess I will be paying for that at tax time!) and around $20.00 in my pocket. Do what your attorney tells you and don't worry about it, just ask them first because the day-of filing thing varies a lot from district to district.

[justplaintired]

Indiana allows $300 per filer. The day we filed, we had around $200 total for 2 filers. Make sure to check with your attorney on what your balance should be, our attorney advised early on what the acct could have in it. Our attorney's paralegal called me the morning she planned to file to check our balance. I called our bank to get her an exact figure. I would just call them today, find out what amount is allowed and then get your acct. below that figure. If you have to pay utilities that need paid, stock up on groceries, just get it below what is allowed.

[adviceplease]

New question on this. Seeing as a lot of places are slow to take the money out of the account can I take $700 cash (or maybe less if I have to) out and then pay cash for my groceries, cell phone bill, gas, test for school, etc if I have receipts for it? I just know that they will take their time if I need the money to get out of the account.