food per month on schedule J

[geye]

I'm not going to tell you what I have down so that doesn't influence your answer

This cash only, not eating out, and being reasonable as opposed to bare bones is certainly a learning process! All I know is I'm spending a LOT more than I thought I would, and we STILL don't have enough food!!

Family of 6 in Michigan. Two adults, one teen boy, and 3 younger children (but no diapers). No pets. Laundry is separated out per attorney, and is at 15 per month, but no other categories like school, work lunches or anything. So that means right now stuff like TP and dishwasher soap are in there...if they don't go there I have no idea where they're accounted for.

No special dietary requirements beyond trying to keep enough food in the house for the teen to maintain his weight

How much per month SHOULD I be spending, making sure it covers 4.35 weeks per month (meaning not a weekly amount times 4, or there'll be 4 weeks we go without food per year)

TIA

[newbie2]

I'm not going to tell you what I have down so that doesn't influence your answer

This cash only, not eating out, and being reasonable as opposed to bare bones is certainly a learning process! All I know is I'm spending a LOT more than I thought I would, and we STILL don't have enough food!!

Family of 6 in Michigan. Two adults, one teen boy, and 3 younger children (but no diapers). No pets. Laundry is separated out per attorney, and is at 15 per month, but no other categories like school, work lunches or anything. So that means right now stuff like TP and dishwasher soap are in there...if they don't go there I have no idea where they're accounted for.

No special dietary requirements beyond trying to keep enough food in the house for the teen to maintain his weight

How much per month SHOULD I be spending, making sure it covers 4.35 weeks per month (meaning not a weekly amount times 4, or there'll be 4 weeks we go without food per year)

TIA

I'm in Michigan also, so I know what the prices are for routine food items here (along with non-perishables). I would imagine that if I were feeding a family of 6 (with a growing teen!) that it would probably cost me around $200 per week, including the non-perishables. (I raised 2 teen boys, and remember what feeding them was like!)

[SMinGA]

I'm a family of 5. Not in MN (GA) and missing the teen but we're almost there. (Kids are 8, 10, 12.) We spend about $125/week on 'groceries' plus another $75 or so on household needs. Which covers paper products, cleaning supplies/laundry, personal care items. So average of about $870/mo. That includes my 'work lunches' which tend to be leftover and/or sandwich type stuff rather than fast food. Then another $25/mo for reduced price lunch during the school year.

There are weeks we can keep it to less - we try to make a menu and shop specifically for what we need and that helps.

[Pandora]

Ours is very similar to SMinGA's -

we're only a family of 3 - but we have pets too. We were allocated $125 a week for just groceries (like you - its more than 4 weeks), $60 a month for pet needs/food/vet and then our sundries were extra; think we allocated another $60 for incidentals ($20 laundry soap, $20 for shampoo, razors, etc, and $20 for dry cleaning).

All was allowed thus far...

[momofthree]

The IRS food standard for a family of 6 is $1010.

[geye]

The IRS food standard for a family of 6 is $1010.

where did you find that info? Does that include things like paper and hygiene products, or is that solely food? If it's only food, wow. No wonder I feel like I'm struggling

[SMinGA]

http://www.justice.gov/ust/eo/bapcpa/20100315/bci_data/national_expense_standards.htm

Figures for households of 1-4 are broken down into:

Food
Housekeeping Supplies
Apparel & Services
Personal care products & services
Misc.

The totals are $526 for 1, $985 for 2, $1,152 for 3, $1,371 for 4.
For each additional member (beyond 4) you add $262, this is total across the 5 categories. So 6, by IRS guidelines, would not be automatically considered unreasonable to claim $1,895 over food/HK Supplies/Apparel & services/Personal care/Misc.

Schedule J is not broken down into the same exact categories, but things can generally be put in one of these categories. Though some are not counted in the #s I just listed. Like medical.

where did you find that info? Does that include things like paper and hygiene products, or is that solely food? If it's only food, wow. No wonder I feel like I'm struggling

[momofthree]

where did you find that info? Does that include things like paper and hygiene products, or is that solely food? If it's only food, wow. No wonder I feel like I'm struggling

That's just food. All together, for food, clothing, and household supplies, the IRS standard allowance is $1895/mo for a family of 6. I could only dream of having that kind of money to spend on living expenses. We're a family of 5 and have a food/clothing/misc budget of $535/mo....Food stamps pay more than that, but of course, we don't qualify for those....

[ladyjenn]

That's just food. All together, for food, clothing, and household supplies, the IRS standard allowance is $1895/mo for a family of 6. I could only dream of having that kind of money to spend on living expenses. We're a family of 5 and have a food/clothing/misc budget of $535/mo....Food stamps pay more than that, but of course, we don't qualify for those....

Why such a small amount budgeted? Is your plan payback too high?
Oh my goodness....I can't imagine...you must be stressed to the max!

[momofthree]

Why such a small amount budgeted? Is your plan payback too high?
Oh my goodness....I can't imagine...you must be stressed to the max!

No. Plan payback is simply trustee fees and attorney fees (we're only paying our car payment in the plan). We actually chose to go the ch.13 route so that we could strip our 2nd and keep our home. Our first mortgage was modified and fairly affordable and will be paid off in 12 more years, but we couldn't afford the 2nd after dh had his pay cut and our son was diagnosed with autism.

Our son requires a special school and meds each month that aren't covered by insurance. The state (CA) is in too much of a financial bind to help us out at all, so we are doing what we have to do to get by, it mostly just involves me couponing hard-core and home-making all our meals from scratch. We actually eat quite well, but it's rather time consuming. We consider it my 2nd part-time job. I average approx 50-60% savings on our groceries each month.

[ladyjenn]

No. Plan payback is simply trustee fees and attorney fees (we're only paying our car payment in the plan). We actually chose to go the ch.13 route so that we could strip our 2nd and keep our home. Our first mortgage was modified and fairly affordable and will be paid off in 12 more years, but we couldn't afford the 2nd after dh had his pay cut and our son was diagnosed with autism.

Our son requires a special school and meds each month that aren't covered by insurance. The state (CA) is in too much of a financial bind to help us out at all, so we are doing what we have to do to get by, it mostly just involves me couponing hard-core and home-making all our meals from scratch. We actually eat quite well, but it's rather time consuming. We consider it my 2nd part-time job. I average approx 50-60% savings on our groceries each month.

I also cook every night. I don't mind it. Actually I may miss it if I didn't
I am glad you are getting by and your house will be paid off in 12 years..that is totally awesome! How did you go about a loan mod? I would love to be able to do that! I hate that we have a 40 year mortgage at 9.63%!!!

[momofthree]

I also cook every night. I don't mind it. Actually I may miss it if I didn't
I am glad you are getting by and your house will be paid off in 12 years..that is totally awesome! How did you go about a loan mod? I would love to be able to do that! I hate that we have a 40 year mortgage at 9.63%!!!

We called the mortgage company and requested a HAMP mod package. Getting the mod completed was a nightmare, but worth it.

[ladyjenn]

I guess I was just hoping to get a re-finance done after filing, but I guess it doesn't work that way.

[LSUTiger32]

I guess I was just hoping to get a re-finance done after filing, but I guess it doesn't work that way.

Yeah, it will likely be 2 years before anyone will talk to you about a mortgage.