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help quick please - monthly expenditures?

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    help quick please - monthly expenditures?

    I have my 2nd court appearance for one card tomorrow (they were so quick to serve!) but I can't make it due to work, so we are completing paper work tonight and turning it in with final payment tomorrow morning!

    Can someone look over our monthly expenditures and see if this looks/will work okay? We have had such a tight budget and lived off of credit cards for so long and been trying to get things back in order I still haven't figured out exactly what we will be spending on what (should have been keeping better track, but messed up there and haven't)

    We are a family of 4.

    Monthly income: $3380.00

    mortgage: 604.32
    electricity/gas: $350 (this includes an extra $85/month from a deposit spread over the next 10 months s till)
    water/sewer: $75
    telephone/internet: $60
    cable: $96.00
    other (trash): $36.50

    home maintence: $150 (no idea what really should go here??)
    food: $400
    clothing: $175
    laundry/dry cleaning: $100
    medical: $200
    gas/oil: $250 (van and car)
    recreation/clubs/entertainment/newspapers, etc: $150
    charitable contributions: $0
    taxes: $0 (what's this mean??)
    insurance:
    homeowners:
    life: $24.14
    health: (taken out of paychecks)
    auto: $75.78
    other: (I want to get insurance on things like home, life for me and my rings, etc but we haven't yet and not sure what they will be...we aren't paying them now, so do I leave them off, or add a little extra in there because we will be getting it sooner than later?)

    installment payments:
    auto: $399.76
    other: (specify) $0

    alimony, maintenance and support made to others: $0
    payments for support of additional dependants not living at your home: $0

    Other (specify): $200 for preschool, diapers and dance lessons.

    Total expenses: $1625 (leaves $33.50 extra each month). I know you want it closeto your earned income amount, but I can't remember if it should be under or over or if these numbers look ok??

    Part of what is throwing me off I think is the paper from our lawyer doesn't have a clear spot for things like shampoo, etc... Do I put that in with food? I put toilet paper, paper towels, dish washer tabs, detergent and the occasional dry cleaning in with laundry...but...what about all the other stuff between that and food? Do I bump my food up higher to include more of that stuff? or where does it go since it's not listed...??

    Other thing that's different from this laywers forms vrs others we looked at is that the part where we list the value of all of the things we own...instead of it saying like jewelry, electronics, etc in catagories...his just says:

    market value of personal property:

    markeet value of jewelry, furs, or other luxury items:

    I know I will have to break it down in my head (and isn't there a website that lists how much you are allowed to have that i could use as a guide?) but it freaks me out that it will be such a high number in that one place (vrs seeing it spread out in smaller numbers on other forms). Surprised to see it lumped right there in just 2 catagories and scared me it's going to be a red flag. We don't really have anything too over the top tough...a flat screen tv, few yrs old camcorder, almost 5 year old digital camera, 4 year old furniture that the girls have destroyed (big mistake buying), a wii with only 2 games, lots of dvds, baby toys like swing and exersaucer, etc.... many people that file bk have bigger things though too, right? That's what helped some people get in this position...buying thinking they could pay it off, things come up (lots of medical bills for us and me not able to work for a couple years) right?? =/

    I am starting to stress out again over it all ... can't wait to be done with this part! Can someone give me any advice on my numbers here please?!? Thanks!
    Last edited by LookingAhead; 10-27-2010, 04:59 PM.
    Retained lawyer on 3/9/10
    Finally filed ch 7 on 10/29/10
    341 mtg on 12/1/10 hopefully

    #2
    your $400/month/food for a family of 4 is way to low u can up that to $700
    recreation/clubs/entertainment/newspapers, etc: i would change that to $100
    laundry/dry cleaning: i would change that to $70
    Personal care products & services :$66
    Housekeeping supplies:$74
    Miscellaneous:$235
    Last edited by scorpion35; 10-27-2010, 04:49 PM.
    Filed chapter 7 on 9/17 341 on 10/20
    Chapter 7 Trustee's Report of No Distribution on 10/21
    Discharged and Case Closed on 12/21/2010

    Comment


      #3
      I agree with Scorpion35. Here are some additional suggestions.

      I calculated your "Total Expenses" as $3346.50 vs. $1625.
      Home Maintenance = $150 seems a bit high...since you are not sure how much you spend I would say $50 - $75 / month.
      Food - $400 / month for food seems low for a family of four. I live in CA and I know I spend approx $280 - $350 for two of us.
      Clothing: $175 - also seems high....maybe $75 - $100 instead.

      I can't remember exactly but I believe we showed $40 - $50 left over and we were fine.

      Good luck.

      Comment


        #4
        thank you for the responses! I will make some adjustments!

        Ooh...I put the wrong number for my total expenses, sorry...I added up the mortgage, car, utilities, etc and had a total for that and then kept playing with the numbers of the stuff like food, clothing, etc and would add it to the other so I didn't have to keep adding everthing each time I made an adjustment...I posted just one of the numbers instead of my total for both.
        Retained lawyer on 3/9/10
        Finally filed ch 7 on 10/29/10
        341 mtg on 12/1/10 hopefully

        Comment


          #5
          Hi LookingAhead,

          our lawyer doesn't have a clear spot for things like shampoo, etc... Do I put that in with food? I put toilet paper, paper towels,

          List it out separately and the lawyer will put it into the right categories. tp, paper towels, shampoo, etc get rolled up into 'personal'
          (if you want to see the categories yourself, go online and get forms 22a and B6J [means test & schedule J] from the courts website, the categories on each are different)

          I want to get insurance on things like home you already do: mortgage = have home owners insurance Yea!

          The lawyer lumped all the personal property together b/c that is the way the Ill exemptions are written:

          Personal Property

          735-5/12-1001 - Motor vehicle up to $2,400; clothing needed; health aids; school books; family pictures; bible; personal injury recoveries up to $15,000; wrongful death recoveries; proceeds from sale of exempt property; Illinois College Savings Pool accounts that were invested more than 1 year before filing if below federal gift tax limit, or 2 years before filing if above the federal gift tax limit; any other personal property up to $4,000 (not including wages).


          Don't be scared unless the number is over $8,000 ($4,000 x2 for joint filing) ...and you value your stuff at garage sale prices, not what you paid new.

          As to expenses:
          Food looks low by about 150;
          have a bill handy to document gas/electric;
          home maintenance is light bulbs, paint, lawn mover expense, small repairs;
          list taxes and insurance taken out of the paycheck (you start with gross, this gets you down to net);
          medical looks low by 50 or so;
          gas/oil looks low by 50 or so;
          recreation a little high,

          Hope this helps....

          Tom in Colo
          Ch7 filed 5/12/2010.....341 meeting 6/30/2010....report of no distribution 8/15/2010.....discharged 10/01/2010.....closed 11/09/2010

          Comment

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