Scrutinize my Schedule J Please?!?!

[my2girls]

Hi All,
Getting ready to submit by this Friday. Can you please give me your honest opinions regarding our schedules J? We have to do this in a hurry so I'm scrambling to make sure it's correct. BTW, we are over the median income so we will probably be scrutinized. My 1 concern is daycare. I pay my neighbor $20/day (about $400-$450 month) to watch my 9 year old after school, take her to her activities if I cannot make it. We obviously don't want our neighbors involved in our "business" how can I handle this accurately? Thanks!

Schedule J (We are a family of 4)
Mortgage $1606
Electricity $260
Water/Sewer $40
Telephone $40
Other $260
Home Maintenance $65
Food $1000
Clothing $225
Laundry & Dry Cleaning $60
Medical & Dental $60
Transportation not including car payments $495
Recreation $75
Insurance (Not deducted from wages) $40
Auto Insurance $200
Car Loan $382
Other expenses $550
Average monthly expenses $5359

(Other Expenses include)
Cable Internet $120
Cell Phone $140
Pet Care $50 (we have recpts)
Day Care $450
Contingency $50

Average Monthly Income $5034
Average Monthly Expenses $5359
Monthly Net Income -$325

[HHM]

I don't think day care will be a problem, the amount seems reasonable.
Other = 260...you WILL need to specify what this is, it is too large an amount.
Food = $1000 (what is your household size?), seems a bit large for HH of 3, and somewhat pushing it for a HH of 4 (but more reasonable)
Clothing -$225 "per month", seems excessive.
Other expenses = $550 (again, you will need to specify) The trustee only needs to swing the proposed budget buy 4 or 5 hundred dollars to get you in a chapter 13, and there is enough ammo in the 4 things I mentioned to do so.

[Freddy03]

Hi All,
Getting ready to submit by this Friday. Can you please give me your honest opinions regarding our schedules J? We have to do this in a hurry so I'm scrambling to make sure it's correct. BTW, we are over the median income so we will probably be scrutinized. My 1 concern is daycare. I pay my neighbor $20/day (about $400-$450 month) to watch my 9 year old after school, take her to her activities if I cannot make it. We obviously don't want our neighbors involved in our "business" how can I handle this accurately? Thanks!

Schedule J (We are a family of 4)
Mortgage $1606
Electricity $260
Water/Sewer $40
Telephone $40
Other $260
Home Maintenance $65
Food $1000
Clothing $225
Laundry & Dry Cleaning $60
Medical & Dental $60
Transportation not including car payments $495
Recreation $75
Insurance (Not deducted from wages) $40
Auto Insurance $200
Car Loan $382
Other expenses $550
Average monthly expenses $5359

(Other Expenses include)
Cable Internet $120
Cell Phone $140
Pet Care $50 (we have recpts)
Day Care $450
Contingency $50

Average Monthly Income $5034
Average Monthly Expenses $5359
Monthly Net Income -$325

Your Schedule J looks almost identical to mine..lol

We had no problems having $1000 for food (Family of 4 also)
We were allowed $75 for pet care (2 dogs as long as they were "fixed")
I don't think the daycare would be an issue - we were allowed "after school care"
We had our medical and dental at $180 b/c both kids wear glasses and we are expecting dental/ortho work soon.
Our transportation was a little higher b/c we both drive toll rodes to work.

Do you have an attorney? If so I would ask them their opinion. Our attorney knew what would raise an eyebrow from the trustees.

Good Luck

[moe]

Sort of curious about home maintenance being sixty five dollars. That's pretty low. Do you have a new house? Maybe I just imagine we spend a gazillion on home repair but it feels like we do. And it's something you always have to be prepared for. Fear of being unable to repair my home is a major reason I can't seem to buckle down and pull the trigger on bankruptcy.

Wow, daycare is SUPER reasonable.

Day care in my area is six hundred a month for after school only. For an infant/toddler that absolute cheapest bottom of the barrel day care would be $50 a day--so $250 a week. But I wonder--would they just reject your day care costs? Or would they force you to send your kid to some place really awful for daycare. The $50 a day places can be pretty grimy (family day care). A center is about $75 a day.

If you have 2 kids then, it can be cheaper to get a nanny. But then are they going to reject your nanny expenses because you shouldn't get a nanny because you are a low down dirty filer--even if the nanny is the same price?

I guess I was thinking--your daycare looks incredibly low to me.

i have a question--when I do the online means tests it seems like it just gives you allowable amounts. They don't do that? The allowable amount where I live for food is over $1,000.00. Thank goodness. We spend that much without eating meat many days, making our own snacks and no prepared drinks or prepared foods.

Do they not give an allowable amount? It has be just what you spend?

[my2girls]

Thanks everyone...just wanted to make sure we were in the right ball park. Final tweaks today and tomorrow. In regards to daycare, my 9 year old goes to my neighbors until we get home from work. She takes her to activities, feeds her a snack and helps get homework going until one of us gets home.

[ValleYum]

About documenting your childcare expenses, you could just ask your neighbor for a receipt and if she asks why, you can mention it is for a re-fi attempt (because really, isn't a Ch 7 the ultimate life re-fi?? LOL).

I think your medical is UBER low. On the means test, the national standards allows $60 per person (under 65 y.o.) for medical expenses which is $180/month for a family of 3. Do any of you wear glasses? Contacts? Also Band-aids, Metamucil, Vitamins, Theraflu, Neosporin, Tums, as well as Medical Co-pays, Dental co-pays, and Rx Co-Pays can really add up.

I agree with Moe that your home maintenance seems really low at $65. Items to think about: gas & oil for your lawn mower, weedeater string, lightbulbs, snow removal, water filters/softener, exterior painting or power washing, furnace air filters/cleaning & inspection, weatherstripping, chimney sweeping/inspection, roof repair, and in the 'worst case' a replacement appliance or hot water heater.

Remember, you won't have a credit card to fall back on for a major home repair or appliance replacement and you should set aside a small monthly amount for an emergency fund to be able to cover these big ticket repair/replacement items.

Mint.com's budget planning pages suggest that homeowners put aside 1-2% of the cost of your home per year for maintenance and upkeep if your house is newer and double that if you have an older home. For a newer house that costs $300,000, this would amount to $3000-$6000 per year or for Schedule J purposes it would equate to $250-$500 per month. (http://www.mint.com/blog/goals/home-repair-02022011/)

I have my fingers crossed for a super smooth filing day for you!!

[IamOld]

ValleyYum, I know you posted this a few weeks ago, BUT THANK YOU!!!! Just went over my Sched J and there was nothing for home maintenance. So I'm going to use 2% of house purchase value!!! Nice - I'll print this and take it tomorrow to paralegal for signing/putting in Sched J (I do need - NEED - about 8 new windows, new carpet upstairs (10 years of 2 kids plus 1 cat/1 dog - you get the idea), technically I have a cracked floorboard or two also...never mind the "normal" stuff.