Expense question, PLEASE answer!

[oregongal]

Currently our rent is only $325 (great, huh?), but we live in a very old house so electricity/heating averages out at about 360/month, cell phones (3) at 201, internet at 50, maintenance at 75. We are under the median income test by 30,000/year and under in everything else, but over in Oregon's non-mortgage utilities by 140. How much of a red flag will this raise on Schedule J?

[ValleYum]

I believe it will not raise a red flag at all if you have the bills to back it up (in case the Trustee questions it). Hopefully some others will chime in!

Welcome to the forum~~

[oregongal]

Thanks. We are on budget pay through our electricity company for $250/month, and have a wood pellet stove. I am only estimating the cost of the pellets: 4.5 months of winter times 30 bags per month divided by 20 bags/pallet times $215 (I called around) per pallet. The high energy plus low rent is still a good deal for us. Just makes me nervous because I don't want any flags.

[pamkev]

We have the same high cost of fuel issue also and what has gotten us into a chapter 7 instead of a 13. Live in a very HUGE old home. We have prove from our fuel oil company for the last 4 to 5 years showing what we spent. Our 341 isn't until mid Sept. Our lawyer said this should not be a issue as we have prove. We also are on a budget plan for electric. Wish we had your bills our fuel is around 6000.00 for the year. We would love to sell this place but no one wants the huge fuel bills

Pam

[Pandora]

I swear by this and it reduces our heating bill / electric by a substantial amount during the winter months. We have all electric baseboards in a 151 y/o home and in the summer, 6 A/C window units. Here is what we do to help lower our bills:

Winter:

Run ultrasonic mist humidifiers We have 3 that we run (the type without a wick / filter - much healthier) and our baseboard heaters are all set at 68 degrees. with running the humidifiers it brings the temp up to a comfortable 72-73 degrees. Its much warmer and more comfortable to breathe as well. People always ask what our heat is set at because its so warm in the house and say we must have huge electric bills - but we dont. Its only pennies a day to run all 3 humidifiers - much less than turning up the thermostats. Think of it like summer - you can have a day where its 90 outside without humidity, and its comfortable - however add humidity into the mix and you're miserable LOL. Same principle here.


Summer:

Our house is 2200 sq ft and in the summer we have 6 A/C window units (energy efficient) and the house is usually between 68-70 in the summer. We also run a dehumidifier in the cellar to help keep it cooler. The dehumidifier helps a ton. I keep all the shades down to keep the sun out (they're light filtering shades) and in the upper rooms, have dark thermal shades to help with heat.

We are on the budget billing ($270 month) however we've always had credits at the end of our budget billing cycle. Just got our electric bill the other day and it was $301 ...with a credit of $286 still available from previous month. We also switched (SLOWLY due to expense) to LED light bulbs - and WOW what a difference in our bill! We were running CFL's and while they helped lower from traditional bulbs, the LED's have cut at least another $25 off of our bill, and we just had a rate increase in June. They're expensive for sure, but we try to buy 1 bulb every pay day....and so far, we've got them in the areas we use most (living room, den, bedrooms). Still have kitchen, dining, 2 hallways and the bathroom to go. they've come a long way with them and you can now get "warm white" LEDs - so it looks like a regular lightbulb, not that strange "blue hue". We really like them...so much so we even switched to all LEDs in our RV as well.

[tobee43]

sometimes i think it's just the house or even the electric or fuel companies you have.

when we were in nj we did much of what pandora has suggested other than the mist humidifiers. our bills ran high, and this is JUST electric from $500-600 monthly while our oil which was for heating ran about the same $500-$600 per month no matter what month. we kept our house in the winter at 63 and during the summer the rooms were keep at 75, in the summer we also had room A/C but ONLY ran them in the bedrooms and ONLY at night. it was still outrageously high no matter what we did. (including adding a custom built wood stove which with a water tank that circulated through out the house and provided 10 minutes of hot water per hour, as well as heating the house via the base boards).

i think much has to do where you live in the country. when we moved down here our neighbor said the largest bill she ever had since they moved in was $140 which was summer since no ever turned the heat on in the winter...LOL!! not true either it's been FREEZING the past 3 winters here. as soon as we moved here it more is like $200 average per month although the summers run $300-350 while the winters run $125 or so. we have one unit that supplies both heat and cooling. but our neighbor later told me when i asked her about this $140, she said, since you moved here the amount has doubled LOL!! just my luck. actually not our bill runs less than hers. both our houses are 2k sq ft.

so sorry to go on and on to get to my point . even when one's state has a certain amount allotted for items there not only exceptions, but the costs increases that have been happening through out the country are something one can prove, just like in pam's case! so i wouldn't think there is going to be any problem with the trustee about this as valle says, just have the bills to back up the amount.

[pamkev]

Thanks for the advice might have to check it out