What we can "actually" afford for expenses

[jdcat]

now is not the same as what we will be able to afford in the coming weeks. My husband was informed at work that he will need to put in some over time beginning the end of this month. This is great news for us! This will not put us over the median income by any means so that will not be an issue. This is temporary though and will probably stop the end of February or so.

I have a question. Since we cannot file until March because of a previous bk and our income will be back down to what it is now does that mean that we then have to fill out our expense sheet according to what we actually spend on the lower income? Even though what we actually spent just a month prior to filing was much more? I know that our stated income on schedule I has to be current and I'm assuming that our stated expenses have to be current as well. Meaning we can't claim that we spend $1000 for food after our income goes back down because we obviously won't be able to, even though just the month before we were able to. (family of 5)

I wish we could file before March so that we can use actual expenses while hubby is working overtime but we can't. Are we basically stuck in regards to how much we can claim we actually spend?

[BrokeMike]

Monthly expenses should represent an average monthly amount over an entire year. They should neither be winter or summer but an average of both. That's what my lawyer said.
So you can make an average on how much you spend on food monthly.

[jdcat]

Thanks BrokeMike. That makes sense to me. I've become a little paranoid because I'm trying to protect an increase in income due to begin in June from a car that will be paid off, so we really need a negative DMI to show that we need that money to cover our basic necessities.

If we fill out schedule J with yearly average numbers we come out negative. If we fill out the schedule J going by the lower income I mentioned and only list what we can afford with that income our schedule J is just pathetic looking. Lots of spaces left blank. I honestly feel that we'll be ok, but I'm nervous.

I can't wait to get this ball rolling and find an attorney who can talk me through this!

[jdcat]

This is what our schedule J look like with just what we can afford now.

Family of 5

$688 mortgage with taxes and insurance
$175 gas and electric
$70 water/sewer
$103 phone
$80 cable and internet
$800 food
$160 gas
$25 medical out of pocket
$18 kids' life insurance
$625 2 car payments
$96 auto insurance
$120 school lunches

Total $2960

Net income $2962

The car that will be paid off will give us $400 a month to use toward the things not listed and add more to things that are listed. I'm worried that listing our schedule J like this would be like shooting ourselves in the foot but at the same time I wondering if showing our actual situation in this way would show the trustee that we really do need that money when it becomes available. This is what we are actually spending right now though and will be again once hubbies overtime is gone.