Your Bankruptcy Budget

When you fill out your bankruptcy budget, remember inflation. Some people give me a food budget that might have worked ten years ago, but not now.

Do you buy coffee every morning at the 7-Eleven/?

Some people think of just the grocery store budget and forget they get coffee every morning at the 7-Eleven, or Starbucks(!).

I’ve seen moms with two teens at home put down $40 a month for clothing–that doesn’t even keep them in shoes.

Here’s a chart you can use as a starting point.  It’s based on research collected by the Census Bureau. 

This shows the expenses of the average family in America, collected by the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Remember that in Northern Virginia, things can be more expensive than elsewhere. (One family I talked to recently had a food budget that seemed too low. Mom told me that their family–living in western Stafford–ate a lot of venison; the husband killed deer during hunting season and froze the meat. That probably doesn’t apply to you. Many families around the country grow their own veggies. That’s hard to do around here, too.)

Healthcare is not on this chart.

Healthcare is another area where people budget way too low. Here’s something I posted on budgeting your health care costs. I wrote that ten years ago.