MasConcepts Incorporated

My husband and I recently filed Chapter 13 in California. Our combined take-home is $9,655/month, our Chapter 13 payment is $1,908, and after our realistic monthly expenses we’re left with around $115.31.

Our biggest expense is housing at about $4,012/month (mortgage/escrow-taxes&insurance we have to carry fire insurance + HOA). I know that number will look crazy to people outside California, which is partly why I’m asking this.

For context, we bought our house in 2023 when we were both 100% WFH and were told it was permanent. We live about 46 miles from work. Two years later we’ve been pulled back into the office 2 days/week and could potentially be pulled back 4 days/week, so transportation costs have increased considerably from when we bought. We do carpool together as much as we can for work.

Our rough monthly budget:
Take-home: $9,655
Housing: $4,012
Chapter 13: $1,908
Utilities: $1,284
Groceries: $1,000
Gas: $450
Senior dog: $350
Car insurance (2 cars): $185
Household/personal necessities: $162
Hair sinking fund (2 people): $60
Yard supplies: $40
Car registration sinking fund: $32
Medical copays: $30
Oura: $12
Left: $115.31

A couple distinctions: our 13-year-old dog is on a special veterinary diet ($300 is for his monthly food and the $50 is a sinking fund for incidentals like his allergy shot or other meds), the $162 is toilet paper, menstrual products, cleaning/laundry supplies, shampoo, soap, etc., and the hair and registration amounts are sinking funds, not monthly spending. Oura is used with my birth-control method. Groceries are definitely somewhere we can reduce but I’ve already reduced a lot here.

My bigger concern is that $115 doesn’t account for actual life happening. I drive a 2008 Accord that seems to need something every few months (205k miles) and we have two cars to maintain, own an older house (70s), and don’t have a real home/car repair fund. It also doesn’t account for additional specialist/dental copays in months when those happen. As we’ve both have had to see specialists recently.

Even cutting groceries by $200–300 still doesn’t leave much room for unexpected expenses over a 5 year Chapter 13. Thinking about 5 years of being really tight like this is keeping me a bit on edge, but selling and moving can also bring its own issues.

For those who’ve actually been through Chapter 13: would this make you seriously consider selling the house?

Did anyone start out determined to keep their home, later sell during the plan, and feel financially better afterward? Was it hard getting accepted for a rental? Our credit is now terrible so this is nerve-racking.

We’re obviously going to discuss the legal/financial implications with our attorney before making any decisions. I’m mostly looking for lived experiences and whether this looks like “Chapter 13 is supposed to be tight” or “your housing cost is making this unsustainable.”