The Saga Continues...

[waya3k]

Here is the follow up exchange between my ex and myself.  Once again i am asking to make sure that I expressed myself clearly and in a non-threatening non-attacking manner.  Just follow up on some comments from before.  It would be a lot less cheaper to just pay her the $170 a month then consult a lawyer or get one involved espicially since good

Comments

[kishpa]

I think that her response was surprisingly well thought out and detailed. I don't think you're wrong to ask for additional information though - and you do make a good point that costs do ebb and wain. Maybe a compromise of a temporary increase for the summer - when costs are obviously higher - then settling back down to normal levels when she's back in school. You might be able to get her to agree to that

[hwynym]

My 2 cents? It's not "scorched earth" to ask her to justify any increase and it's not smart to agree to any increase outside of the calculated CS for your state. Get the worksheet for your state, do the math and tell her you'll abide by whatever amount that comes to.

If you go above the mandated CS, then she can use that against you later, by pointing to it in a future modification and saying: "See? He could afford this before, so he can afford even more now..."

That's what I'd stick to and that's what any lawyer would tell you to stick to. It also will keep her from coming back for more right away, as most states have a rule in place that people can't come back to court for increases within a given time period or unless the CS would go up by a certain amount...in my case it's a 20% test. The CS would have to change by 20% +/- for either of us to file a modification. It stops people from going back to court every time their ex gets a raise of 25 cents an hour or something like that.

[ex_sleek838]

Agreed. You can ask for receipts and reimb half the charges on anything. You're not responsible for more than half of any costs Kathryn has. And you can get itemized receipts. You can even ask for copies of the grocery receipts as well.

[skybabie]

Yep I agree with the above post, I talked to my Uncle as well (he's been paying for his kids now for 10+ years) and his ex started with food increases, he never asked to see pricing or a list of what she spent and fed them then suddenly when he decided to the amount pretty much doubled, she bought the highest price store items etc to "prove" they needed the best. She also then changed them to a school district in a different area so she was forced to pay extra into a fund for extra gas etc - she got really tricky in order to get him to keep paying. The ironic thing is as the kids get ready to graduate they both say they hated where they ended up in school. She never worked again after taking the majority of the custody (he got them only a few days a week) but her and her new husband were able to afford new house, cars etc while he works still part time - from what I hear though now that the paying in is almost up he's looking for more full time work