I'm going to look at apartments this week, so last night I tried to get stbx to talk concretely about visitation and cs. As some will recall from other posts, he just got the numbers back from a house refi, and he wants to only give me half the money I should be receiving from that.
I made it clear to him months ago that even with the amount of cs suggested by the state child support calculator, the dc and I will be living in a small apartment in an undesireable neighborhood, and just scraping by. He didn't care.
Last night he said he had not even looked at the cs calculator! He asked me how much it calculated, and when I told him the number, he said he didn't know if he could pay that, nevermind the cost of activities, childcare, etc., on top. I said, how can you not know what you "can afford," when you've had months to figure it out? He said his lawyer hadn't gotten back to him about what he can afford.
I said it didn't sound like his lawyer was giving him very good advice, and hadn't he added up the numbers himself? Come on, it's simple math, not rocket science! He said no, he hadn't!
I told him the cs calculator was what a judge would use to decide how much he should pay, and that there's no "What I can afford" when you're talking about putting food on your kids' plates.
Aaargh. I need to cool down and stop ranting.
If it comes down to it, the state can garnish his wages.
your ex is going to love when he is ordered to pay child support PLUS additional expenses by the court. 
his expenses be damned. I dont get how non-custodials figure it matters what there expenses are we still have to feed and clothe the children no matter what our expenses are the children come first.
