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Underwriters ask whether you can repay. They do not ask whether you can still buy groceries after the draft hits. Affordability is the leftover test. Desk time 12 September 2026: 15 min on a labeled $10,000 / 13.99% APR / 36-month worksheet that prints $341.73 a month. That $341.73 is a slider default on this site, not a quote.
The leftover stack
Write take-home pay for a normal month, not a month with overtime. Subtract rent or mortgage, utilities, food, transport, insurance, existing minimums, and the irregular items that actually happen: car repair, childcare, medical. What remains is the only number that can absorb $341.73. If the remainder is $200, the loan does not fit even if a marketplace prequal says yes.
A common lender DTI cap sits near 36%–43% of gross income. Gross is larger than leftover. Passing DTI and failing leftover is how people originate and then payday-borrow the gap.
Worked leftover example (labeled)
Take-home $4,400. Rent $1,650. Car note $320. Insurance $180. Food $520. Existing card minimums $210. Utilities $190. Transport $160. Irregular reserve $150. Remainder $1,020. A $341.73 draft is 33% of remainder. Tight, not impossible. Cut the reserve or add a $200 medical bill and it fails. That is the test. We did not pull a file to invent these household numbers; they are a teaching row. Replace them with yours.
ITIN, variable hours, and joint drafts
ITIN underwriting still uses income documents. Variable-hour jobs need a conservative month, not the best month. Joint applications use joint leftovers. A co-signer leftover is not yours if they will not actually pay.
Cons / limitations
- Lender DTI can pass while household leftover fails.
- The $341.73 figure is a site slider at $10,000 and 13.99% APR over 36 months, not your payment.
- Irregular expenses are the first thing worksheets drop and the first thing that blows a draft.
- Approval language on a marketplace is not a budget.
- Worksheet time: 15 min
- Slider default payment shown on this theme: $341.73
- Slider default APR: 13.99%
- Slider default principal: $10,000
How to fail the leftover test on purpose (so you see it)
Take the $341.73 slider payment and add a $50 late fee, a $25 NSF, and a $40 rideshare week. That is $456.73. If remainder was $1,020, you still pass. If remainder was $400, you do not. Write both months: the calm month and the ugly month. Originate only if the ugly month still clears without a payday loan. That rule is stricter than a 43% DTI cap on $5,800 gross. 43% of $5,800 is $2,494 of total debt service, which can still leave $0 leftover after rent.
ITIN files and gig months need the ugly month even more. Do not annualize a $6,000 December and a $2,800 February into a fake $4,400. Use February. If a joint applicant hours are the only reason leftover works, get their written agreement that they will pay, or do not count their hours.
If leftover still covers a real TILA payment, compare listings via . If leftover does not cover it, do not originate to please a prequal badge.
Ugly-month checklist
List the last 90 days of actual withdrawals, not the budget app categories. Circle rent, food, transport, insurance, and the three largest surprises. If any surprise repeats (insulin, childcare, a commute parking garage), it is not a surprise; it is a line. Add $341.73 to that line-item month. If the account went negative even once in those 90 days, a new draft is a worse version of a month you already failed. Prequal badges do not see that month. You do.
For hourly work, use the lowest 4-week block, not the average. For ITIN files, use the documents the creditor will accept, not a cash-only estimate. For joint leftover, write who pays which bill when the relationship is stressed. If the answer is we will figure it out, do not originate.
If leftover in the ugly month is $50 above $341.73, you have no shock absorber. One parking ticket ends the plan. Raise leftover first: cut a subscription, sell a payment, delay the loan. Do not originate to build credit when leftover is a rounding error. Credit is a file; leftover is dinner.
Recompute leftover whenever hours change. A $341.73 draft that fit in March can fail in June. Set a calendar reminder on the first payday after origination to rerun the ugly-month test. If it fails, call the servicer about extra-principal pauses before you miss. Fifteen minutes now beats a 30-day late.