For example, even food lol in central NC I use to pay $180 to $250 for the same amount of monthly organic groceries whereas here near DC it is about $1,200 a month.

@Ben@Ben Leybovich Had a recent article about giving a good tenant a free month of rent to help her out during a medical issue.Now he ended up posting an eviction the next month so it didn't work out, but the point is that sometimes it COULD make sense to work with what you have if they had been good to this point.Anyway that is just food for thought.Honestly you can put anything in the letter and state it anyway you want.

Sorry but I have never seen COGS be used together with food/snack/beverage expense.

I can tell  you that American Estate and Trust has more fees than the fleas on a wild dog.In March 2014, I attended the BuyPD "Buyers' Summit" in Las Vegas, where we were treated to fine food, unending motivational speakers, and a big load of ********.

This is a lot of food for thought.  

Well, I like what they have to say about "rule of thumb" here:http://dictionary.die.net/rule%20of%20thumbTo quote in part-Rule of thumb, any rude process or operation, like that of using the thumb as a rule in measuring; hence, judgment and practical experience as distinguished from scientific knowledge.IMHO, this particular rule of thumb applies only to the long term buy and hold REI model.

If a landlord follows the laws in LA (set in 2005), which includes paying for temporary relocation including food, lodging, telephone transfers, moving expenses, etc, the landlord can apply 50% of the costs of improvements on to the lease (capped at 10% increase). 

This is all food for thought - do whatever you are most comfortable with.

You've given me food for thought, and more homework to do.

Also, it is probably written into your loan documents that you must inform your lender that you have lost/changed jobs during the process or it can be construed as deception (mortgage fraud) which is actually, a federal offense with jail time.