) and got rid of our second mortgage, too by refinancing, so that really frees up our wallet.The lawyer assistant told me I am fifth in line and that they will likely file the Chapter 7 papers by the end of April.
It has been a month now since I paid Discovercard. They have been the most aggressive, sometimes calling at 7:30 a.m. But, as long as I answer the phone and tell them the SAME THING (that I don't have the money but will see what I can do), they tend to leave me alone for another week.
Over Easter I didn't return their calls because I was on vacation and was very busy, as I had the kids all alone (hubby stayed home while I visited with family out of town). So, apparantly Discover didn't like this and went crazy calling me. They even called my mom yesterday, asking for my number! Geez! They probably got the number because I had this card in college. That was probably a number I had given them on my application when I was living on campus (9 years ago).
We had to pay $973 upfront (half of the fee). The other $973 is due the day they file the papers, and the assistant said they would call me when that happened.
So, it's just a waiting game now, but honestly, I'm already breathing easy. Not having to pay credit cards is a big help on our budget. We will be tight through April, since hubby's next paycheck will all go to the lawyer, but we will have enough to live off of until that point. May will be an awesome month since we will owe no mortgage (our first payment doesn't kick in until June!), and we will not be paying credit cards. We owe my mom some money, but hopefully our state tax return will come in and we can give that all to her. She helped give us money for the bankruptcy fees and refinance fees.
So, again, I'm just waiting to hear from the lawyer. That packet of paper wasn't much fun to fill out, but we did that right away. I took the online course (super easy), and printed out the affadavit.
My feelings are mixed right now. On one hand, I am ELATED that we will get this chance to start over new with no debt! How awesome and exciting and what a blessing to have this available. On the other hand, I wonder about how hard will the next 10 years be with a bankruptcy on my record? Part of me thinks that having a bankruptcy probably won't be such a big deal since so many folks are filing. Besides, we don't plan on buying anything with credit anyhow. We have our house and even if we move, we would rent for a while- there's a lot of good rental deals out there. Our vehicles are almost paid off (one is paid, the other only $2900 left on it), so I don't see myself needing a vehicle anytime soon. Other than those two things, I don't really see why I'd need credit other than for purchases like plane tickets or hotels. We will have hubby's credit card for that.
OK- enough rambling. I will try to update again soon!