First things first, though! I don't remember all the BK lingo anymore, so forgive me in advance... With over 1.15 million in debt IIB, we did not have a single creditor object to our BK. We tithe 10%, that was a concern, but didn't end up being a problem at all. At the 341 hearing the Trustee was looking at our filing, asked when we bought our car, I was like, the blue one? and he looks at me like I'm a little nuts (I'm not a car person and couldn't remember the model name) so I tell him we bought the '08 car in late 2007. Then he runs some calculations and said, "You tithed 12%?" and I said, Oh, I don't know why it would be 12%, we usually just do the 10%. Then he was raising his brows at me, saying "JUST 10%?", and then we were all kind of laughing. He ended up signing off on the BK, with no probleams at all. Our lawyer later told us it was probably as much HOW I answered the questions as what the actual answers were.
So, we got our discharge 10/20/2009 - I'm still not exactly sure if the foreclosures were complete in advance of discharge, but they show up as IIB on our credit scores.
I went into business for myself in July of 2009, and it is doing very well. I started out with a small amount of cash and basic tools, and have turned all the profits back into the business to grow it, and I finally started taking a paycheck this past Spring. We're thankful for DH's steady job that allowed me to do it!
We were renting a larger home and paying $1550 in rent, but both our kids have moved out, so this Summer we moved into a much smaller place and are only paying $1,000 for rent now! We love that we have enough money to save for retirement, have sinking funds and a nice emergency fund, and we go do something fun nearly every week. Our play time really cuts into saving to buy a house, but right now I am loving the freedom from having to take care of one.
In August we went to buy a new car for me (DH wanted the '08 to replace his older car), and we ended up with a 2011 model, paying $250 over invoice at 0% interest for five years! We couldn't believe they didn't even question giving us the 0%!
Other than the new car, we are living on a cash basis. DH did get two small credit cards to rebuild, but we pay the balance monthly and hope to drop these soon as they both have annual fees. I just got approved for a Capital One card with no annual fee, and 0% interest until who cares when, because I won't be carrying a balance!
So I just wanted to share our happy ending, I hope that all of you who read this will fare as well!
again congrats on your long road back!