Starting to recover now

[manglicmot]

I filed for Chap 7 back in April. I'm not rebuilding my credit right now, I don't care about credit. right now I'm concerned with getting more money into my bank account.

I've been saving money on my groceries by buying stuff that's on sale, and by buying cheap food. For instance, for breaksfast I have 2 bacons, (used to be four) and 2 eggs, (used to be four), and instead of pancakes, I have a PBJ. For lunch at work I have macaroni/cheese with ground beef in it. Two boxes of mac/cheese and 1 lb of ground beef makes more than enough for five lunches.

One thing that I never thought of before that is saving me money is LEARN HOW TO DRIVE! I know it sounds funny but I'm really saving on gas by coasting most of the way to work. I drive on a road that has a 45 mph speed limit, but quiet a few stop lights. Basically, I just coast from light to light, they are always red when I get to them anyway. I'm surprised by how much gas I'm saving. It has cut it almost in half. But my car is brand new, and I think it is also getting better mileage because the engine is "breaking in".

Beer. I didn't give it up, but I found a way to save on it. I shop at Vons grocery store and every week they have a 12 pack on sale of either Keystone Light or Natural Ice. Normally it is 7.19, but on sale it is 6.99. When you mention those two brands of beer to "real" beer drinkers they react with disgust as if they are poison. But so what? It's better than giving it up all together.

Vons also has a generic brand of multivitamin that compares to Centrum. Once in a while they put it on sale for buy 1 get 1 free. It is $14 for a 300 tablet bottle, and I got one free, so basically I got almost a year of vitamins for free. And since I'm cutting back on food, I need the extra nutrition to keep me for getting weak and sick.

I have a $6000 limit BofA Visa that survived the BK. I have not used it. As a matter of fact, I don't even carry it with me. It is in the bottom of a junk drawer. After I get my savings built back up I will use it and I think I will pay off the balance every two months instead of every month. I think it will boost my score faster if I do it that way. Anybody else know for sure about that?

Anyway, at the rate I'm building my bank account back up, I should be able to avoid minimum balance fees by next month. Heck, if my landlord messes around and doesn't cash my rent check before next Friday when my direct deposit hits, I'll make it this month. And it looks like the management where I work is about to make a scheduling blunder that will lead to more overtime, so that will help me even more.

Even if things don't look great, they are getting better!

[HeatherB]

Sounds like you're doing great. Congrats on the lifestyle adjustment.

On a sour note, though.... are you sure your BoA card is still active. I learned the hard way that most of the credit card companies will close once they get hint of your bankruptcy (thru semi-annual reviews or whatnot). I also heard they blacklist for bankruptcy.

Regardless of you needing credit right now, you still might want to check your reports and make sure that everything is listed correctly. I didn't after my filing in 2004 and there were a bunch that were stated as "charge/offs". Late cleanup on my part. And now that I actually want to rebuild my credit with a small credit line, I can barely get one because of my scores. I'm not saying this will happen to you, but it is something to think about.

Congrats again on your lifestyle adjustment! Feels good, doesn't it.

[SinkingFast]

Dittos on checking out that CC and see if it works.

I had a $1500 Credit Limit on my Sam's Club Card that was $0 balance when we filed. While shopping right before Christmas, but after Discharge, I almost charged my purchase. But thought better of it and paid cash.

Good thing too.

GEMB cancelled my Sam's Club LOC as a result of us filing BK.

If you don't have Credit Monitoring, check that CC some place where you feel comfortable. Maybe you have a friend who's a cashier at a local store that will run it for you on a pack of gum. Or maybe one of those self pay gas pumps. See if the authorization goes thru.

[tay666]

Good to hear you are on the road to recovery.
To help save on groceries, don't forget to stock up on dry goods when they are on sale. Even if you already have some in the cupboard. Things like noodles, peanut butter, etc. They don't go bad, or it takes years for them to go bad. Better to buy them when they are cheap, than need to get them when there is no sale.

I agree with possibly starting to clean up your credit a little.
Even if you aren't going to be getting any cards soon. A good credit score will help keep your insurance rates lower and stuff like that.
Besides. Better to tackle it now while things are still fresh in your mind than to take it on later after it has haunted you for a while.

[One Half Full]

I havent started yet, but I read with interest what you have done. So far I have "gone mostly vegetarian." I eat brown rice, beans and other dry goods with some eggs, cheese, and milk, and also fresh veggies. Vegetarian without the additional "expensive" soy mock-meats is actually quite filling and cheap.

My workplace choses to pay me much less than I am worth to the company, so I am taking advantage of the fact that they allow people to take showers in the locker room. I take showers at work during my 1 hour lunch.

Energy saving can be also money saving, so I went "green" in a way. I got rid of the energy hog refrigerator and replaced it with a tiny one. I changed the light bulbs to the CFL types (each one saves about 30 bucks per year).

As far as the cheap beer-- I can dig it-- I think the 40 ounce size bottle is cheaper in the long run.

After this disruption of the space time continuum, there will be absolutely no way that I will consider using a credit card again.

[Penny Less]

After this disruption of the space time continuum, there will be absolutely no way that I will consider using a credit card again.

That's exactly how I feel. Even having one just for "emergencies" is like having a sinkhole just waiting to be driven into.