Does anyone ever do better in a Ch13?

[MOMof3]

We have our good months and our bad months. Right now we are looking at new tires for both cars and I'm looking at my budget and wondering where I'm going to find it. The plus is, we haven't used credit cards in years now. We've learned how to budget. In the past, if we had needed tires, I'd have just popped out a credit card and as long as the $ was available, I'd just have charged it. I never would have thought about how much more those tires would cost me over the life of credit card. I feel just more "stable" now & more mature about finances. Does that make sense? Is it always easy, NO! Gosh, we've had a few things come up to where I thought we'd never make it. I've had TWO kids born during this plan bringing my total to four kids (five if you count my husband), talk about expensive! Somehow we've made it all work out! I look forward to being done, saving up for a bigger house (but not a bigger mortgage), investing more in my retirement, putting more in the college fund, etc... The good thing is that I know now I will ACTUALLY DO THESE THINGS. I think differently than I used to. I think of our 13 as being our rehab program--and we will never go back to the old way--no way!

[addisonsmom]

I am just in the early stages. We had our 341 Meeting today. I can honestly say that it has been an awakening for my family. Our problems with overspending and living above our means nearly cost us our marriage. It is nice to know that we don't have to "hide" bills from each other, or purchases. We were acting like children instead of adults. I think mastering a budget has been somewhat difficult, but since knowing what we got coming out is a relief. It is nice to know that we can make a budget work and actually save money for the first time in our 15 year marriage. We also are doing the Dave Ramsey plan as far as our budget goes and using an envelope system. It has been a real eye opener. It is amazing when you make yourself, you can save money. I am constantly looking at ways to save. Granted we did surrender our house and we did surrender our Nissan Pathfinder (we still owe $11k, sigh!), but we are living now within our means and we know that changing our habits will make a better future for us and our daughter. We could have kept our home and Pathfinder, but the idea of having the high payments made me ill. We found us a nice rental house in the country and the rent is unbelievably cheap. We are just liking the idea of getting a fresh start and not to make the same mistakes we did before. No more credit cards and no more new cars. Best of luck to you.

[Lissy]

I am definitely better off after filing. I just filed at the end of February and was confirmed in early June. Two weeks after I filed, I received a small pay increase and a nice bonus from work. I was terrified that the trustee was going to take my whole bonus. I was asked if I was eligible for bonuses at my 341 and I reported it. But the trustee never asked for it, so every penny was put into my emergency fund. My plan was confirmed as originally proposed by my attorney. I was told by my attorney that I would most likely have to turn over my income tax refunds during the length of the plan; however, my confirmation order says nothing about that, so we'll see come early 2011 what happens there. It's fine either way, as I resigned myself to the possibility early on and won't depend on that money. If somehow I'm able to keep it, it'll just be extra money.

I was able to build a pretty substantial (for me anyway) emergency fund. I've had a few unexpected expenses come up with my car and even an old tax debt from 2 years ago. I was able to pay for them without a problem from that fund. I even completed a mini home improvement project a couple of months ago and was able to buy some much-needed new furniture and other things for my home.

I was scared in the beginning too. I envisioned eating ramen noodles every day and never being able to go anywhere because I couldn't afford extra gas in my car. But my experience has been the opposite of that and I have never regretted filing.