Update! January marks 2 years in....

[MommyMc]

Hi Y'all!!
Just wanted to give a quick update.

January marks the 2 year mark of our 5 year BK. We have never been happier. It feels so good to know that one week after Christmas I owe nothing on the gifts I bought! We are going into the new year with money in the bank and the relief of knowing enough money comes in each month to get the bills paid and money put into the savings envelops. The first year was so rough, learning to budget was hard. But the second year was easy and I am ready to start year #3! My budget is made, my 4 kids are happy and I feel blessed to have learned all that I have learned going through this process.

My kids don't miss out on anything. They ar 13, 10, 5 and 2 years old. 3 very active boys and 1 little girl. They got what they wanted for Christmas. They play sports, we go on vacations and they get fast food 2-3 times a month. Last year we spent a week in Nebraska for my 13 year olds baseball tournament and then 3 weeks in Minnesota visiting relatives. We drove to save money and we used my husbands points to pay for the hotel in Nebraska. In Minnesota we stayed with relatives. This year we are going to Florida for spring break and to Colorado for a week in July for my son's baseball tournament. Unfortunately we will not be visiting Mickey Mouse during our trip to Florida, unless I have a garage sale that makes enough to pay for the $800 tickets for us to get in for 2 days! With enough fund raising my 13 year old will be going to DC with the National Junior Honor Sociaty in June. We are working hard to make this work, but he has to fund raise at least 1/2 of the trip in order for us to afford him to go.

I even had an unexpected surgery this past September, but we made it through it!

My advice to anyone entering into a Ch. 13 is this:

BE POSITIVE!- if you go into it thinking it will suck well, then it will! Get over it and get positive. You have to.

LEARN TO BUDGET! I mean it! Budget is your new friend. You HAVE to live, eat and breath by a budget. The BK WILL NOT WORK unless you budget.

STICK WITH YOUR BUDGET!! Go off your budget and you will fail. Yes, you have to give up some things... my kids use to get fast food 2x a week, now it's 2-3 times a MONTH! IF we go out to dinner (if the budget allows) we drink water and not soda... saves big!! We don't go to movies.. you will realize just how much of a waste of money that is! We use Redbox all the time! Those are just a few of the changes we made in our lifestyle.

USE COUPONS and BUY ON SALE! You would be suprised how much this saves you!
Like I said, the first year was hard. Hang in there. It will get easier.

Thank you to all that have answered my questions in the beginning! You all are a great source of information.
Thank you to those that have inquired how we are doing. This forum is really a great community.
Happy New Year everyone!!

[DUMBAGAIN]

You are so correct!!! Anyone can make it through this as long as they live on the budget. And it does feel great knowing there are no Christmas bills coming!

Glad your doing so well..

Happy New Year!

[AngelinaCatHub]

MommyMC

Too cool. Your post should be made a permanent post for those in 13. We were in 7 and yes it still is hard not to spend more than we have. It is a tough lesson when you had enough money not to worry about bills. These things can change fast as it did with us.

I will say, we are better for this and would not choose any change in our life just due to the lesson and new values we have received. 'Hub

[enginegirl]

Mommy MC... thanks for such a great positive post! I was just confirmed after an arduous 6 months of back and forth with the trustee..... I never thought I would make it.. but the lessons learned so far are probably more important than anything I have learn.. I can actually make through the month and even have a little $$ left!
thanks to all that have gven such great advise of the past few months..
Happy New Year to You All!!

[tobee43]

thanx so much for the thread...or the sticky....thanx again!

[boomerkae]

So nice to hear a positive story!

[MOMof3]

I love your post and positive attitude!! We are starting our FINAL year!! I'm thrilled to be nearing the end. Like you, we have four busy little bodies: 11, 9, 3 and almost 1 (two kids born while in our bankruptcy!). Our kids have also not gone without, though they have had to learn to understand patience and practicality, and I am feeling very relieved to be not going further into debt every year! I couldn't agree more with your advice. I budget religiously and I don't just budget monthly, I budget each and every paycheck and I put everything in my budget--even my $5 lattes on Friday's. I keep it all in an excel file and I download our bank balance daily and update it every morning. I know down to the dollar what I have to spend and what I need to save for in the future. It hasn't been a totally easy road, we've had ups and downs, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

[hindsight]

We are just completing 1 year of 5. Pretty easy plan, less than our car payments were.
Like you Christmas is over and we don't owe anything. Yeah maybe we spent more than I wanted to.

Ours kids know the value of a dollar. they look at price tags and say NO Way that is too expensive.

We too are saving, should be doing more though. We rarely go out to eat. We do the $ menu after sports practice for about
$8 we feed three, not very healthy but it gets the job done. Shop wisely..

It was tough when husband lost job, we freaked out! Afterall got a nice severence package and put money in savings, found new job quickly for the same pay. Life is good~~~!

[MommyMc]

I love the positive posts!!!! Thanks all for your responses!! I read over and over on this forum how miserable people are in their 13, I'm so glad to read some positive posts! I trully believe you have to have to change your attitude when going through something like this. It's not easy, but you have to roll with the punches, change your lifestyle and your attitude.

Just like Hindsight posted.... Life IS good!

Good luck to everyone.

[Amadan]

A few months shy of year one and we have a working budget in place. Things are so much better and the doom and gloom is finally fading.

[karm43]

Does anyone pay a huge chapter 13 over 1600 a month? Was gonna file 2 yrs ago but was afraid would not be ableto live. Really need to do this to start fresh.

[newbie2]

Does anyone pay a huge chapter 13 over 1600 a month? Was gonna file 2 yrs ago but was afraid would not be ableto live. Really need to do this to start fresh.

You may want to start your own thread asking your question (a bit more specific please..) as this one is a few months old. As to your general question, everyones payment amount will vary depending upon their own circumstances: Disposable income, assets that are non-exempt that they wish to keep, mortgage and other secured loan arrears that need to be paid, priority debts, etc. In other words, what I pay and what you will pay will be two totally different amounts even if we had the exact same income.

[MommyMc]

Karm43... as Newbie2 stated, start this question on a new thread with more details. You will get more responses. When we started the process, the sit down with the lawyer, he said it 'looked' like he could get it around a $1200 a month payment. But when all was said and done, all the paper work filled out, all the receipts for all our medical and gas and everything I had been saving for months, were turned in the number ended up being $350 for the first 22 months and then $475 for the remaining 38 months (the 22 month mark was when we ended payments for my son's braces, they were started at the beginning of the BK and this was factored in by the trustee).
Your payment will be based on a lot of factors, more details are needed to help you. I can't imagine not doing this. We are at the almost 2 1/2 year mark. I was in a constant state of worry 2 1/2 years ago, robbing Peter to pay Paul, wondering how to buy birthday gifts for my kids.... but now, life is soooooo good. I have LEARNED so much. I WILL NEVER go back to being in debt. I live within my means and my family is HAPPY! We are going to Disney next month! All paid in CASH that we have saved over the past 6 or so months. We are driving, not flying, to save money, we are using hotel points (my husband travels for a living) to cover the hotel and the $1500 5 day park hopper tickets are being paid for with CASH! We also are going to Colorado in July to watch my 13 year old son play in a week long national basball tournament. And in August my 6 year old is having surgery. Life is VERY do-able in a Chapter 13, if you budget, plan and save. Understand the needs vs the wants.
LIFE IS GOOD!!!!
Good luck to you!

[IamOld]

Congratulations MommyMc!!!!

[MommyMc]

Hello Everyone!! Here's another update! 6 more months have FLOWN by!! We are now 2 1/2 years DONE!! We are half way!! I will continue to say that filing ch13 was the BEST thing we have ever done for our family! We have had a great summer! We spent 5 weeks in Florida (where my husband was working, the company paid for our living expenses there), 5 days at Disney World (thanks to Marriott points the 3 bedroom suite was FREE!), we traveled for a week to Steamboat Springs CO where my 13 year old played in the Triple Crown World Series, his team took 5th out of 30! And my 6 year old son had surgery just last week. He is doing fine. All of this was done becuase we budgeted and saved for it for the past 9+ months. Everything was paid with cash! We owe NOTHING after the terrific summer we had... well, except for the surgery. Which we worked out a payment plan with the hospital.
Living with a ch13 and 4 kids is doable!! It took us the first year to get on our feet and use to the new way of living credit free. So, for those of you just starting out, hang in there!! Budget, budget, budget and stick with it!!! Understand your needs and wants and what the difference is. Look at the glass half full and not half empty otherwise you will make your life miserable!
Good luck to you all!!