Anyone notice this when stop paying most bills?

[inpain66]

At this point I am only paying my rent and car. I thought that I would have tons of extra money to save for the lawyer but I do not!!

I run out of money between paychecks even!

I feel more broke now that I am not living on credit cards. The past few months have been hard.

I have no idea how i am going to save for the lawyer. I have been trying to save for months but something always seems to happen.

Anyone else notice that they do not have a lot of extra money even after they stop paying most of their bills?

[AngelinaCatHub]

Inpain: You have to look at it this way; if you feel the crunch now without paying cards, yet you cannot see the difference, "look how above your means you have been living". You have to budget real hard as of now, you are committed and those cards won't come back. After bk, you will have a new start. Start rationing your expenses now and learning your way around cards. Cards are a subtle seduction and has caused your financial demise. Stop eating out, take a lunch don't buy, investigate Angelfoodministries, turn off unnecessary lights, cut coupons. All of this will help. If you have more that one dollar bill in change in your pocket, put one in a jar you can't easily open. You won't miss it and after a month you will have 100 dollars, I will bet. Good fortune to you. 'Hub

[Never_Again]

I am sorry that you are struggling like this.

Do you have a written budget? If not, this is an extremely necessary part of getting your financial life straightened out. You need to make the income and the expenses balance at a 0 level each month. You are not the Federal Government!

Make no excuses, and start with that today! Just a legal pad, pencil, and a calculator (you can buy one at Wal-Mart for $1.00 if you don't have one.) Put the income in one column, and all of the expenses in the other, and see where you are. Then, you have to go to work the numbers to make them balance, hence a balanced budget. If you are having any problems making this work, feel free to post the numbers, or PM me, and I will try to help.

The credit cards are not available, and you have to do this.

Another big issue... bankruptcy only fixes the debt side... it does not give you more income. You may need to look at that side of the budget. Most people just look at expenses in their budget, but there are TWO sides...

[AngelinaCatHub]

Save the dollar as all windows has a built in calculator. Go to accessories. If you want a hot key to get at it easily, right click on the icon go to properties and where is says hot key none, press control and you will see controle + alt + and pick the letter C. Then all you have to do is hold down control and alt and press C you will have a calculator. You clear the screen with esq key and use your regular number keys. * is multiply and \ is devide. If you want a real fancy scientifc calculator go to tools and pick scientific and the YOU tell ME how to use it. LOL 'Hub

[Never_Again]

You got me there, Hub...

I was going to suggest the free open office spreadsheet, or Google Docs for a spreadsheet, but I didn't want to leave the "I don't know how to do a spreadsheet" argument open!

[Intoodeep80]

LOL I noticed the same exact thing "Im more broke in bankruptcy than I was before" syndrome..

I figured it to this: before I filed, I was paying my cc's, mortgage, car payment but ignoring everything else (staying up to date on utilities, car repair, other essentials). Now that I filed and I stopped paying everything I could finally afford to replace the completely bald tires on my car (not the one Im surrendering) so that was $450. Also, my gas and electric bill were shut off notices so I paid those off - another $750 or so between the two.

Im on a bowling league every other Sunday. Its $8 every 2 weeks. I bring my own pop to drink while Im there and dont spend any other money at the bowling alley (have my own bowling shoes). So Im right with ya when I say "where does all the money go?!" lol.

[TEW]

Inpain: You have to look at it this way; if you feel the crunch now without paying cards, yet you cannot see the difference, "look how above your means you have been living". You have to budget real hard as of now, you are committed and those cards won't come back. After bk, you will have a new start. Start rationing your expenses now and learning your way around cards. Cards are a subtle seduction and has caused your financial demise. Stop eating out, take a lunch don't buy, investigate Angelfoodministries, turn off unnecessary lights, cut coupons. All of this will help. If you have more that one dollar bill in change in your pocket, put one in a jar you can't easily open. You won't miss it and after a month you will have 100 dollars, I will bet. Good fortune to you. 'Hub

Hub hit the nail right the head I made a budget while we were waiting for our discharge. But we are still running out of money before I get paid and I get paid once a month. I told DW yesterday that we need to hack more out of the expenses. We are still living beyond our means. sometimes there are things we don't want do with out but you really have to look hard at what you NEED and not what you want.

[jessegirl]

Hub hit the nail right the head I made a budget while we were waiting for our discharge. But we are still running out of money before I get paid and I get paid once a month. I told DW yesterday that we need to hack more out of the expenses. We are still living beyond our means. sometimes there are things we don't want do with out but you really have to look hard at what you NEED and not what you want.

Hey TEW - We are finding the same problem. I am going to have to research on a web-site that can do a budget for me. I am terrible at budgeting and running out of money before pay checks too. Kids are involved in sports and everything costs money. Nothing is free. Someone sugested quicken. Anyone have any luck with that?

[TEW]

Hey TEW - We are finding the same problem. I am going to have to research on a web-site that can do a budget for me. I am terrible at budgeting and running out of money before pay checks too. Kids are involved in sports and everything costs money. Nothing is free. Someone sugested quicken. Anyone have any luck with that?

I have been using this one
http://www.mint.com/

[paintinrosesred]

We found the same problem. We thought we would have so much extra once we stop paying our cc's but we've been barely getting buy because we lost even more business. It's scary but I'm so proud to not be using cc's.
It's hard for us to create a budget because we are self employed... it's hard to estimate how many times your phone will ring. The economy is so unpredictable right now.

[TEW]

We found the same problem. We thought we would have so much extra once we stop paying our cc's but we've been barely getting buy because we lost even more business. It's scary but I'm so proud to not be using cc's.
It's hard for us to create a budget because we are self employed... it's hard to estimate how many times your phone will ring. The economy is so unpredictable right now.

Well the first thing I ma trying is to know exactly where the money is going. We are spending on things that are nice to have instead things we need.

[2Bshinyandnew]

I know this isn't a popular concept to some on this forum, but, is it possible that running out of money before the end of the month, even after stopping unsecured debt payment and credit card use is due to an increase in the cost of living? Not just because of living beyond our means due to credit card use?

Looking over my last 4 years of tax returns, my income has stayed the same since 2005, and yet I'm paying more for everything! In this economy, I'm thankful to at least maintain my income level, and yet I'm paying almost $4 for a gallon of milk.

[Mi Bankruptcy]

We stopped paying in July/August 08. This is the first pay period where we actually have some cash. We actually went out to a restaurant to eat today. I think for us it was some of our utilities/phones were backed up and we wanted everything current when we filed ( meaning the stuff we were going to reaffirm). Is anyone that does not have money see it getting better in a couple of months? We bought our house in 2001 and it was based on my income then. I make almost 15-17k more now. Me and my wife were also stunned at how broke we felt after not paying all of our credit card bills. It started getting better with yesterdays paycheck. I do agree with the $4.00 gallon of milk

[liz417]

Yep, welcome to the club of being broke even after stopping the credit card payments. We stopped paying our cc's in mid May and I thought we'd have all this extra money...well, no. I didn't realize just how much we relied on our cc's for simple everyday charges. I used Quicken and it really helps me make a budget and stick to it!

[AngelinaCatHub]