Having a hard time just trying to file!

[lulabelle]

I think my nerves are completely shot. Every step in this process has been so hard. Not paying my credit card bills and the subsequent phone calls were extremely hard to take. Then we were thisclose to being screwed over royally by our first attorney (thank goodness for these boards! It was the only way that I knew that what he was telling us was totally wrong.) It took forever to get the paperwork filled out and all of the information they wanted together. I about passed out when I had to go in and close our bank account (we have a line of credit with them that will not be paid) because I felt so guilty.

I spent quite a bit of time figuring out the "right" time to file. I tried to time it with paychecks/paying bills and thought I had a system worked out. I e-mailed the paralegal on Monday telling her we would come in to file today. Today has been a nightmare. I tried to cash my husband's paycheck so I could get money orders to pay bills and then also use some remaining money in our account to do so as well. The lady just couldn't get over the fact that I wanted money orders and wasn't going to use checks. I should have taken that as a sign. She didn't "cash" his check to do the money orders, she deposited it and then wrote the money orders. That left me with an available balance of -697, I later found out when I tried to get money to buy gas. It also left me unable to pull the rest of my money out of my account.

I thought "oh well" as I just want this over with and dropped off the paperwork. Now the paralegal e-mails me to say that she's busy and can't file it until MONDAY. I could cry - my paycheck is being deposited tomorrow so that means I have to find a way to spend all of that money, too. I wanted to be able to finally start putting some money into savings. It also means that DH will have additional earned but unpaid wages as he's working at his 2nd job this weekend.

No question......just need to vent, I guess. Hopefully our experience thus far won't be indicative of the way the next 60 days will go. I literally don't know how much more stress I can take.

[HakunaMatata]

If you don't have exemptions to protect your paycheck, you know how to handle this. Instead of beating yourself up, pat yourself on the back for taking proper steps to regain your financial footing.

I hope following your discharge you'll be able to look back and think "why the heck was I so stressed?". If my Miss Cleo skills serve me, I predict you'll do exact this!

Hang in there!

[BCA2009]

I have read on this forum that they take the cash in your checking account (over exempted amout) when you file. That must vary district to district. My attorney filed online and we were never involved. No one asked for a bank balance the day of filing. They told us prior to the 341 that the trustee may ask us how much cash we had (I got it down to $170). But I got there early and watched about 20 cases before mine and he never asked that question once.

When filling out the forms to file, we had to list cash on hand, our Attorney said to list our average balance after we paid our bills. Of course that was zero for us (or we wouldn't be behind on our debt). This makes sense because we filled out the paperwork about a week before he actually filed our papers, there would have been no way to know what our exact balance would have been.

So you may be worrying for nothing, Do you know for sure that you have to give up all of your cash at the file date? You don't have any exemptions to cover you cash on hand? In your filing papers what did you list as cash on hand?

Good luck I hope it works out for you.

[lulabelle]

Thanks for the encouragement! It is much needed. My state doesn't offer any cash exemptions, unfortunately. The paralegal told me just to e-mail her with my balance on Monday and that is what she will use in the paperwork. I think I just really needed to feel like this was on the road to being over & done with. Waiting a few extra days is no big deal to them, but for us it's a very big deal.