Strange, but has anyone noticed

[poormama]

That without paying the cc and mortgage(s) that there is now extra cash?? I feel strange because every paycheck we are able to buy shoes that we desparately needed and school clothes, eat out at a decent place versus our special meal being McDonalds.

It's not that we have an abundance or anything but I can now buy groceries and not scrimp on good, healthy food. We can fill the cars up when they need it versus counting out change and hoping to Ogg there is enough in there to put in hubby's gas tank to get him to work until he gets paid again. We even have some $$ in savings, a whopping $100 but still. Better than it was 2 months ago when we were in the negative.

[Guest]

I was just thinking about that this weekend. I am preparing to file next month and without my credit card payments, things are so much better. Before, I didn't realize just how unsustainable my situation was. The most amazing thing to me is that I don't worry about not having enough money to get through the month...it is a great feeling to have money left at the end of the month!

[brokejoker]

YES! I bought our daughter's school clothes instead of relying on the kindness of my mother-in-law. We don't have to scrape together all the coins in the house to buy a loaf of bread to last us the 2 days until payday. We actually have an emergency fund.

It's so nice to be able to pay the bills we do have on time. I just can't believe all the time and money we wasted throwing every spare cent at our creditor's. I really want to call up zwicker & associates and thank them for suing at this point. My husband never would have filed if they hadn't and we'd still be drowning in a pile of bills and stress.

[LadyInTheRed]

I really want to call up zwicker & associates and thank them for suing at this point.

LOL! I can see the marketing now: Even the people we sue learn to love us!

[doomed]

I've noticed that too and haven't filed yet, and it worries me! Like I'm sure they'll turn us down cos we're blowing money left and right.

[ccsjoe]

We haven't realized it yet, but it's because we only stopped cc payments this month and we're saving that money to finish paying our attorney fee to file next Friday. We will hopefully realize it next month!!

[geye]

I've noticed that too and haven't filed yet, and it worries me! Like I'm sure they'll turn us down cos we're blowing money left and right.

Us, too I mean, while school shopping I recklessly bought my kids the 2.50 binders that walmart has on special, and even let them pick out a 97 cent folder instead of only getting the 25 cent ones... Really, they didn't NEED them, did they?

Also, our water heater broke and I will be paying the repair bill with.....CASH!

[Freddy03]

I can't wait to get to this point

Thanks for sharing!

[Unibrow]

Stopped paying this month after the mighty Chase closed all my cc without warning. By not being their slave, I am seeing an instant savings for the first time. Of course, the savings will go toward filing bk 6-12 months from now.

[stormy]

I stopped paying the CCs in July and the last month has been wonderful! I have money to buy the things I need and even have some left over at the end of the month.

Its amazing what not paying 1/3 to 1/2 of your take home pay to your creditors will do for you!

[tobee43]

well..i was big time DUMB and because of guilt continued to pay our cc's until finally my attorney said NO MORE!!!!!.....STOP paying.

ok so we do...i didn't spend any of the money at all since i new were were NOT keeping the house and i need to tuck in under the pillow for when we really needed it for the future...

kicker.....we send in our paper work and the trustee contacts our attorney saying you have to count the cc LACK of paying BACK into your clients monthly income???>? WHAT....that's one of the main reasons we are going bk???

the trustee's office replied by stating well...if they don't have those bills anymore and have the money then you have to count it back in...and where is that money....YIKES! (i was worried they were attempting to get us into a 13 as opposed to an 7)...well i guess my attorney fought hard enough, since the trustee's office let it go.

and by the way, i thought it SOOOOOOOO odd that all this communication with the trustee's office was BEFORE our 341???

[poormama]

I've noticed that too and haven't filed yet, and it worries me! Like I'm sure they'll turn us down cos we're blowing money left and right.

I was worried about that too. We actually ate out a few times and I mentioned that to our atty assistant, she said we are allowed to eat out. And I also love being able to pay the bills, only utilities and car pmts now, as they come in. Such a big difference.

[sophia]

I am one year out and have been able to get ahead of our monthly bills by a month. No more week to week and for the first time in 10 years my spouse is able to build up his vacation and sick time at work and not dip into for bills. A few things we did as soon as the BK closed was up the contributions to the 401k to 4%, change the payroll exemptions to 4 to have more coming in and less coming back at the end of the year. Contribute 2k to his FSA account(taken out weekly) so we always have the monies for my sons allergy meds & co-payments for dental cleanings, & Doctor trips (with 2 kids under 5 I know the money will be used). We are able to pay for things like 6 months car insurance upfront and I can walk into a grocery store and buy a weeks worth of food with cash. If my kids toys need batteries I can now afford them.
The only major problem we have run across is coming up with 1k to fix my car AC. I could use the 1 month ahead bill money but I just can not bring myself to spend it. Crazy huh?

[Flamingo]

That without paying the cc and mortgage(s) that there is now extra cash?? I feel strange because every paycheck we are able to buy shoes that we desparately needed and school clothes, eat out at a decent place versus our special meal being McDonalds.

It's not that we have an abundance or anything but I can now buy groceries and not scrimp on good, healthy food. We can fill the cars up when they need it versus counting out change and hoping to Ogg there is enough in there to put in hubby's gas tank to get him to work until he gets paid again. We even have some $$ in savings, a whopping $100 but still. Better than it was 2 months ago when we were in the negative.

You are starting to realize that you were living beyond your means and depended on credit to sustain that lifestyle. At that time you would deny it; but reality hits hard. Learn from this and realize what a trap one can get oneself in without budgeting and living within that budget.

[tobee43]

You are starting to realize that you were living beyond your means and depended on credit to sustain that lifestyle. At that time you would deny it; but reality hits hard. Learn from this and realize what a trap one can get oneself in without budgeting and living within that budget.

excellent point flamingo.

i do want to point out tho, there are other reasons than just money mismanagment that people get into this type of position.

we both had excellent positions and a good savings. we were careful with planning our future step by step for over 40 years.

money in the bank, still paying for the kids grads schools, but just about there, happy we could take one vacation a year or two. enough to make the bills monthly and still contribute 20% to sayings. just the way the book said...or so we thought.

that was until the pay cuts began...they were slow first and somewhat painless...take away the gas card....then the actual deduction of salary...then take away the company car...etc etc....then we were whopped with me getting ill to the point that our insurance stopped paying...we had over 200k worth of medical bills and more than double that coming our way. drowning....

never missing a payment on anything EVER the charge card companies that we were using to pay my medical expenses decided to raise our interest rates from a fixed 5-7% to some reaching over 33.9%...why we asked...the banks response because "we can".

we remember calling one of our cards before one of my surgeries was scheduled to let them know we would be using 20k of our 60 line to the doctor (which is was such a large amount we thought we were doing the "right" thing by letting the bank know a head of time)...no problem until we got to the doctor's office and we found out they cut our line completely to 0......knowing it was medical reasons.

we went through every bit of saving...sold everything, from our clothes, cars, furniture just to stay above water.

my point is, not everyone mismanaged their money. life happens and one needs to deal with it the best they can and face whatever it is and start new. or try.