not even sure where to start

[heywoman]

My husbands pay has been cut over the past 3 years or so. Mine has too. We've cut the fat, the meat and now have hit bone. We haven't cable for about 18 months, we have one cell phone and it's a bare bones phone. We only have it because we can't get out of the contract. But when the contract is up in june we won't be renewing. We'll just do pay as you go, no problem with that. We have an old car that needs to be jumped about every other day lol, and one more decent Tahoe. They're both paid for. I say all this just to give a little background. we're not behind on anything except hospital bills from 2010 and 2011. My husband has health insurance on us and it's $130/week. His take home pay is now less than $7/hour, though he makes over $18/ hour. Our house will be paid of 1/2017. BUT it's become obvious we can't make it. It's just a matter of time. We're going to see a lawyer Thursday. We literally are living on hot dogs and eggs (and we only have eggs because we have chickens so they're free). And that's ok. it sucks, but we're not too proud. We have credit card bills and that's what's doing us in. I guess I"m posting just to get advice, support etc. I feel like we have to stay home every night for the next 10 years writing 100x on the blackboard "we will not overspend" as punishment. Any tips would be appreciated. thanks.

[Drazil65]

Hi, you are at the right place. We have all done it or are doing it. You will get a sense of peace here so stay a while. Invest some time and read everything on here you can, it will take you a while but the info is beyond what you would expect. We have all come a very long way and some us have a very long road ahead but we are here and we have made it this far.

If you were to stop paying the credit cards how much cash does that free up? You mentioned hospital/medical bills are there possibly more to come for future treatment? Is the house a drain on your finances as well as the credit cards? Is the house in one name or both of you? These are just some of the questions you might want to think about to get you started on your journey whichever road you take. Try to see at least 2 or 3 attorneys for the free consult, ask them alot of questions and keep looking for an attorney until you are comfortable. Interview them during this process and take notes.

You are with friends here and you will gain alot of knowledge, the knowledge will give you some control back and that will put you where you need to be with good solid decisions. Watch out you could get a bit obsessive with this site but that can be a good thing! Good Luck and keep us updated!

[heywoman]

Thanks for replying so fast. Idk if I'd say the house is drain on the house. There's some things we need to fix badly. Oh, that's another thing: we heat with wood and a wood stove. yeah, good times. don't be jealous (lol of course). Again, that's ok! we're not too good for that. Anyway if we stopped paying our cards which will probably happen this month, it would free up probably over $800/month. We have a garden too, and use a clothesline. We managed to knock $50 off this months electric bill too. But do we just stop paying? I've read a little of the forums, it seems like we have to be careful about cash once we decide if we're going to file. And we would of course anyway. But you know, we might buy that tank of gas we've had our eye on. And go to the dentist. I may even get wild and go to the eye dr since it's been like 2 years since we've done that. no i'm joking, that's just what i do when I get nervous.
Thanks for reading this all, btw!

[karm43]

are you over medium income? If not you may get lucky and be a chap7. Even so you might be able to buy hamburg in a chap13. We are all with you!

[heywoman]

Hamburger is over $3/ lb here! for the cheap stuff! I think we're just below, like within $500 , of median income. I would look at what we made in 2011 right? As in what our W2s say right? we're just under that amount. So if we are under it, we are more likely to qualify for ch 7 right?

[df04527]

Welcome.... Your household income is counted the previous six months not previous year. Good advice is to read and learn as much as you can here. this site is a plethora of information for you.

[keepsmiling]

Welcome to the best place you could be. Stop guilting yourself. It's not your fault that the price of gas and groceries has zoomed out of control, and that the cc co's get away with usurious interest rates. It doesn't sound like you are living too high on the hog.

Start getting in the frame of mind to NOT pay the next cc bill. It's nerve wracking but only the first coupla times And start thinking about getting yourself Google Voice.
Thursday is almost here. You'll feel better after your appointment. I cried... a lot... the first time. Fortunately there was a box of tissues right there on the table.

Meanwhile, tomorrow make a few phone calls to some other bk attys as you will want to talk to more than one.

You must have a lot of equity in your home. That is something you will want to think about. I take it you don't have a credit line on your home? What is your estimated value of your home, how much do you owe.... unfortunately the homestead exemption in your state isn't so great. Times like this, it turns out it's a good thing to have a home equity loan....you kind of get punished for paying off your house.

Does it make sense to think about selling your house? Would you realize a nice profit and possibly be able to pick up something else, cheaply?

[heywoman]

I doubt we could sell our house unless we took a huge loss and even then, idk if we could sell it. all bills pretty much are in both our names. The cell phone might just be in mine, idk. The house is in both our names.
Thanks for the tips and replies everyone.

[ess]

I just filed for Chapter 7 today. I am filing alone not with my husband but both our incomes are taken into consideration. We are over the limit however, once you deduct your expenses including health insurance, union fees, car maintenance, food, cell phone etc. it brings it well below the income limit for Chapter 7. I'm not sure about the six months that was mentioned since they are using ours for the past year.

[heywoman]

we saw the lawyer Thursday. It looks like we'll have too much equity in our house to file Ch 7. that's kind of what i was thinking would happen. We're waiting for an appraisal. It's good really, because i guess we'll refinance and not have to file BK. but in the mean time for the first time ever we don't have $ to pay credit card bills this week. we're in a catch 22 a little. sigh. i can't believe how much the county appraised our house at. there's no way it would sell for ANY WHERE NEAR that. Thanks again for all you who've posted!

[heywoman]

this maybe on this site some where but I wouldn't know where to look for it. But here's where we are: we may be caught having just barely too much equity in the house to file ch 7, but not enough to refi. For Ch 7 purposes what do we need to find out what our home's worth? For tax purposes the county of course has it at an outrageous amount. But a few years ago when we tried to refi it was appraised incredibly low. we're talking 40K difference between the two. We've had a real estate agent out and he's supposed to be doing a comparative market analysis but he's sort of jerking our chain. Is that what we'll need for Ch 7, or a full fledged appraisal? Or is there a difference.

[karm43]

Do you have a lot of unsecured debt? If it were gone can you make your mortgage payment?

[heywoman]

we have credit cards about $33000. we might just make it if we weren't paying those.

[ValleYum]

We've had a real estate agent out and he's supposed to be doing a comparative market analysis but he's sort of jerking our chain. Is that what we'll need for Ch 7, or a full fledged appraisal? Or is there a difference.

There is a definitely a difference between a full fledged appraisal and a CMA - in costs alone appraisals are usually $300+ and CMAs can be free or you pay a few bucks for the agent's time. We were able to use a CMA for our Chapter 7. We paid an agent who was considered the 'short sale specialist' in our area $25 to do it and she came over, walked through the house and took a few pictures. She then emailed me the report within a couple of days.

I also printed out the Zillow zestimate (~$25k higher than CMA) and my property tax valuation (~$60k higher than CMA) and gave it all to the attorney - he went by the CMA on our petition and the trustee was fine with it, YMMV. Get all the info you can and let your attorney help you make the best decision for your case.

[heywoman]

what's YMMV? I'm completing having a breakdown. it could be 3 months before we finish refinancing. idk what we'll do if it takes that long. i know this isn't a refi forum , we just don't know where to turn. if we get behind in our bills, it could jeprodize our refi closing. the real estate agent did the compartive cost analysis or whatever and according to that we have $54000 equity. we can't even afford to get our taxes done. this is all such a mess.