I am going to finish my pro se filing on Thursday.

[pookiebear]

I have been sick since the 19th, the day I did the emergency petition. (a debt collection 3rd party was suing me)

I went to the library and checked out about 5 books, 2 of them were very helpful. I have no choice but to go through with this as a lawyer won't touch it now. I am stressed to the max.

I am worried I didn't get my exemption code correct, the wild card only covers about 9,000 and I am at 14,000 with Joint household property. I am filing alone but I am married. My husband has been laid of the last 7 months. I am freaked out because the 3rd party collections have grossly inflated my base debt or about 38,000.00 I live in Indiana. If anyone has any words of advice I would so appreciate.

I have been so sick over it all, I tried to fill out everything to the best of my ability. I did list the tax refund (hubby and I file jointly) should I have only listed 1/2 of anticipated? I am so worried.

Is there an exemption that just protect household joint property in Indiana? and what about the bank account that only has 8.00 in it. I do have a no surrender cash value life insurance policy, what is it protected under? Also under schedule B where you list your stuff, I did group a few items like I listed my sewing machine (it's value is about 35.00) and I listed the sewing supplies in a group and put the value like this----> sewing supplies(100.00)

thanks in advance.
pookie

[AngelinaCat]

Pookie, please try to calm down a little. Justbroke should be logging on at any time now. He is our pro se guru.

Your grouping of categories of things (sewing supplies (100.00) looks fine to me. If you did that with other things like 'Assorted pots and pans', and kept the prices low as you would find then at a yard/moving sale, those should be fine.

[pookiebear]

Pookie, please try to calm down a little. Justbroke should be logging on at any time now. He is our pro se guru.

Your grouping of categories of things (sewing supplies (100.00) looks fine to me. If you did that with other things like 'Assorted pots and pans', and kept the prices low as you would find then at a yard/moving sale, those should be fine.

thanks, this is really taking it's toll on me.

pookie

[doni49]

Take a deep breath and try to calm down. If you file and realize you forgot to list something or that you put something down wrong, you can amend your documents. I'm not saying that you shouldn't take this seriously--just don't give yourself a stroke or heart attack stressing over it.

Do the best you can, look it over a couple times before you file and then go ahead and file. Let it sit for a day or two then pick it up and look it it with fresh eyes on Sunday. If you find reason to amend your docs, it's not the end of the world.

I had to amend mine once. Nobody complained or even mentioned it.

Good luck!

[LadyInTheRed]

pookiebear, you only need to exempt your half of the tax return. Is $14,000 the value of your half of the property or 100%. You only need to list and exempt the value of your 50% interest.

Is one of the books you got the Nolo Press Chap 7 book? It comes highly recommended by many board members. If you don't have it, or you don't have the current version, you can download it for $19.99 at http://www.nolo.com/products/how-to-...uptcy-HFB.html. Try entering promotion code T190 to get $10 off.

It looks like your $9,350 wildcard exemption will have to cover your household property. You may have already found it, but this site by Nolo seems to keep exemptions up to date: http://www.legalconsumer.com/bankrup...-law.php?ST=IN If you have non-exempt items, exempt the things that are most important to you and the things that you think the trustee would be most likely to take. Trustees want things they can sell to generate cash for creditors. There is no guaranty what the trustee will do, but he probably won't want your $35 sewing machine. But, some trustees are more aggressive than others. Be prepared to lose or have to buy back anything you can't exempt.

There are exemptions for different types of life insurance. I think the one that is likely to apply is

Life insurance policy, proceeds, cash value, or avails if beneficiary is
insured's spouse or dependent
Ind. Code Ann. § 27-1-12-14

See the link above for more.

[pookiebear]

Thanks, I listed "fire sale" value or "craigslist" value for all items on my schedules. I got nolo from the library and another book by Edward a Haman, read them both pretty much cover to cover. :-( Thank you all for your replies. I am dealing with all this best I can. I did use the wild card for almost everything. (except checking, life insurance, I even applied it to the tax refund with the other code as well) Today is my big day and I am so frazzled.

[doni49]

Pookie: how'd you do?

[pookiebear]

I had to pay the 30.00 fee to amend my matrix and that kinda sucked. I made a stupid mistake of not taking 2 copies but I ran to the library and got it done. I had to write out a notice of amendment and a cert of service to the court with all the names added to the matrix and then had to come home and make out 22 letter to send to the creditors.

I am still not sure if I need to mail the same letter to the trustees (us and reg) or not. I didn't have the 30.00 on me so I had to drive back this am and pay the fee. Which took more gas and more time and I am such a bundle of nerves. I have my faith and I am trying to remain as calm as I can and make sure things are done correctly. My 341 meeting in on the 21st and I am soooo nervous.

I almost threw up today. I can't really eat much and my sleep has been awful. I am so exhausted and I go to sleep and suddenly wake up (wide awake) with panic. Hoping that all the paper work is correct and there will be no more amendments needed. 30.00 a pop is a lot.

Thanks everyone for all the help. Let hope I don't stroke out before the 341 meeting.

Pookie

[doni49]

An extra thirty bucks to be able to get a fresh start? That's not too bad. I realize that when things are tight, every dollar counts. But in the bigger picture, "it could've been worse".

Talk to your doctor about the sleep/panic issue. He/she may be willing and able prescribe something that will help. Fifteen days is a long time to go without proper sleep. We can all try our best to assure you that everything is going to be ok. But I know how nerve racking it can be knowing that you did it all yourself and don't have the experience & training of a BK lawyer.

I really believe that as long as you were honest and as complete/accurate as possible in your docs, you should be fine. The trustee doesn't want to destroy you.

I can tell you that when I went to my 341 hearing, the trustee said she had looked through all of the bank statements that I had sent her via email but didn't see one of the checking accounts that I had listed. I told her that I had totally forgotten about it, apologized and promised to send it to her. She said she'd give me 30 days do so. She had asked for the two months prior to my filing. I went to the bank and asked them to give me an account history printout from the time that I had opened the account (it had only been open 6 months).

I took that home, scanned it and emailed it to the trustee. I apologized again and explained that because I didn't want her to think I was trying to hide anything, I had asked the bank to give me a history from the day the account was opened until that day--so she had an extra 4 months before filing AND the month AFTER filing to review. All of that was done the same day as the 341--even though she had given me 30 days. I didn't want to forget about it.

She thanked me for my promptness and for going the extra step. I never heard another word from her and about a week later, I saw on PACER that she had filed her "Notice of No Assets" or at least I think that's what it was called.

The point of all that was that I DID forget something but because I made sure the trustee knew I wasn't trying to hide anything, I got through it.

[doni49]

How ya doing with this Pookie? It's been a while since your last post which seemed rather stressed.

[pookiebear]

How ya doing with this Pookie? It's been a while since your last post which seemed rather stressed.

A bit better. I am still stressed, will be until everything in DONE! I had me 341 meeting yesterday. Cried a bit through the testimony. They were so nice though. They did ask me 2 questions twice, kinda made me wonder, but it could of been he wanted to make sure it was recorded. Doing my 2ed counseling course today. Slept terrible last night. All my girls are sick with flu and fever, were all sick to boot. :-( so now I am counting my days down. He said my paper work appeared in order, didn't tell me to amend anything. I meticulously went over and over it, I had to stop. I was dreaming it over and over...nightmares. Thanks for the replies and kind words.