The Bankruptcy Files
I filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Tuesday like I said I would in my last post on the issue. On Friday, I received three offers to sell me cars in the mail. Two of them were for brand new cars and one for used. Unbelievable.
I've done the post-filing counseling. It was a 2.5 hour Dave Ramsey course. I don't think I'm going to follow it strictly, I don't need envelopes to know where my money is going, but one thing is for certain: I'm going to do everything I can to avoid going into debt again. I cut up all of my credit cards. Believe it or not, I had five of them and only one had a balance, but it was huge. I've created a budget.
Despite filing for bankruptcy, money is still going to be kind of tight. My wife did not file with me. We will have a little left over every month to pay down debt with. We have an emergency fund. Basically, everything is set for us to go in the right direction. My wife and I could both use better jobs and we are working on that. Just another few hundred a month would set my mind at ease considerably.
We're saving all of our receipts for the month so we can fine tune our budget next month. I do have one envelope. It has our grocery fund for the month in it.
I have thought for a long time that credit isn't a bad thing and could be used like a tool to get what you want immediately instead of delaying gratification and saving for it. It was okay if I could afford the payments. I have now seen how quickly things can get out of hand and how credit starts to be used for needs. If you need credit to eat and pay other bills, you may be to the point of bankruptcy. I did everything I could to try to avoid filing and keep my finances and credit score in check. No dice. It was the perfect financial storm. It wiped me out.
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Your plan sounds terrific. I know you will stick to it.
You may feel wiped out, but I really think this is a temporary situation.
You WILL get through this, and you will be stronger for having done it.
