Well, not much progress being made here. Still recovering from surgery and caught a cold that really knocked me out for the last week, so I haven't been getting much done. I'm finally feeling a bit better and really really need to get all my BK paperwork in to the attorney! I set up my filing system this morning, and hopefully tomorrow I'll complete all the paperwork, then on Thursday go make all photocopies of statements, then Friday take all to attorney! Ha-ha-ha that's the current plan anyway.

Some things that are really causing confusion for me right now:

1) looks like the CA tax return might come in around mid-March - so now I have to figure out, do we spend it (impossible) or can we exempt it, or do we need to delay filing... I really don't want to delay any longer, so I think if it comes down to that, we'll just let the Trustee have it

2) medical bills - I'm really having a hard time deciding who to pay and who not to pay - turns out our dental work will be over $1k (have to pay that) plus vision for DH & DD will likely be around $400. We had decided to pay all medical bills (about $1k additional) - but that will 100% drain our medical savings account for the whole year, which I'd rather not do. I need to decide this soon!

On top of those issues, I've found that spending our huge Federal tax return has been stressful! For one thing, we've been entirely on a cash system for over a year, but to show better records of where this money went we've been using checks and the debit card. We are just not used to having money to spend, and not paying cash feels dangerous and out of control. I balance the check book every day if we spend money, but it is just not the same as having dollar bills in an envelope, and when it's gone, it's gone!

I had no trouble buying clothes for DH and the kids, but I'm having a real mental block on buying anything for myself! (laughing at myself) I have no problem explaining to a Trustee why they need stuff, but me? Hmmm.

When I finally get the paperwork (and payment) to our attorney, I want to ask him if it's okay to go back to cash. In our area the national standard is 1,370/mo for groceries, personal care, etc - so if I take cash out each week and stay at that level monthly, maybe that would suffice.