Am I the only one that finds being in a chapter 13 pretty stress free?

[BKnTX]

Filed Ch 13 - Relief!!

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[MajorMike]

BknTx,
No, they are not scams. Now, the ones you get in your email are just places that want you to sign up through them and they charge a fee. Here is a forum where you can find some places to sign up for Mystery Shopping that are free and once you sign up, they will email you shops in your area, with instructions on what to do with each one. http://forum.volition.com/ You can also pick the ones you want through certain ones, by going right to their site and logging in. It's great extra income. We're doing a Carabba's Italian Rest shop next weekend. They pick up the tab for $85 worth of our meal and all we have to do is scan the receipts and fill out the form in detail. It's really fun and some of the shops will pay you decent money especially if you're in a city where they desperately need shoppers!!

Here is a direct link to the Mystery Shopping part too:

http://forum.volition.com/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=3

My wife loves this one the best:

http://www.shopnchek.com/shopper.html

[gunsmoke]

James H , It's all about the trustee. Some are money grabbin leeches. Others want you to live a comfortable life with a heated home, enough food on the table and the ability to take your family out for entertainment. Sounds like we were lucky and got the same type of trustee.

[BKnTX]

Thanks MM

MajorMike -

Thank you so much for taking the time to provide that information for me, with links and everything. You are so nice to do that.

You even get your dinner paid for! I'm going to pass this one along to my son and daughter-in-law, who do live in a bigger city, and need some extra $$'s. This is really valuable information for our familly, and of course all I had seen were the ones asking for money - red flag. Thanks again!

[MajorMike]

You're welcome ! Glad to help.

[connaire]

Hi everybody........
Have been visiting this forum for a few years now & found a lot of useful information & support. (First time posting) We filed under old law..December 29, 2003.......confirmed Sept. 09, 2004.....closed Jan. 29, 08.

I too felt a huge burden off my shoulders once the plan was confirmed & pmt amt. accepted....I figured as long as I knew what we had to work with it would be okay.

I have to say there were times when I didn't think we were going to make it. But I always made sure that payment was sent off within 2 weeks of due date. Second.......we made sure house pmt. was always on time. We were always able to pay our utilities. Some months the food budget was a bit skimpy. But it always worked out.

My only advice & the one thing we made sure of was get a good lawyer! One that has been practicing bankruptcy law for awhile. Not sure........but I do believe they build a repport with trustees. Have all your questions written down & ask them ....no matter how frivolous or insignificant you might think they are. No cheating!

Things were pretty cut & dry for us. We are fortunate. I am very aware that the laws now make filing more stressfull & difficult. All the more reason to find a good lawyer. Any cost over & above the initial quote can be put into the plan before confirmation.........anyway ours was.

We are still awaiting our discharge. I don't expect any setbacks. But if there are; we will face & deal with them headon. A hard lesson I learned in the beginning of our bankruptcy.

So to everyone in the ring & those of you climbing in....good luck; keep plugging; the time will go by faster than you think.

Just my 2 cents!

[MotherTrucker]

I also wish mine had gone smoothly. I remember walking out the 341 meeting and hearing MY attorney say to the U.S. BK attorney, "Well, I guess I screwed that one up." and he was referring to OUR plan! His paralegal had found some way in our filing to include the state AND the federal exemptions, something the software shouldn't be able to do, so everything was overstated. So we had to "amend" (i.e., attorney must fix his "screwup") our plan. Then the objections began. One after another. THEN the amount to pay in increased by $187.95 a month to $549.72 and I broke down in tears in the attorney's office. It was awful - I thought I wouldn't be able to do it. My sweet little 6 year old daughter was with us and she said, "Don't worry mommy, I'll help you." That's when I realized I needed to get a grip and be strong for her and you know what? We HAVE done it and we are continuing to do it and yes it is hard, but the plan was finally confirmed June 07, after 9 months and many debates with my husband about whether to continue, etc. He thinks our attorney was "wimpy" and didn't fight enough, particularly with the IRS, which is the lion's share of the debt (and is almost exclusively his, by the way )
Here are a few things I wish I had not done in my Ch. 13 -
Rolled one month of my mortgage into the BK - why did I do that? I could have made the payment, it just would have been really tight. Through all of our financial struggles that's the one thing I sweat bullets to keep current, and I just tossed a month in without a thought. I'll lay that one at the feet of my "hotshot" attorney.
Rolled 1 year of proerty taxes in - Again, I wish I hadn't rolled them in. But, it's done. There were many unknowns along the way - perhaps if I had prepared myself better I wouldn't have been so shocked during the process whenever something went wrong. The bright side is I've gotten better at rolling with the punches!

So, that's my little story. I can't believe it's taken me this long to find this forum! I'm glad to be here and in such good company!

[MajorMike]

$550/mo? Was that including any secured creditors like mortgage/car?
This is what is hard for me to understand. We're paying $825/mo...car included, no mortgage and that is what they are saying is our disposable income. I don't understand why it would be difficult for someone if that's what they have in disposable to pay. It HAS to be better then what you were paying to creditors. Can you please explain. I'd kill for $550/mo and $825 isn't bad either.

[MotherTrucker]

$550/mo? Was that including any secured creditors like mortgage/car?
This is what is hard for me to understand. We're paying $825/mo...car included, no mortgage and that is what they are saying is our disposable income. I don't understand why it would be difficult for someone if that's what they have in disposable to pay. It HAS to be better then what you were paying to creditors. Can you please explain. I'd kill for $550/mo and $825 isn't bad either.

MajorMike,
Without any knowledge of our situation prior to the BK, you can't be expected to understand. We have a car payment and a mortgage payment outside of the BK. We had a mountain of unsecured debt and medical bills from my husband's layoff in 2001 plus he owed the IRS from the 90's which he never took care of. They are the secured creditor getting most of the BK $. He was forced to take a night job and I worked part time for about 3 years. Couldn't afford daycare, so my daughter stayed home with him AFTER working the night shift...anyway, we should have filed Ch. 7 back then, but we kept thinking things would get better and tried to pay off what we could, etc. and keep our home. In short, we had already been living with no disposable income for about 3 years prior to filing BK, and I didn't want to have to do it again, pure and simple. It's like the longest BK on record! But, that's just me putting an emotional spin on it. Have we made bad financial decisions? You bet. Are we paying for them? You bet! Did procrastination play a major role? Yep! But, we'll get through it, hopefully a little wiser. It wouldn't have been bad at all for us if my husband could have amended one tax year back in 1995, but they wouldn't allow it, wouldn't waive any penalties and interest on anything...so we had to pay the full amt. back.

sorry for the novel. Just felt like that needed to be explained.
With your $825.00 - how many months is it? just curious...

[MotherTrucker]

Sorry MajorMike - just saw your signature line with your month total...my bad.

[TiredandWeary]

Less than a year ago I could not fall asleep at night because I was worrying about money. And I'd get sick to my stomach wondering how I was going to pay my bills.

Heck, it was only 6 or so months ago when I was sick about all this court stuff. But now that I have a payment that I can actually afford each month it seems like all the stress has been lifted off of me. Sure my budget is a little tight but Just knowing that I make enough to actually pay my bills and not get deeper in debt each month is a great feeling

I still have 4 years to go but I'm not even worried about it because I know I can make this work. And I'm in a lot better situation than I was just a short time ago.

Just figured I'd give my thoughts on chapter 13 since there seems to be so many people going through it right now. Figured This may give you some hope because it does get better......... a lot better.

In response to your original question James H., my answer is "YES!!!!" You are most likely the only one who is finding the Chap. 13 process to be a breeze so far!

[Aarondawg]

Mine was smooth. My trustee goes to my Church and he recommended a Lawyer friend who was into Chapter 7 filings and the Trustee wanted him to get into Chapter 13 filing in order to send business his way. They both took care of me and I now have all of this excess income that it seems unreal. The Lawyer advised that I had not been enjoying my life over the years due to all the debt and that I needed to start to enjoy my life now that my bills are taken care off by filing Chapter 13. I was truly in the talking to my Church member was a chance meeting.

[SANRA308]

I think it's been pretty good after comfirmation, past all objections and such. We do still have a objection from the trustee on lawyer fees Our guy seems to charge alot .We paid 1200 and he wants like 3800 out of plan, and I thought our case seemed pretty simple. The hearing on this keeps getting moved up now scheduled for end of May so ever since we filled in April our name pops up on a court calender when anyone Googles our name. We have a uncommon name so its the # 1 hit on all search engines. Our son found about our BK doing a school project on your family name. Wfere we are court calenders are posted on the court website so if you have a hearing schedualed on your case its on the internet. I dont have a problem with it being public knowledge and all, but hate feeling like I,m going to reminded of it constantlty. But long story short yes I do feel like we are better off now we were paying 2500 a month in debt and using cards to buy food ect. Now we pay 1100 a month and in about for years we will be free.

[Rover]

James H,

Most of the time people only bother to post the horror stories.

Nice to hear when the story is good.

[qwertysue]

7 months in, we're doing a-okay.

We were very fortunate to have an attorney who is very familiar with the trustee and is on great terms with him. The result? Our attorney knew what was allowable and what would catch the trustee's attention. There were certain things that I thought for sure would not fly, but they did.

Our monthly payment is $69 more a month than our car payment was (and our car was crammed down). We've been under our budget, and any extra money is being set aside for car maintenance or repair. Every time our checking account gets hit with the payment ACH transfer we say a quiet thank you for how smooth and non-traumatic it's been.


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