What do you do with all the "extra" money?

[bk2009]

Buying new clothes? Not likely. I mean, don't go hog wild, but if you bought a few pair of pants, a few shirts, underwear, etc - I'm sure those would be considered reasonable. I mean, you probably haven't bought in years because you're too busy paying CCs! I wouldn't go crazy and go on a shopping spree, kwim? I think if you just spent a little bit, it wouldn't raise eyebrows, while also replacing some of your clothes.

If you've got $3k worth of plumbing repairs, that shouldn't raise a flag at all. But, if you don't have the money to pay all at once, perhaps you can just have a bit done each month? Like, maybe they can do a portion at a time? If you're doing the work, you could likely just buy the parts as you can afford them.

Just remember to keep receipts for everything!

[crescentmoon]

That's all great suggestions.

And its not like we'll have thousands of dollars left over each month. We just won't be going more into debt each month. For the first time, we'll have some extra money each month.

Home maintenance is actually a really good suggestion. We have about $3000 of plumbing work that needs to be done.

And I like the idea of new clothes, etc.

The question is, what do you do with this money while waiting for Chapter 7 filing and the process. Wouldn't buying new clothes and getting cable raise some flags? Do you just take it out of the account slowly so as not to raise red flags?

[bk2009]

You said you have no cable, perhaps it's time to get some? What about clothes, when was the last time you bought some new clothes? What about the house, any deferred maintenance that you need to do on that?

[crescentmoon]

The thing is, we could afford to pay some of the creditors. But, we can't afford to pay them all. My understanding is that we can't pick and choose who we pay, so we haven't been paying any of them.

Is there a better way?

[Iwantmyname]

They might look at it and determine you can handle a chapter 13.

[klandsb]

Must be a relieving feeling !!

The first thought that came to my mind was one of my mom's favorite quotes " Don't count your chickens until they hatch " but that is very negative so I must first congratulate you...
Sometimes it give you a good feeling to help the less fortunate.. I am not talking hundreds & hundreds of dollars but maybe just a $25 a mth donation to a charity of your choice will give you the satisfaction of knowing you are helping someone.. There are alot of charities that are a rip off but if you investigate there are some very good ones.

[crescentmoon]

This may seem to be a stupid question, but what do you do with all the "extra" money once you stop paying unsecured debt?

My husband and I have gotten so used to living on nothing, that we don't know what to do now that we aren't sending out over $2000 every month in unsecured debt. We are still happily paying our secured debt, and are slowly taking money out of the bank in preparation for paying our attorney for filing Chapter 7. We fall well below the median income for our state, but again, we have been so used to living on nothing - no cable, no movies, basic eating, no vacations, nothing really special in our house.

So, now we don't really know what to do with the money that isn't getting spent on debt. Do we slowly take it out of the bank? I think we'll eventually get cable, but don't want to add anything while we wait to file for Chapter 7.

Are we doing something wrong here to have this "extra" money? Once we are discharged, we are looking forward to paying off the car, and also start contributing to retirement. But, what do we do with current salary coming in?