Anyone still having money problems??

[LSUTiger32]

I am not going to side with nc73 here but I think people are being a little too hard on him. Most if not all of us are here because we made some awful financial decisions along the way. One of the big ones for a lot of people is indeed car debt. I totally understand needing two cars because we do also, but you don't need two car PAYMENTS to have two cars. I've said from now on we will have one car payment for a nice reliable family vehicle and one beater that I will drive to work until it breaks into pieces. I now put money away each paycheck into a car replacement fund and I will continue to upgrade my beater when necessary. We had $1,150 a month worth of car payments at one time. That's a house! We are down under $400 a month and that's where we will stay until our income allows more. If you have the income, it's not an issue....but when your car payments are a third of your take home pay, you need to make some adjustments.

[lala]

Yes, it's difficult. We stopped paying (and using) our credit cards about 2 months ago. We have no cash reserves and right now have access to about $12 for the next few days. Fridge is about empty. Two growing boys who are constantly hungry. I have a few bananas going bad, so I'm making banana bread today. Should keep them filled with snacks for the day. Need to pay at least $200 on my utilities very soon or our water will be shut off. I'm expecting some money, but it may not be until early next week. Husband just learned this week that his pay is getting cut another 10%, yet he still works 50 + hours a week. But at least he has a job!!!!!!

I am looking for a job (I work from home part-time now strictly on a commission basis). We could also turn part of our house into a rental. But, don't want any extra income to push us into a 13. Just trying to look on the bright side and realize that 6 months to a year from now, things will be better, one way or another!

[UhhhOhhh]

In reply to the bold part, with all do respect...


Maybe if you think you are sounding preachy you ought to try to keep a few thoughts to yourself.

Amen!

[coffee]

Live within your means and you will be ok.

I wish you were here years ago to give me this pearl of wisdom!

If life was just that easy......

You live within your means. You plan for emergencies. Then the first one shows up and eats up all your savings and then the next one shows up and the next one shows up you feel like a punching bag after awhile. Maybe you have a job loss or an expensive medical issue. You cant catch your breath and the ball starts rolling.

Best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

Your comment was judgemental IMO. You make the assumption we are all driving cars for luxury purposes. People need to get to work, get kids to and from school, get to and from the doctors.

Going forward in the bk I am making plans(as someone said before, God stop laughing!) We are giving up a lot so that if we get into another sparring session with life we will be in a better position.

To the OP. We havent filed yet, just coming up with the funds to pay the attorney and man it's been tough. I'm hoping once this is all behind us we will have much more breathing room.

I wish you luck! You are right, we have our families and love and that makes us very blessed!

[Stilltheone]

We were discharged over a year ago and are still living paycheck to paycheck. It's nice because we don't have nearly the credit card debt we once had, but it's still frustrating to be doing it. My husband received promotions after our discharge, including bonuses...but now the bonuses have stopped, so it's paycheck to paycheck time again.

As for living beyond your means, take a look around you. People are just trying to survive. It's tough. I have 2 car payments, not because I "WANT" to, but out of necessity. I need a car to drive my kids to school. My husband needs a car to drive to work. Both have 3 years left to pay on them and after that, we will be keeping them for as long as we can without payments.

[lookingforward]

It's the tough economic times we live in. Again I hate to preach, why does everyone seem to have a car payment??? You can get by without! Although it does help if you work on your own car and not take it to a mechanic everytime something breaks... I'm in the UK right now and planning on moving back to the states since I make way below any state median income. I get by ok and do not have a car payment or any unecessary payments for that matter. Live within your means and you will be ok.

I think that you are being unrealistic. I'm sure in the UK there is public transportation around every corner. I'd have to drive about 12 hours to get to public transportation. Most people need a car to get to work. I live about a 15 minute drive from work. I can't "get by without". Once my car is paid off I don't plan on buying a new one, but things happen and sometimes people need to finance a car. Having a car payment is not living outside of your means. Having a Delorean car payment is probably living outside of your means. However, I have a Chevy. I think you're being a bit judgmental and preachy.

[miozelous]

I feel your pain. We have been cash only since January. We are lucky that we both have jobs. We are still living pay check to pay check. We had started mortgage modification before we filed. The modified it all right. We went from 1000 a month to 3000. Now we have to sell our house. We are lucky that the housing market has not crashed here, but will not have much leftover after selling. Who in their right mind would even give us a 20,000 dollar mortgage so we can get a new home. I do not mind what kind of home we live in, but husband is having a cow! I know things will work out, but i feel like a failure still. What keeps me going is that I will not owe any one money and will recover. Some one once said, " if you want to make God laugh, just make plans" That is soo true! He must be rolling now watching me. Keep the faith and things will work themselves out.

[Annie4]

We've driven old cars/trucks with no payments for years and years, but then the title pawns are like car payments...stupid mistake....very stupid. We thought one would get us through and we'd pay that back and be on our way....nope...now we have THREE in there and can't make the payments. It snowballed quickly. We just thought it was temporary and we'd pull through soon.

Another huge factor in our crash and burn was that my husband received bonuses of at least $1,000 to $3,000 every 3 months for 35 years. That would catch up everything and then some, so we never worried.....then boom!, those came to a dead end, brick wall halt this year and we FEEL IT! Ekkkk.

[Humonese]

We're in the 60 day club and still struggling, mostly because I'm out of work. On Unemployment, I make 1/4 of what I used to make, and my UC will be done in December. At that point, I don't even know what my options are. I'm trying so hard to find a job right now and nothing is working. I'm increasingly stressed and depressed over it. This should be a new start but I feel like I'm in the same place.

[sophia]

It's the tough economic times we live in. Again I hate to preach, why does everyone seem to have a car payment??? You can get by without! Although it does help if you work on your own car and not take it to a mechanic everytime something breaks... I'm in the UK right now and planning on moving back to the states since I make way below any state median income. I get by ok and do not have a car payment or any unnecessary payments for that matter. Live within your means and you will be ok.

In reply to the bold part, with all do respect...

That is not necessarily true as unexpected bills for medical reasons and the such arise. School also is starting and for most families this means having to come up with several hundreds of dollars depending on how many kids need school clothes not to mention school supplies and school lunch money.

I can bet most here have already been humbled enough and really do not need to be told to live within their means.

Maybe if you think you are sounding preachy you ought to try to keep a few thoughts to yourself.

[Annie4]

Well....I'm just starting to realize today that we're not having to pay anything until after our 341 meeting, and I have to admit, it was a nice feeling yesterday and so far today.

I'm thinking it's too good to be true at this point and I'm also trying to figure out how much we have to save out of this 'freebie' payday coming up, with nothing coming out of it, to save our rear ends the day of, or soon after, the 341 meeting. (I'm about to start a new thread about that, because I don't want to hijack this one, lol, and I've searched for power co/341 meeting to see what to expect and it's not pulling anything up.)

It'll be nice if I can go buy alot of groceries with that check, it's been years since I was able to get everything I needed, much less 'wanted', at the grocery store. I'm so very serious about that.

[123ABC]

I stopped paying my CC 2 1/2 years ago due to job loss and with a 30k income drop I am definitly struggling. I am hoping however that since I was able to negotiate a loan mod on my car that will save me 225.00/ month and am working on the home loan mod now while in bankruptcy that I will come out on the other side of this thing with some breathing room!

[HakunaMatata]

It's the tough economic times we live in. Again I hate to preach, why does everyone seem to have a car payment??? You can get by without! Although it does help if you work on your own car and not take it to a mechanic everytime something breaks... I'm in the UK right now and planning on moving back to the states since I make way below any state median income. I get by ok and do not have a car payment or any unecessary payments for that matter. Live within your means and you will be ok.

Your environment plays a big role in assessing the need for reliable transportation. I live in an area where public transportation is nearly non-existent. I don't have the option of walking, riding a bike, or car pooling to work. I paid cash for and drove the same car for seven years. A few months ago, I discovered I would need to invest nearly its value into it in order to continue driving. This investment didn't guarantee future problems would not arise. Personal transportation is a necessity for me in order to sustain employment. I have no mechanical skills; and, gambling with transportation could adversely affect my employment status. Jobs surely aren't as secure as they were in previous years. With an expanding available skilled worker pool, dependability is critical. After factoring pros and cons, I deduced I needed reliable, warrantied transportation which, unfortunately, came with a cost and a loan. Without this loan (which is significantly less than my salary), I'd be without employment.

[BKinVirginia]

I'm actually doing very well. A couple of weeks after I filed i got a promotion and my wife got a job. Add that to the fact that almost all my bills are gone, I have a pretty large surplus. Without the BK, even with the extra money I would still be in an uphill battle, but thankfully I have a fresh start. I did give up a car that I was totally upside down on in the BK, but just bought a nice car for cash (no payment) off of Craigslist. The BK definitely gave me new life and things are looking up. I dont remember the last time I had spare money at the end of the month. I have started building a savings finally.

[LSUTiger32]

Good luck to everyone! The important thing is we still have our loved ones and I feel blessed to be able to have a husband that is working with me during theses difficult time.

Exactly! Just hang in there. December will be here before you know it and you will have a paid off car and your house with a very reasonable payment. Keep working hard at budgeting, that has really helped me to realize that we are going to be fine once everything is finalized.