Strange, but has anyone noticed

[bigtim6656]

Ya your right, when I carry money around I try to keep large bills, I find it easier to spend a 20 then a 100 bill. Makes me think before I hand it over.

helpmeout....as strange as this may sound to some...i'm with you! i know this may sound even more odd...but the challenge of attempting to save and understand were every dime is going is not onlyan eye opener, but we are finding ourselves having some fun with it.. and, although, i never thought we misused our money...i would grab what i wanted from the meat counter etc...now it's what's on SALE this week...ok..that's what we are eating 100 ways to the wind until it's ALL gone.

we can't cut much...the rent, utilities ect are fixed cost...but food, although we don't spend much, i'm so careful about...every penny counts. it's almost FUN to see how much you can save.

also..we have locked our money under lock and key so we have to THINK before before we remove a dollar and where is going.

[tobee43]

It's nice not to have to raid the coin jar for gas money to just get to work. And then wonder what the he!! I was going to do when that was empty.

Oh, and buying healthier food has been good, too.

helpmeout....as strange as this may sound to some...i'm with you! i know this may sound even more odd...but the challenge of attempting to save and understand were every dime is going is not onlyan eye opener, but we are finding ourselves having some fun with it.. and, although, i never thought we misused our money...i would grab what i wanted from the meat counter etc...now it's what's on SALE this week...ok..that's what we are eating 100 ways to the wind until it's ALL gone.

we can't cut much...the rent, utilities ect are fixed cost...but food, although we don't spend much, i'm so careful about...every penny counts. it's almost FUN to see how much you can save.

also..we have locked our money under lock and key so we have to THINK before before we remove a dollar and where is going.

[helpmeout]

It's nice not to have to raid the coin jar for gas money to just get to work. And then wonder what the he!! I was going to do when that was empty.

Oh, and buying healthier food has been good, too.

[tobee43]

i know there is a "moral" to the story here! LOL....stay away from banks...but as one person says...life happens, and sometimes were left with no othe choices.

and although most of our debt dealt with medical expenses like (200k) we also used some money for our kids.

we are both on the down side of our lifetimes where are "big" money making years have past..so we now are just happy our kids have good educations that we kill ourselves to pay for, big houses, we help them get, grandkids, we brought shoes and TEETH for...we had to come to terms that it's now OUR turn!

although, we neve used it in for vaca! that had to be a vaca "fund"...no gambling here...life was too full fo chances to take any MORE chances.

did any of you that went ever win really big bucks???

[bigtim6656]

This is why I want to keep my jeep, lets be honest I ant getting any better then my 21% out of discharge. Though my hope is post discharge I can pay it down or get a refi to a lower rate. Plus it will show I have a good payment on auto loans as I have not defaulted on one yet.

Good to see some others are learning their lesson like I did. Never again. Go over to the rebuilding credit forum if you want to get discouraged fast. The 21% car loans and credit cards a week out of discharge make me feel queasy for those folks.

[bigtim6656]

WOW that sucks I friend of mine was in one in vegas and lost his wallet(on the tables) He was talking to one of the dealers and he sent him to the bank down the road and they gave him a 20k credit line. At the end of the night he was piss poor and out 19 of the 20k and asked for the other 1000 to get home and they told him they could not extend him any more credit since he was leaving the state.

Should have seen his dad's face when he got home and told him. his dad paid it. Should have saw my friends face when he said it was coming out of his college fund. 19 years old and he learnt a 20,000 lesson. Though had his dad not did what he did I beat my friend would have done it again.

I was watching sopranos this morning and they gave a deadbeat gambler a 50,000 line of "credit" with a better rate then I was offered on my jeep

This is a perfect story of bankster behavior. Responsible is just not in their playbook.

I could tell you my own sad story, being on the cash advance phone from a casino in Las Vegas (or AC, I forget now) and having US Bank offer me an increase from a 12k limit to 25k. "Oh yes, that's an excellent idea".

The lowest ring of Dante's inferno is too good for these people.

[LSUTiger32]

Good to see some others are learning their lesson like I did. Never again. Go over to the rebuilding credit forum if you want to get discouraged fast. The 21% car loans and credit cards a week out of discharge make me feel queasy for those folks.

[bigtim6656]

You know I was thinking the same, I was discussing my filing with a friend and he told me to make sure I had no money in my accounts. (I knew this)

I told him I do not keep money in the bank. If my monthly bills are paid then I do wait I need or want. Be it new clothes or shoes, or say I go out and watch a few movies that month, or maybe a new fishing pole. As I was telling him "I do not keep money in the bank I spend it" I realized just how dumb that is.

Sure alot of it was worry if someone grabbed my accounts and froze my money. Sure being on SSDI my money is exempt from such things but it takes time to explain.

One big thing I will change post discharge is making sure I save money each month. I figure half my extra cash after my core bills. That means if I have 200 bucks left being entertainment I put 100 in the back, not take 100 out for fun and put half the other in the bank. I am 25 and will be out of college in a few years and figure I need to start preparing for living on a beach when I retire, not working at 70 and spending all my money.

[catleg]

never missing a payment on anything EVER the charge card companies that we were using to pay my medical expenses decided to raise our interest rates from a fixed 5-7% to some reaching over 33.9%...why we asked...the banks response because "we can".

we remember calling one of our cards before one of my surgeries was scheduled to let them know we would be using 20k of our 60 line to the doctor (which is was such a large amount we thought we were doing the "right" thing by letting the bank know a head of time)...no problem until we got to the doctor's office and we found out they cut our line completely to 0......knowing it was medical reasons.

This is a perfect story of bankster behavior. Responsible is just not in their playbook.

I could tell you my own sad story, being on the cash advance phone from a casino in Las Vegas (or AC, I forget now) and having US Bank offer me an increase from a 12k limit to 25k. "Oh yes, that's an excellent idea".

The lowest ring of Dante's inferno is too good for these people.

[tobee43]

Most people find themselves in the same situation as all it takes is the job loss or hour cut to start the process.

yes, indeed...and we did exactly as you did...with our 401 and other liquid assets...i remember saying to one bank...i just paid off 48K on my account...why have you raised my interest rate to 33%. their response was, thanks for the payment and for being with us over 20 years...we are raising your interest rates because "we can". simple as that...

and for us, the beginning of the end......so we can start a "new" beginning!

[Flamingo]

No one said you mismanaged your money...remember, debt causes bankruptcy; not divorce, not illness, not the job loss...if those events took place and there was no debt in place, bankruptcy would not occur. However, major medical bills are the cause of a big percentage of BK filings and when the job loss occurs and there are big medical bills that cannot be paid by insurance, not covered by insurance or one has to meet a high deductable plan, it's easy to see what can happen. The same would happen with credit card debt. Many people go into further debt even after the job loss/hour cut by utilizing credit cards further in the hopes a new job will appear or things get better and by that time they are drowning in debt and see no way out but BK. It happened to us the exact same way - we used all our savings, my husband's 401(k) (HUGE mistake, done with bad advice back in late 2001) and robbed Peter to pay Paul for one year prior to filing. If we did not have the big debt at the time of the initial job loss we could have made it; but we just dug the hole deeper. Most people find themselves in the same situation as all it takes is the job loss or hour cut to start the process.

[mizzmonick19]

I agree with tobee43...life happens =)

[TwentyTwelve]

I was worried about that too. We actually ate out a few times and I mentioned that to our atty assistant, she said we are allowed to eat out.

lol. A couple weeks after I filed I went out to eat and saw my attorney at the restaurant. I almost dove under the table because I thought him seeing me spending a whopping 8 bucks would somehow jeopardize my bankruptcy.


It feels good to pay all of my bills and have enough left over for savings. I'm even thinking of buying a car in the next six months. Shoot, I'm just thankful I can open a savings account without worrying about it being seized.

[outoffunds]

I just had my 341 almost 2 weeks ago and I am noticing a difference. We are getting our car inspected and can afford it. With 100 dollars I went school shopping completely for my kids. I have healthy food in the house. I am liking this. The whole want vs need thing has really stuck with me. It has really given me a fresh start in my life AND my marriage. We have been married 19 years and I think this is one of the most stressful things we have faced..together.

I think the scariest part of this whole process was realizing what debt we were in. Now with all the help here I am constantly learning and its awesome.

I cant recall who mentioned the walmart thing but I did the same exact thing!! I was so excited that notebooks were 15 cents! lol

[tobee43]

You are starting to realize that you were living beyond your means and depended on credit to sustain that lifestyle. At that time you would deny it; but reality hits hard. Learn from this and realize what a trap one can get oneself in without budgeting and living within that budget.

excellent point flamingo.

i do want to point out tho, there are other reasons than just money mismanagment that people get into this type of position.

we both had excellent positions and a good savings. we were careful with planning our future step by step for over 40 years.

money in the bank, still paying for the kids grads schools, but just about there, happy we could take one vacation a year or two. enough to make the bills monthly and still contribute 20% to sayings. just the way the book said...or so we thought.

that was until the pay cuts began...they were slow first and somewhat painless...take away the gas card....then the actual deduction of salary...then take away the company car...etc etc....then we were whopped with me getting ill to the point that our insurance stopped paying...we had over 200k worth of medical bills and more than double that coming our way. drowning....

never missing a payment on anything EVER the charge card companies that we were using to pay my medical expenses decided to raise our interest rates from a fixed 5-7% to some reaching over 33.9%...why we asked...the banks response because "we can".

we remember calling one of our cards before one of my surgeries was scheduled to let them know we would be using 20k of our 60 line to the doctor (which is was such a large amount we thought we were doing the "right" thing by letting the bank know a head of time)...no problem until we got to the doctor's office and we found out they cut our line completely to 0......knowing it was medical reasons.

we went through every bit of saving...sold everything, from our clothes, cars, furniture just to stay above water.

my point is, not everyone mismanaged their money. life happens and one needs to deal with it the best they can and face whatever it is and start new. or try.