Life post BK...good but not so good also

[jdcat]

I don't know if any of you will remember me. I was posting a lot on here starting about a year ago. We filed in April and were discharged and closed in August.

Life sure is funky. As soon as you cross one bridge you immediately start the journey to the next. The not so good part. Literally two weeks after our discharge I wound up in the ER and have been seeing a neurologist monthly ever since. We're not sure what's going on with me for sure but possible Multiple Sclerosis has been mentioned. So financially we've been hit a little hard with all the tests and doc visits I've had. Just had a another MRI the last week of December and owe over $300 for it.

Luckily my husbands hours at work went up in September! The good part! Woohoo, first time he's worked more than a 40 hour week in two years. I got my old job back working part time, so we're doing much better! I'll be able to pay for that MRI and not have to worry and stress over it.

We can finally breathe!

It's such a great feeling paying for everything in cash. I can go to a department store and buy whatever it may be that we need and fork over cash and not have to worry about credit limits and borrowing from our grocery fund or just having to fore go getting what we need. I actually bought my self some jeans last night for the first time in 2 years and don't owe anybody anything. The jeans are mine, bought and paid for!

We still stick to our budget but have given ourselves some leeway. We can afford to go to the movies or take the kids bowling so we do. I still experience that nagging in the back of my mind telling me not to do it, to not spend that money, but we went without for so long that I have to now force myself to relax when it comes to spending on things like that. A movie or bowling would have been unheard of in our house a year ago.

There was so much stress this time last year. I spent so much time obsessing over our income and expenses and worrying about the 341 and so and so forth. I can honestly say I wouldn't change any of it. Now if my body would just co-operate and quit giving me trouble we'll be all set, LOL!

Tax time is coming up and I'll be contacting our attorney about getting our refund to our trustee. We have to do that in our district. Sucks but it is what it is. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed though, maybe the trustee won't bother with our refund. It isn't going to be very big.

Anyway- I was thinking of this forum today and thought I'd post an update. I remember a lot of you and hope you are all doing well and are happy.

[mommi2many]

Thanks for sharing your story. I was just discharged yesterday and I love hearing post-bk stories. I am sorry about your health problems and wish you nothing but the best. On the flip side, doesn't it feel great to own those jeans out right? I hope you continue to prosper both financially and health wise.

[jdcat]

mommi2many congratulations on your discharge! And thank you for the well wishes! :-)

Here's to a stress free financial future! Cheers! :-)

[chicagoannie]

I wish you well with your health - praying whatever's going on with you is manageable and curable. I am not there with being able to actually BUY something (new) but..after I paid rent and utilities in Jan, I had $32 free and clear that was owed to no one, and boy did that ever feel good!

[carlsbadmike]

jdcat,

Best wishes regarding your health and your financial future.

Mike

[daylate]

Sorry to hear about your health problems-hopefully it will turn out good for you. As to your refund. the timing confuses me a bit-since you filed in April I would assume you filed last years (2009) return-seems to me that would be the return/refund the trustee would have a claim to, not the 2010 return. Hopefully I'm right and you can keep whatever you will get back. Good luck.

[dneil]

If you did a chapter 7 and have been discharged, I also don't think you have to give the trustee your refund. I just talked to my attorney about this and he said that our return is ours and we need not be concerned about it being taken from us. We are excited about that fact since our return should be over 5 grand and we need to get a new pellet stove.

I hope those tests turn out fine and that your health is restored. Good luck to you and your family!

[Toby629]

Thanks for sharing your story, it helps to hear from people who have already gone through BK and how they are doing after it. It's true leading up to the BK is soooo stressful, worrisome, so many negative feelings going on, hearing how well people are post-BK gives you hope that life will once again be good, a second chance to start over. Sending good karma and many blessings to you and your family in the coming year!

[clevelandmom]

JDCat - the most important question is - do the jeans look good!?!?! LOL! I wish you the best with your health issues. I have a cousin with MS, and he is living an incredibly awesome life (travels everywhere) and is completely controlled with meds. I hope that is not what you have, but if so, I hope it's manageable for you. Thank you for sharing your story with us. If it turns out you really do have to give your tax return back, then I hope you end up owing $.99 (because the IRS forgives everything under a dollar) LOL

[jdcat]

Thank you everyone for the well wishes! I'm not disabled in any way just experiencing some strange things, so physically I am ok thank goodness! Just trying to figure out what it is so we'll know if it's something that can get worse.

As for the tax return.... back when we filed our attorney stressed to us that we must turn our 2010 tax refund over to the trustee and the trustee would take a prorated portion. So since we filed in the fourth month of the year the trustee will be taking a fourth of our return. Sounds really wonky seeing as how we received our report of no distribution and are discharged and closed. I'd just like to know what the trustee will do with the money. It won't be enough to bother dispersing a fourth of our refund to our creditors. So I'm hoping the trustee will let it go and let us keep it.

clevelandmom- yep, the jeans fit really nice, lol! Never mind that I went up 3 sizes since this time last year LOL! I hope it's not MS too, but if it is it won't change who I am. I'm glad to hear your cousin is doing so well, that is very encouraging!

[mommi2many]

mommi2many congratulations on your discharge! And thank you for the well wishes! :-)

Here's to a stress free financial future! Cheers! :-)

Thank you!

[sjades]

I'm so sorry to hear about your illness, but glad to "see" such a positive tone in your posting, despite the stange happenings. Thank you (and to all others on this forum) who've posted their "one year later" lives. Very much appreciated AND so happy to hear that everyone is in a much better situation and no regrets. We hope that we will be reporting the same news one year from now. Cheers!

Shel

[indianamom]

I live in Indiana as well and we filed chapter 7 in May of last year and were told by our attorney at that time that we might have to give up 5/12 of our 2010 refund as well. I kept thinking we would lose some of that money, but I called my attorney the other day and she said that if we hadn't received any sort of official request from the trustee for it already that we were free to file it and keep it. Hopefully you will be able to keep yours too!

[jdcat]

indianamom that is great! I hope we get as lucky. You wouldn't happen to be in the Hammond district would you?

[JEM]

Sorry to hear about the medical issues. I wish you well, and hope this year brings good news and health your way.

Good news on doing well financially though.