BK due to Medical Expenses

[JacindaJayne]

My husband and I will be forced to file Chapter 13 in a few months largely due to expenses for our daughter’s mental health treatments that weren’t covered by insurance. Our income is above the threshold to do a Chapter 7. We will keep our house and cars, but we will have no money for anything but bills for five years and I’m devastated. Our daughter is still struggling and we are just trying to keep her alive. Now we will have no entertainment, emergency fund, money for college, or anything that we are used to having money for. How do people manage to get through this? We’ve worked hard all of our lives and we’re just trying to raise a family and enjoy life. I’m so scared of the next five years.

[justbroke]

Welcome to BKForum. I removed your duplicate thread in the Chit-Chat section.

We make it through sure will power. A Chapter 13 will never be successful if you can't or won't budget. You need to get creative. We were lucky even with young children by buying annual passes to Busch Gardens which only cost $11/month each and included parking. We did things like "make your own pizza" night and watched movies at home (no movie theater trips). We made it work. It did not mean "no entertainment" or saving money. You just have to be better with money and not eat out (except maybe once a month), and consider everything that you purchase as a must have, need to have, or want to have.

[JacindaJayne]

Thank you. I’m hoping I can learn about creative ways to save money for things we need while on the plan. All I can think of is selling plasma and cutting the grocery budget which is really sad to think about.