Should i file?

[Lana]

Sorry in advance for the long post...I guess I'm too embarrassed to admit this to anyone I know, so no one knows and it just eats at me..
Anyway - I'm a 30 yr old single mother of two. I guess I worked so hard and long to get to a good place that now I'm having trouble admitting that I got in over my head. But i was making good money til last year - 70's. Things happened with my job and I made a choice to leave and at the time I had some equity available so I took it and flipped a couple houses. I did great. I made a ton of money. I paid back all my debts. I was free and clear with money available to support myself for at least a year. Then I had some expensive personal problems and I basically used my reserves and another 100k or so on credit. I looked for a new job. I got one after another and they didn't work out. Even when I was working and making 60's it was just enough to cover my living expenses and pay my minimum payments.
Long story short - my last job ended friday. Outside of a "dayjob" I'm also a realtor and I run a flooring business. I work constantly. I want to make it work. I really do. I can probably find another job and go back to making ends meet. But I guess I'm starting to feel like whats the point. Even working all the time I am just at making it. I am paying my minimums, but that leaves me with like $100/week to buy food for my family AND pay for gas. And I don't really even get to see my kids cause theyre always in someone elses care so I can keep up financially.
I have good credit - maybe down to like 700 now that all my credit cards are maxed, and I really don't want to just give up, but god I could be doing this for so many years to come. Just working to keep up the status quo of just over broke. But at this point - what am I really doing all this for? My credit? My sense of doing whats right?
I've been considering chapter 7 lately. From what I understand I could keep my house and my car. They're not that fancy. I have a civic and a little ranch house. I wish I didnt get the HELOC but I did and its secured by my home so that I can deal with. But the house and car are manageable. I have a student loan and thats not the end of the world at $75.month. I guess whats really got me is the 47k in credit cards that cost me over $1000/month in just minimum payments and one other 10k personal loan. Together they're getting me for over 1200/month and I could be paying that down for god knows how long.
I keep thinking that's really not a lot of money and I could pay that down but it's not happening. I dont see how it will. I need 5k after taxes to keep up and I can hardly make that, never mind get ahead or pay some back.
What am I looking at here? How bad is it to recover from BK? If you were in my shoes would you file? Is it worth it to keep going on this way?

[justplaintired]

So it looks like about $55K you want to file on? Your keeping the house and car? From your post I think your saying you can handle those? Have you looked into where your income falls for your state? That is easy to do on the net. Just put into a search median income and you can find out.

You can get a free consultation from different attorneys and find out what they say. My feelings are that $55k is well worth talking to an attorney about. Don't feel bad, it has happened to all of us in one way or another. We all have different stories, but basically being overwhelmed with too much debt brought all of us here.

Recovery I can't answer, we will file soon, but the sleepless nights have stopped, and having cash for food and gas is nice. Not using cc's anymore is the most awesome feeling. We had perfect credit up until we quit paying cards, now I am sure it sucks, but atleast I'm not laying awake at night worrying about how we will pay all those cards anymore.

[Lana]

Thats about the gist of it. Not a huge amount I know, but enough that I have trouble feeding my kids. I just want to start over! It'll take me so much longer to get on top of the debt than it would to recover from the credit ding of BK, I think. Just scared to stop making those payments. But is that the way to go? Just STOP paying? LOL. That sounds crazy. I always pay. But thats why I'm so broke!

[justplaintired]

Lana, tomorrow you call some attorneys. You make some appts. They can advise you. If you are seriously doing a BK, then stop charging and paying, but make sure you speak with an attorney asap, to make sure BK is your best option. There alot of other questions the attorneys will ask, any balance transfers lately? Cash advances? All these things are things they will ask. How much equity in your home? How much equity in your car? All states have different allowances for these things. Lots of that info is right here on this forum, start doing alot of searches for your state. Start taking an inventory of your assets.

$55k is alot if you're a single Mom. If the bills interfere with feeding the kids, then it's time for you to make a change.

Let us know what you find out. I have a feeling if your like alot of us, once you meet with an attorney, you'll feel a sense of relief.