Question When you stopped paying your cc's..

[coolmom04]

what did you do with the money?? Did you go ahead and spend it all on stuff you know it's okay to spend it on??

I feel so guilty spending more money than I usually do on stuff like groceries and for actually going out and buying my children some winter clothes

I mean... it is OKAY to do that with the money, right??? The trustee isn't going to look back at my bank statements and want me to justify every single purchase made?

What do they mainly look for on bank statements anyway? Unclaimed income?

[Llelxon]

I had about 1800/month in debit payments that I quit paying middle of October and I have yet to find that I actually have much left over. Made me realize how a lack of a budget really means you have no idea what you spend your money on. Now I actually just make ends meet, but I don't use and credit to get there.

[JEM]

Well, we just missed our first payment a few weeks ago, and have yet to find much "extra" money. LOL.

We got behind on things like the water bill, the utility bill etc....when we were trying to keep up with the CC bills.

Plus, we were paying the mortgage later and later in the month, not 30 days late or anything, but getting dangerously close. Last month we paid it ON the 30th, so I supposed technically they could have reported us 30 days late for that.

So we're trying to work our way back to being "on time" with all of the necessary expenses--especially the mortgage, because we intend to keep the house. (and car)

I foresee it taking us till mid January to see any "extra".

Plus, like another poster said, when you are not using CC's, you realize where all of those unbudgeted items add up.

[HakunaMatata]

The majority of my "extra" money went to my attorney. Thankfully, he was a helluva lot nicer and far more helpful than my creditors. I didn't heed my attorney's advice and continued to pay my creditors slightly over minimums leading up to filing (this is NOT recommended!). I also saved a bit (which was exempt). Two weeks following my 341, I invested $3500 into my dog (unexpected surgery). Yeah, I thought I'd be on the fast-track to financial freedom. Life happens and I've continued to exercise my frugal habits in hopes of fully recovering from the woes of debt.

Yes, you can purchase necessities for your family. I doubt your Trustee is going to have a problem with you providing seasonal clothing for your children (unless, of course, you purchase diamond snowsuits!). You may also be able to save money depending on your State's exemptions.

[PacificBlue]

First thing we bought was new big fluffy house slippers!! Cold here in the pacific northwest. Then we bought some above and beyond medical stuff that I have been just kind of doing with out, but has made it a lot more comfortable. Next we thought about buying new TV (ours is old, and acting up)... but in reality we are holding it for the retainer for our lawyer. That is going to purddy much eat that up plus.

[keepmine]

It's pretty standard advice here to stop paying all debt you wish to discharge and use that money for day to day living expenses. Reason being, if you still can't make ends meet, you have a problem bk can't fix.

[holycrap]

First thing we bought was new big fluffy house slippers!! Cold here in the pacific northwest. Then we bought some above and beyond medical stuff that I have been just kind of doing with out, but has made it a lot more comfortable. Next we thought about buying new TV (ours is old, and acting up)... but in reality we are holding it for the retainer for our lawyer. That is going to purddy much eat that up plus.

After saving the 3K for the lawyer my wife and i wrote a priority list of items we thought would be un-affordable on any reasonable ch13 budget. We have had home repairs done, medical/dental work, bought clothing, paid for Christmas in cash. if you are going to have a sizeable ch13 payment you should have enough disposable income to properly prepare for the next 5 years.

I am scared s***less that our budget will be unreasonable and my wife and i will fail. I know this fear is common and founded only in uncertainty, but it is real.

[lindsay2181]

we stopped paying cc's b/c we simply didn't have the money to pay...therefore there was no "extra" money to spend on anything else. my husband had a pay cut....we had been paying the cc's through a DMP for nearly 2 years, then we could no longer pay so we were dropped from the program and the cc's stopped getting their payments. i WISH we'd had some extra money...i would have socked it away in my mattress!

[helpmeout]

When I stopped paying the CC bills, it did help. But the cc aren't my only problem. My $2K a month mortgage payment and childcare costs are problems, as well. Nothing I can do about the childcare if I want to continue working, but I am getting rid of the house in the BK.

[frogger]

Not paying the cc bills made a little difference to me, but not much. I had a lot of other things that needed to go too in order to survive.

I do have a very full pantry, plenty of paper towels & toilet paper, and things like that.

[readytofile]

Well, we just missed our first payment a few weeks ago, and have yet to find much "extra" money. LOL.

We got behind on things like the water bill, the utility bill etc....when we were trying to keep up with the CC bills.

Plus, we were paying the mortgage later and later in the month, not 30 days late or anything, but getting dangerously close. Last month we paid it ON the 30th, so I supposed technically they could have reported us 30 days late for that.

So we're trying to work our way back to being "on time" with all of the necessary expenses--especially the mortgage, because we intend to keep the house. (and car)

I foresee it taking us till mid January to see any "extra".

Plus, like another poster said, when you are not using CC's, you realize where all of those unbudgeted items add up.

We stopped paying our CC bills back in August and I've still been trying to catch up with our past bills, so yeah that extra money you won't see for a while.

[DuncanLaw]

Stopping Payments

Generally speaking, you can only use that money to pay back bills, living expenses and attorneys fees. Courts vary on their process but most courts won't dig all that deep unless they find that you have a lot of extra money and then they look for big purchases and purchases of unjustified items (big screen TVs, etc. etc.)

Once you decide you are going to file the bankruptcy, its generally a good idea to stop paying any of the debts that you are seeking to discharge (wipe out). The biggest exception is if you owe on utilities, etc. If you stop making payments on those then those will, obviously, be cut off.

Best of luck on everyone's fresh financial start!

[needachance]

We ended up moving to a slightly larger house, so with moving expenses etc we haven't seen any extra yet.