Confusion-No logic-Numbers don't add up

[ccsjoe]

Real point of this post is confusion.

How in the world did we ever make ends meet before filing? Yes, we have some money left over at the end of the month now, but not to the tune of the cc payments we were making.

This is really baffling, looking at it in black and white. No wonder we filed. But still, it defies all logic and reasoning that we were somehow making ends meet previously. I do not understand.

Anybody else come upon this realization?

[Lockeout]

Yeah, same thing. We thought once we stopped paying the cards we'd be able to save up and have allthis extra to spend down before filing. Instead, we're still running a tight budget and didn't get half the stuff we need (I bought 2 new shirts and a pair of pants instead of replacing my entire years-old wardrobe). But somehow before deciding on bk I thought we had enough for a vacation to visit family. Open credit is quite a mirage.

[ccsjoe]

I have to agree except for one compounding factor in my case-All our credit cards were maxed out, so there was no open credit to make ends meet from.

[stueban]

I totally am in this boat. Looking now at our real budget, which doesn't allow for a whole lot of extras, and I have now idea how I was able to keep paying the CCs as well as our bills. Like you said, the math doesn't add up! I guess that is why we have no savings or rainy day fund atm, it was bled drying to make the minimum payment on the CCs.

[mommi2many]

Count me in too. I have asked myself this question so many times during this process. When I first stopped paying the credit cards I felt so liberated at the thought of all the extra money we were going to have. Problem is I never came across that extra money and I am baffled as to where it went. We are certainly making ends meet now and I am not nearly as stressed juggling who gets paid, but we definitely won't be taking that vacation I was sure we would be able to afford. Nor are we buying that big lcd tv my husband wants. We don't even have our daughter in gymnastics classes like I was so sure we would. But, I choose to rejoice in the fact that I am stress free with shelter, food, and transportation.

[Freddy03]

Almost the same boat here but before I stopped paying the cc I would pay each of them an extra 20-30 dollars and then when it was time to put gas in the cars, dr copay, something the kids needed it went right back on those cards. So once I stopped paying them and started paying for things in cash something always happened (ie: new tires, ac repair, eye glasses, etc) that would always put us behind.

[gpolly123]

Hi, we have yet to file and I have been trying to figure out how we made almost $1500.00 month in cc payments when I can barely pay my bills and feed my family without making those payments. I think that we used every penny of available credit each month and kept thinking I would get more children enrolled in my family daycare and that would solve everything. Well thats not happening and we can barely make the payments to our lawyer for his deposit. I still have to figure out how to show enough income for our 13.
Cathy

[JEM]

I have to agree except for one compounding factor in my case-All our credit cards were maxed out, so there was no open credit to make ends meet from.

Yep. This is what happened with us as well. For so long we used the open credit to buy the necessities (food, gas, even pay the utilities, repairs on the cars etc...), and then all of our money went to pay the cc's. When the cards were maxed, or close to it, the cycle had to end.

[ccsjoe]

Yep. This is what happened with us as well. For so long we used the open credit to buy the necessities (food, gas, even pay the utilities, repairs on the cars etc...), and then all of our money went to pay the cc's. When the cards were maxed, or close to it, the cycle had to end.

Believe it or not in my case we carried this cycle for almost three years actually thinking we were going to start paying down the cards "next month". Talk about hallucinating.

[Okieblue]

Yes, exactly! We were paying out $1300 in cc's and loans, therefore, I should have plenty of money to start this ball rolling, right? Wrong! When looking at my credit report today, I see a couple cards gave us increases. Dillards an extra hundred and a visa card upped it by $5K, oh my.

[ccsjoe]

Poetic, how poetic. Increse credit limits to someone about to file bk....lol

[LaurieM]

This is the exact thing that we spend a lot of time discussing with our clients before they file bankruptcy... what is it the underlying reason for the incurred debt? There are only two ways to improve one's financial situation - increase income or decrease expense. If nothing about your regular monthly income/expenses has changed since you filed... you're not going to feel the difference long-term. If you were using the credit cards to make ends meet, the cycle will start all over again unless something significant has changed since your filing. This is why we often recommend ppl give up homes, cars, campers etc which they cannot afford. Having said that there are just some budgets that you cannot decrease (sometimes it's regular medical expenses, high student loans etc which are the underlying problem)... that being the case, the only fix is increased income. I would be happy to look any one of your monthly expenses and offer suggestions if that's something any of you would be open to. (I am a certified credit counselor, among other things)

[backtoschool]

For me, I just started see the open credit limits as money. I didn't start that way, but somewhere along the way, the credit limits started feeling like money in the bank to me, since it was available to me at a moment's notice.

I took a couple of extra trips each year, bought things I didn't have the cash for at the moment, and because I got large bonuses from work, I was able to continually pay off the balances all at once, only to start racking them up again. This went on for years. It was only when I lost my job and wasn't going to get a bonus anymore that I finally faced reality. I was faced with either scrambling for another job that I would hate in a profession I hated, only to pay my credit card bills, or jumping off the train, preparing for bk and starting over in a different place and a different profession. I realized what a trap I had built for myself and gotten myself into. I decided to jump off the train and start over, and the rest is history.

[discouraged]

I started wondering the same thing myself and then realized - when I was laid off (am now just working tempoary) I cashed in my 401K and had 6 months savings which I depleted and used all my income tax refund to pay bills. Eventually all that extra money dried up and I realized I could no longer pay anything nor did I have anything as back-up. That's when it finally hit home.

[Lockeout]

For me, I just started see the open credit limits as money. I didn't start that way, but somewhere along the way, the credit limits started feeling like money in the bank to me, since it was available to me at a moment's notice.

Exactly. We'd barely scrape by floating on our cards, so that when we finally got an increase we immediately went on a shopping spree to buy stuff we'd been putting off (and a few too many goodies). It was even worse when we were in school because then we'd use loan money (maxed out every semester) to pay them down a little so it never seemed that bad. Of course, then we stopped getting credit increases and the loans went into repayment status... and here we are.