New here - filing in about a month

[anigrrrl2]

Hi all! I am new here, and just looking for some support and to see other people's experiences with bankruptcy. I am filing Ch 13 in about a month, and am having my house appraised this Friday on my attorney's advice to see if we can get the equity lowered so my repayment plan is less. I am hoping that is the case, as we are currently totally broke every month from paying bills. I am current on everything but have to charge groceries and necessities because we have no money left over after loans and cc's are paid. So the debt just keeps going up.

Really looking forward to being free of this, as I've never lived without debt in my entire adult life. This feels like the beginning of a whole new kind of life.

[justbroke]

While a Chapter 13 can be challenging, you will definitely learn to budget. Hopefully the budgeting lessons from the Chapter 13 continue once you are discharged. We all hope that we learned about budgeting, purchasing only necessities, and not using credit as a crutch ("I can just pay for this later by using my card.").

A Chapter 13 will either humble a person, or show that they are just unable to or refuse to budget. It can be a harrowing experience for those that have never budgeted and are not used to using credit in a pinch. But there are plenty of us out here, and on BKForum, that managed through a 3-5 year Chapter 13 and came out better.

[bornfree2]

Welcome! Im doing a C7 myself and have accumulated a bunch of useful resource/info in the pro se 'recommended links' area.

I suggest you read this thread wherein you can find a link to a great, free pdf done by the nclc. It covers the nuts and bolts of chapter 7 and 13 and will give you 'boot camp' on the legal and practical aspects.

With this knowledge and your lawyer you will go into battle well prepared!