Last night, my wife turned to me and mentioned she has noticed I’ve been calm and not so “cranky” (as she put it). I have to admit, I’ve even caught myself smiling over the last few weeks. It’s certainly not from the feeling of getting by and able to make my minimum payments. God knows I’ve we’ve tried. Nor do I attribute this new crescent like feature on my face to the debt collectors no longer calling. As a matter of fact, it’s worse now since we didn’t pay our last payment to the consumer credit counseling service.

The feeling is one of peace with the situation. I explained that I hate the thought and more so the fact that we can’t pay the bills; that we have to take this drastic step to help us. The peace I feel is from the knowing that I’ve fought a good fight; I’ve lost, but I still have my head held high.

I’ll be honest and many people may or may not look down on me for this, but the thought of not having to worry about my credit, credit score (right now), not having to sell whatever I can on eBay to help us make the minimum payments, is a calming feeling.

I spend a lot of time researching chapter 7 bankruptcy (aka straight bankruptcy), trying to learn from other people. It seems a common complaint that I hear/read is that more often than none, people forget to include all of their debts in their bankruptcy. My wife and I spent the better part of the day yesterday gathering our bills, debts, collections letters, etc. We’ll make copies for the attorney (as he requested) and hand them over in 2 weeks when we pay the $500 down payment.

We really did neglect the kids yesterday. They played very well together, watched videos, yelled at each other and occasionally got in trouble for hitting each other, but all and all they played really great together. My wife and I both felt bad that we didn’t get to spend enough time with them, so we took them out to iHop for dinner. The bill was $36 and it was worth every penny, to get to spend time with the kids. We certainly didn’t have the money for last night, but it was so nice to spend time with everyone, outside of our house.

Today, we’re going to go to church, clean the yard, take the dog for a walk, play cars and watch High School Musical. Everyone had a vote and today is family day. I’m only writing this now because the dog woke me and everyone else is sleeping.

That’s all for today, two little monsters just woke up. Have a great day!

- Average Joe