We received the letters yesterday. Two letters arrived at our house, each addressed to either my wife or myself. Both are for the same time, place and judge at the New York State Bankruptcy court. It’s kind of a weird feeling to know that this time next month it will be over. I won’t (or at least I can hope) receive any more calls at work, at home, to the neighbors or disjointed family across the country giving me messages from creditors.

The attorney has explained that it is very important for us to get back on the horse (so to speak) and apply for high interest credit cards with low balances. I don’t doubt that he doesn’t know what he’s saying and I’m sure it is accurate and gospel based on his long history of doing this, but I’d like to do some research. As it stands, we will still be making payments to the car loan (2000 Hyundai Accent – I owe $3100 – its book value is $1400) which is $138 per month and the [2] mortgage payments every month. So I’m not concerned about establishing ourselves right away. I would like to work on the revolving credit aspect though.

To be honest, the thought of having charge cards again scares me. We’ve gone the last year (+) just using our debit card to make any purchases. We don’t buy what we can’t afford. It makes times like your kids 6th birthday a little hard to deal with. I mean who doesn’t want to buy them everything they want, or at least a little better then the clothing you know they need and a (in trend) stuffed animal. I hate the thought of that. A few years ago I wouldn’t have thought twice about buying a Nintendo Wii as a present. Now, I can’t even imagine spending that money. I pray that my/our attitude doesn’t change when we finalize the bankruptcy. I pray that it doesn’t change when we receive our first charge cards in the mail again.

Per the letter from the attorney that we received we have to complete a course over the phone, prior to the court date. I assume this will be somewhat like the last one we had to do, where they helped us think of other options to help our situation. The one thing I did get out of that call (that day) was to increase my withholdings from my check to married – 10. I was just doing married – 3 and getting back a nice return at the end of the year. By making that change we get more money now and less at the end of the year. Thanks to the man at the other end of the call for his suggestion.

I will blog more about the call next week, as I’d like to get it out of the way. Just one more expense that I need to factor in to this month. What a bad month for my kid to have a birthday

Anyway, I’m off to do some research now on reestablishing my credit after bankruptcy, rebuilding my credit score and such. It is my intention to create a “post bankruptcy” section on the site, after we our debts are fully discharged. Maybe others will be able to benefit from our mistakes, findings or what have you.

Till then, have a good weekend!

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- AverageJoe