Since it's been awhile I thought I would give a quick update.

The job is doing well, and I still really like it. I finally have the insurance. I already have to go thru open enrollment. We are going to get an HDHP. This way I can put my whole family on it for $100 a month. Right now my wife alone is paying $250 a month and I'm $160 with my son on my plan. It is a $3000 deductible, but that is all. We are going to save about $6000 a year between deductible, coinsurance and premiums. So we will put some of that money into the HSA.

I am going to roll over my 401k from a previous employer to my current employer. Gotta love it. The jokers from my previous 401k want $95 just for sending my money to someone else. I remember when companies actually did stuff for free. For the record I'm not saying they shouldn't be paid for their services. But isn't that why I pay a monthly fee out of my 401k. Oh well what can I do. Not like I can say no.

Our bankruptcy finally got discharged two weeks ago on 10/28. Means we start with a clean slate. It's not closed yet and won't be because we have a land contract that we collect money on each money and also because I have a pending lawsuit against someone. But our debts are wiped out, so I'm happy. Out of all my creditors only two filed claims against our assets. So we are really happy about that. They weren't even the largest creditors either.

It amazes me how fast the credit card companies start sending you new credit card offers. My wife had 3 the other day to help her rebuild credit. They know you can't file again for seven years. I had a card survive the bankruptcy intact so that was good.

Now that we don't have any debt we are saving up for medical expenses so that we don't start in the hole right away if we have to goto the doctor on the new insurance and so we can find out own place to live. While living with my parents has been a blessing, I'm tired of it and want out.

Other than that it has been relatively quiet on the homefront. I'll update later.

My wife and I had our 341 hearing for our bankruptcy today. It went better than we expected, and much better than the first guy. He and his lawyer got ripped because only he was filing bankruptcy, but all the money went into the wife's name recently. The trustee didn't like that. Anyway, when it was our turn, he just asked some questions, asked if we wanted to make an offer for the land lease and then take the payments back. (he wants nothing to do with it). He congratulated me on my job. When I told him what I do he said well, you won't get rich doing that. You can go have a good day. So now we start the 60 day clock. It was amazingly easy.

My job is going very well. I finally finished orientation. I've been there a week now, and have actually only worked my position for about 12 hours of it. We get unlimited overtime, so I am going to start working as much as I can. We need the money. It drives my wife nuts, because my workaholic nature kicked in.

Speaking of my wife, she had her second interview at the same hospital yesterday. They said she did well and the director likes her, so we will see what happens. They will let her know by the end of the week. But we will see if that happens.

My kid starts school next week, and we can't wait. Maybe our food bill and the electricity we pay will go down, since no one will be home during the day anymore. That would be a huge help.

Anyway, that is just a quick update.

So yesterday we got our bankruptcy paperwork in the mail. We have our hearing date in late August. The thing that makes me laugh and go duh is the rules. I screwed up so I'm willing to pay the piper. My point is we had to take a credit counseling class before (and pay for it) and then to discharge our bankruptcy we have to take a debtor education class which will cost anywhere from $20 to $100. (I'm waiting for the attorney to tell me if there is a specific one). The reason we are filing bankruptcy is because we have no money, but hey let's go and make people spend more money to get out of debt. Genius.

Speaking of spending money. My car went kaput today. I was able to get to the place to fix it. Of course while fixing it they found something else wrong almost doubling the bill. The people were really nice though. They found me a $150 coupon online and are going to give me my next oil change free so that is cool. So instead of $1125 it was only $980. Luckily we have a credit card just for such emergencies or I would have been really S.O.L. I have a couple hundred bucks we saved and can put towards the card, but have to figure out where the rest comes from. If the plasma place would pay cash instead of debit card here, I would donate but they feel plastic is better. Go figure.

Otherwise, anytime that Karma or whatever it calls itself wants to stop making me the butt of some cosmic joke, that would be great. It can take its friend murphy with it. I have enough laws to deal with right now.

Okay, done whining. I don't have it as bad as some people and it will get better eventually.

Just got back from my brother's wedding in Chicago. I was in the party which was a blast except for the insane heat and humidity but I would do it in again in a heartbeat. It was of course one of those weddings that is a four day event. Which when you aren't filing bankruptcy and have a job is okay, but when you are broke off your arse, it gets a little tougher. Luckily we knew it was coming so we were able to save some money up for the event. Of course, having my parents step up and pay for the hotel and train tickets saved us about 600 dollars. So that was nice. I will say watching the people driving in Chicago remind me a lot of Vegas. Crazy arse people.

It would be nice if the freaking state would send us our refund. (our tax guy messed up and we had to amend our returns) So now instead of getting a refund, we have been getting letters that we owe almost $800 dollars. I have been calling and sending letters but they don't seem to care. If it is dealt with soon, I am going to throw it on the tax guys desk, and tell him you frakked it up, you spend the time fixing it, I'm done. That would be more money to put into an EF (If I ever get to start it).

My wife got told right before we left that she will be unable to work for 10 days because the doctor she works for is going on vacation. She will probably file for partial unemployment (he suggested it). She has vacation to use, but that PTO also includes her holiday pay, so if she uses it now she has nothing left for the holidays. I told her once I get some money it might be time to find a new job. Her hours are to erratic. 40 hours one week 30 the next making it hard to budget stuff. So when she goes back to work I will probably try to start an emergency fund with money we have left from the wedding and living.
And of course her cell phone died sunday night, but we had an extra one laying around that the verizon people were nice enough to switch phone number and let her use so that saved us from having to come up with a crapload of money.

On another note, we got $6.00 worth of coupons from Hershey's on any of their products. I complained when I found a piece of hair in some Twizzlers I ate. So that is good at least.

The last couple of days has been okay. Lets see. We got my son's high school enrollment stuff. He got the classes he wanted which was great but now we have to come up with $165 just to start for the classes. We get to pay for the privilege of taking the class as well as any of the supplies needed. They must be preparing for getting hosed at colleges on expenses. oh well. We also found out his health insurance premium is going up $50 a month. He is on his own plan because it is a hell of a lot cheaper. To put him on my wife's policy we would actually have to PAY her company each month for the privilege of health insurance. Luckily the insurance we figured was going to go up so we budgeted for it.

The bank found out we filed bankruptcy (we knew they would) and so they closed her zero balance credit card (we knew they would do that to) but it sucks they took all the points she had earned including bonus points. Oh well. We only wanted it so if we had to rent a car or something then we could without getting screwed on a bank hold. The attorney said they may or may not close it. Up to the bank.

I am going to try and start saving for an emergency fund. I don't know whether to open an account at someplace like ING or do the local credit union. I'm thinking it would be just a savings account. However, eventually I would like to open a medical savings plan, (maybe put a checking account with it) since we keep getting surprised by medical crap. So I'm leaning towards the credit union. Maybe I'll post the idea in the forum and see what they say. Before you ask our current banks is one of those that require a minimum each month in savings or they charge you a fee. Well a fee to hold my own money when they get the privilege of using it at little to no interest is against my standards. Actually, it just really pisses me off.

Okay I'm done for now. I'm sure there will be something later.

Last night we signed the papers to get our bankruptcy rolling. Talk about a bittersweet pill to swallow. One part of me is relieved because this lets us get a fresh start (eventually). The other part of me is really mad at myself. Regardless of how we got into this debt, it still shows I couldn't pay the debt I owed. Actually, I only accept about half our debt. The other half is about is due to the medical condition that the one company is supposed to pay. (I'll get more into that later). Anyway, we now have to wait about 6 weeks before we have to go meet with the trustee to finalize things. And then after that we wait another couple of months and then it is done. It would be nice if we could start 2012 with this monkey off our backs. The good thing is that now we can focus on saving money and building up an EF. This way we can pay cash for everything later. So that will be a good thing. Now if I could only get some sort of income then we will be on our way to saving.