To the members of Congress:
I am respectfully asking you to get it together and raise the debt ceiling. It doesn't matter what side of the isle you are on, it needs to be done.
To the Democrats, cut the entitlements. Cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. I know that is your pride and joy, but it is time to make some hard choices. Just so you are aware my son is on Social Security and I am on Medicaid, so I will be affected just like everyone else, but I am still willing to make the sacrifice. Are you?
To the Republicans. Why are you willing to let the middle and lower class shoulder the burden of tax cuts? Why aren't the people who can afford it the most having to pay their fair share? It's time to close some loopholes and raise revenue to help the budget.
I have no doubt that you all feel you are doing what's best for this Country. But in reality, you are not. If you cause the Government to default, you are putting the economy at risk, as well as the people who hired you. Why are you not willing to make the tough decisions? Are you afraid you will upset the voter base and not get re-elected? Oh well, you were sent there to do a job, it may be tough and it may eventually cost you the job, but nonetheless it is a job, so do it. Thank you for your time.

Back in May, my wife was house sitting when a huge storm rolled thru the area. It was at that point that a tree decided it didn't want to stay there anymore and decided to run over my wife's car as it tried to get away. (It didn't get very far the car roof stopped it). It took our insurance about two weeks to decided to total it and pay the amount they were willing to pay the bank. Then the real fun started.

We had GAP insurance. So I had to get in touch with them and let them know what was going on. I also notified the bank about what happened and that GAP was going to pay it. Well after the bank sent the same 17 pages over and over for 3 days, they finally sent the right papers to GAP. I also found out they weren't making notes that I was calling and telling them why I wasn't going to pay. Which would explain why they didn't know what I was talking about when I called.

Anyway, its been two months since the car was totaled and the bank finally posted the GAP check they got. And they were nice enough to backdate the payment to the day of the loss, so all fees and interest was waived back to then. So we are officially rid of all our car payments. It feels good not to have to budget for that each month.

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.

Okay, so I decided to start blogging. I will write when I can or the mood strikes me.

I think the best place to start is that my family and I got into some financial trouble over the last several years. While we had managed to stay on top of things when we moved we found out I had to have another surgery which is going to keep me out of work for at least a year. Luckily my wife was able to get a job right away. Even though we had 6 months of living when we moved and moved in with mother our money was spent on keeping us above water. Unfortunetaly the people who were supposed to be paying for my surgery still haven't paid yet after a 8 months. So between that and our credit card debt we are broke. Tomorrow we are signing the papers to file bankruptcy. Talk about a pride hit. I have done everything I can but not enough. It's hard with one income and some social security for my son. We are filing tomorrow.

My point is that we need to start trying to save money with what we have, and I figure if I make it public, hopefully we can do it. I also thought, I would document my experiences with bankruptcy and anything else. I hope this stuff is interesting to you.