No going back

Well, we did it.  As of about 11am this morning, we filed for bankruptcy.  Toughest decision we've ever made.  Late yesterday we realized we had to take a credit counseling, online class, so after the kids went to bed, I (we) flew through it.  Thankfully, it was rather easy and took 45 min instead of the 90 they said, and the follow up phone call was pretty ridiculous, but after printing out 50 more pages and signing where we needed to, I faxed everything off this morning and the lawyer immediately filed for us.  Time is of the essence because we are 2 months behind on my car, and in Texas that means repo.  Tomorrow was the deadline on that, but we are "safe" now, no worries about the car disappearing while we sleep our I drop the kids off at school.  Don't think we are taking this lightly, I joke a bit, because the seriousness is more then I can handle sometimes, but I am fully aware of how disastrous this is.  I do know a couple other people that have filed and I know that things are better for them now, so I'm hopeful that we will be ok as well.  Although, our situation is completely different then both of theirs, so I'm still really, really scared.  It will take about 30-45 days before our case goes before a judge.  The holidays will extend things a bit and apparently it being a Chapter 13, vs Chapter 7, delays things a bit too. Some things won't change, we haven't used a credit card in 2 years, so that won't be a big difference, but just knowing that you can't get anything on credit kind of scares us a bit.  It also puts added pressure on Matt to make sure the business is profitable and on me to get a job.  Both of us are very focused on these things, but a bad economy is never good for starting a business or getting a job.  I will say, my phone hasn't rung in hours and that's a big change already!  Christmas will be very inexpensive for us, I'm grateful that the kids are young and don't really understand any of this.  They won't know whether they got more or less gifts then their friends.  There won't be any big vacations, but we haven't been on one since our honeymoon so that's no change.  No new cars, but mine is new and Matt's isn't very old either.  And, thankfully we love our house because we won't be moving for 7-10 years now!  So, anyone out there considering bankruptcy, I'm here if you want to talk about it.  I'm no expert, but I am very good with a budget, and I may be able to help you decide if you should file or not.  It may sound ironic, "I'm good with a budget", but remember we aren't in our situation because of over spending, our income took a major hit, so major that we couldn't handle all of our bills.  Hopefully, 2012 will be a better year financially!!