Our lawyer says we won't qualify for Chapter 7, but after looking our budget, I'm not sure how we don't!
My wife and I are just barely starting with bankruptcy. I came into our marriage with $200k in credit card debt, and over the last four years, with medical costs, increased taxes, and the cost of living going crazy high, our debt ballooned from $200k to $400k. When we did our budget, we were basically living about $3k above our means, all because of minimums. We tried consolidations, but you can't get a loan big enough. We feel like we are drowning, just drowning slowly.
I'm classified as a high earner, making ~$300,000. But with deductions for health, taxes, 401k, 401k Loan, and all the other stuff that comes out of my income, my take-home is low, comparatively speaking. I should also add our mortgage is ~$4600.00/month, which is more than my biweekly take-home pay currently. After childcare and other necessary items, even without credit cards, we aren't left with much disposable income. To be fair, our budget isn't that crazy; it's just that the costs of everything have gone up, childcare especially.
We're trying to reduce subscriptions, change phone service to something cheaper, we are now getting a substantial amount of our groceries from a Co-Op we volunteer for, and we're not "ambient shopping" on Amazon anymore and eating at home more. I know we will make it through this and survive, but I really don't want Chapter 13. I'd much rather get Chapter 7 and be done with this and get a fresh start to do things right this time.
I'm curious what happened to others that may have been in a similar situation? I'm willing to clarify any information as well. I'm just scared as hell not knowing what's going to happen, and I feel like crap knowing that I'm primarily responsible for us even being in this situation.