I am not recommending or recommending anyone to file BK. First of all I want someone to hear my story anonymously. Second of all if this will be any help to someone who is considering whether not file or file, I will be glad that I wrote this. I was never good at bookkeeping. As a kid, I remember my mom made us keep record of what we spend our allowance, in order to get new allowance. 1st of month was our allowance day and off course I never keep track of my spending. I used to put whatever on my book so I can get my allowance. If I did that in real life, Id be arrested for fraud. Anyway, I was never big spender and I always worked so I did not have problem. That was until I met my husband the spender. Still, I had 2 jobs, he had a job, and we had no kids so we were ok. Several years later, we had our baby, I just have 1 job, my husband lost job, we financed way too expensive car, we had to pay for immigration lawyer, I got loan to help my friends business and so on. All my credit card was maxed out and I was running one payday loan place to another. I had to do something otherwise wed end up being homeless. I have called all the credit card companies and asked them if I can stop using my card and pay lower interest. One company put me in such a program and one company gave me a number to call for payment program/credit counseling. I called the number and I gave them list of my income and spending. They told me that I owe too much to qualify for the program and recommended bankruptcy and referred me web sites to find a lawyer. I posted my situation on the site and I got call from about 20 different lawyers. I met with 3 of them and picked one. Here is my question, they all charged around $1400. Is this reasonable amount? It was hardest thing to come up with $1400. We are living way past pay check to pay check by then. My lawyer told me if I have some money left in credit card I can pay with that and I dont have to pay for it after BK. Again, I am not recommending or recommending, but when it is question of my baby going hungry or getting kicked out from my apartment, we got to make hard decision. It took me like 5 months to pay him but I did and rest was pretty easy. I had to take couple of on line credit counseling classes that are $5-$10. I went to court answered few yes/no questions and I was approved. My concern that time was my car. We have option to keep the car if I was making payment, but I wasnt so I knew that they are going to take my car soon or later. I was trying to find a car before they take it. I really need working car to take my son to school and go to work. It was difficult to find a dealer that finance cheaper car but I did and Im happy to have a car that works and that no one is taking it away. Thank you for listening to my long story. We all know when we borrow money, we have to pay it back, but sometimes this happened to best of us.