Create a second document and this time list down your income. Jot down all the income generating jobs or projects that you have, including any income you receive from self employment, interest or dividends from a share in a business, alimony or child support that you receive, pension or retirement income, and also public assistance.

Get into the habit of sorting through the mail every day. No matter how busy the day is or how long, no matter how tempting it is to just throw the mail in a pile until tomorrow, it is best that they be dealt with as they were found before they are all together forgotten. Putting off the seemingly simple task of riffling through the mail is how bills get misplaced, forgotten, and unpaid. Separate the bills from the other mails and put them in the part of the house that you frequently visit, rest, or do activities in.

Bankruptcy petition preparers are also known as the “typing services” or “paralegals.” They could be any person or any business entity that can help the consumer type, fill out, or file bankruptcy papers for a fee. A bankruptcy petition preparer or a BPP can be an individual that works for a lawyer, but is not a lawyer, he/she according to the law, is also somebody that is supposed to be under the direct supervision of the consumer, and not under the supervision of a lawyer (11 U.S.C. 110a).

Creating a budget is just half of the battle; living within it is the other half of. Living inside of a budget is like setting up or authoring an alternate reality with you (the consumer) as the writer, the director, and the actor all in one. The reality of the story is that the consumer (who plays all the part) is having a trouble managing his/her finances and is going to be in a lot more trouble if he/she does not alter the story. The alternate reality is that the consumer has to live in a world of constraints (budget) in which his/her spending is going to be inside of a set parameter.

Are the consumers’ unexpected expenses really “unexpected?” Are those just excuses for bad and loose spending habits? Are unexpected expenses actually quite predictable? That the consumer knows that they will incur debt at some point and that the only unknown variables are: when are they going to happen and exactly for what purposes.