Answer: There is no easy answer to your situation.  Based on what you have said, it would appear that your most urgent problem is a cash flow problem, not a debt problem.  Your debts are currently in collections, meaning that you have not made payments on them for some time, but even without making payments on your debts you are still having trouble surviving.  Bankruptcy is therefore probably not the first strategy you should consider.

Your first goal should be to balance your monthly budget, so that your expenses are slightly less than your income.  Obviously in our depressed economy that’s easier said than done.  It’s not easy to simply find a higher paying job, but ultimately you have to either reduce your expenses, or increase your income to balance your budget.  Once you do that, then you can work on a plan to deal with your debts.

If the debts are in collections and if the creditors are not suing you or garnisheeing your wages, you don’t have to immediately file bankruptcy.  You can devote your efforts to improving your cash flow situation, and then deal with the debts.

Answer: No, not always.  When you file for bankruptcy, you’ll be required to report your income and expenses to the trustee each month.  This income should include all sources of income earned during the bankruptcy period.  

The payments that you’ll be required to make to the trustee are dependent on the size of your family and the income you receive.  Essentially the rule is “the more you make, the more you have to pay”.  A useful guideline to these rules – called Surplus Income -can be found here.

Before you file for a bankruptcy, the trustee will inform you what assets you’re allowed to keep and which ones may vest with the trustee.  You can find more information about the assets you’re allowed to keep here.

Answer: It is very unusual for a creditors’ meeting to be scheduled in a bankruptcy. Most bankruptcies, where your total assets are less than $15,000, are “summary administration bankruptcies”, and creditors’ meetings are only called if a creditor requests it.

It would appear that you had assets of greater than $15,000 (actually in your case $10,000, since the rules changed on September 18 increasing the limit from $10,000 to $15,000), so your bankruptcy may have been filed as a “Ordinary Administration”, which requires an automatic creditors’ meeting.

In most cases if no creditors attend the meeting, that’s it. No further meetings are scheduled, unless there is a specific reason why the trustee is requesting the meeting.

We suggest that you contact your trustee and as them to explain why a creditors’ meeting was necessary, and why it’s necessary to re-schedule the meeting. It’s possible that there are valid reasons for doing so, but only your trustee can give you a full explanation.