if you have a crockpot, you can make a really good beef stew once a week and package up individual servings to take to work. My favorite recipe:
1.5 pounds stew cubes (or whatever cheap cut of meat you can find)
6 carrots
4 medium potatoes
1 medium onion
beef bouillon cubes
v-8 juice
flour
seasoning (garlic, pepper, salt, oregano, rosemary, tarragon are my favorites)

coat beef with flour, brown in a few tablespoons of oil on stove. Throw in crockpot. Chop veggies, throw in crockpot. Cover with 4-6 cups of v-8 juice. Add 2 cups of water and a few beef cubes and seasonings. If you have any leftover red wine put in some of that too. Turn on crock pot for 6 or 8 hours.

Easy.

I have cousin that is even more extreme. He literally cut back to eating only ONE meal per day!!???

I thought I’d say – I’ve read through your blog, and I really hope that you’ll pull through this.

I agree with the previous posters about the lunches – there are lots of ways you can “brown bag” your lunches for about $1 per day, and you’ll feel like you get more variety too. We like a hardboiled egg, a tuna sandwich, some carrots sticks (but the kind you have to cut yourself, not the cute precut ones) and an apple, or about once a week we make a pot of chili (beans, tomatoes, chili powder, maybe some ground beef) and then we pack it up into smaller containers and take it to work. I like to bake, so we often get cookies or biscuits in the lunch.

Have you thought about getting a roommate? Around here, people rent out rooms for about $400 a month.

Anyway, just a few thoughts. Good luck!

Interested – I’ll repost a better version (and updated) of the spreadsheet this weekend. I’m still working on getting my income up and this blog is very, very secondary to that. And yes, a brownbag would probably be cheaper! (if only I didn’t have to eat at all!). Thanks for the “good luck”….I need it!

As for sleeping in the office…it may happen for a few months. Most of my employees are college students, and our current project will be done by June, so they will be getting full time jobs in the summer, before returning for the fall. I’ve talked about living in the office before…so they wouldn’t really suspect much (especially if I sold the house). Plus, I’m kinda crazy like that.

I can’t really read your Excel spreadsheet – could you repost it so it is easier to read? I can’t tell what is unsecured versus your mortgage(s) and if you have an car payments or other debts.

You say your are making $9K at your business – is that net or gross? Is that in your pocket, or is that prior to paying employees, business taxes, office rent, etc.?

I’m stil uncertain how you were to find yourself so deep in the hole. Was it all day trading? Or was some of it to start the business?

It’s good your Dad gave you some advice which seems sound. The most important thing is if you were to BK is your business incorporated? You may not want your business assets taken to pay off your creditors.

I would advise against sleeping in your office – there are possible code violations not to mention the fact that if you were to start living out of the office your employees would know something was wrong.

Your subway sandwich lunches are easy on the budget – however, it is still $15 p/week ($60 p/mo) – would a brownbag from home be cheaper?

I would be interested in seeing your monthly budget – you listed what payments you were making today, but seeing what you are doing with your $$ throughout the month will paint a more clear picture.

Good Luck

Did you have any luck refinancing your 32% lines of credit with lower rate cards?

Try prosper.com?

Rice and beans: Dry beans are usually around $1/lb (and there are so many varieties!). I just bought a 6 lb sack of Zatarain’s rice for $3.99.

The little things really DO add up. Just think: Over two weeks, you’re spending at least $30 on lunch. If you started brown-bagging, you could realistically save $20 over those two weeks. That’s $40 per month. That’s a payment on one of your accounts, isn’t it?