The North Carolina Bankruptcy Information Blog

After suffering through years of an economic downturn driven by a mortgage crisis, rising consumer debts, and mounting health care costs, of late many average Americans are increasingly hungry for the country to rebound financially. Unfortunately, at the same time, a confluence of events is prompting a resurgence of literal hunger in the U.S. as well as many other corners of the world-at-large.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, for the third straight year, Hunger Action Month has had to contend with a 1 in 6 hunger rate, the highest percentage since the federal agency began monitoring national hunger in 1995.…

No one needs to tell you times are tough and money is tight.

And all too often in this “new economy” (full of new financial realities), average Americans just like you—already suffering under the intense strain of rising mortgage costs, consistent credit card debt, mounting medical bills, employment woes, and other blights on your bank accounts—are also in the market for more ways to trim shrinking household budgets.

This was confirmed by a brand new survey from Harris Interactive, published this month, proving that two years after the recession officially ended there’s no real end in sight to all of the coupon cutting, penny pinching and wallet tightening.…

After years of being mired in an economic malaise driven by the foreclosure mess, rising consumer debts, and mounting medical costs, you’d think it would finally be about time for a good old financial reprieve for American families.

Unfortunately, new figures reveal the real financial challenges—even post-recession—that are currently jeopardizing a U.S. family’s most basic needs and forcing many to make a decision between food and shelter.

According to a recent report, approximately 10 million American households— representing one in every four families that rent their homes—could have to choose between paying rent, buying groceries or staying current with bills. As The Huffington Post reported, “The number of households spending more than 50 percent of their income on rent and bills jumped by 2.6 million over the last decade, according to a Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies report.…

In April, the world celebrated the 41^st anniversary of Earth Day with global conservation efforts of all sorts culminating in A Billion Acts of Green®. But in these tough economic times, one of the toughest things to conserve just happens to be green: money. Fortunately, there are a slew of ways to save some cash while you’re also saving the environment.

We know what you’re thinking. Yes, while you can ultimately save on energy costs with many green goods, it often comes at a major upfront cost. Compact fluorescent light bulbs, a more efficient dishwasher, a professional home energy audit, an entire home energy monitor or hybrid vehicle can mean shelling out some major green in order to ultimately save some.…

After suffering through years of an economic downturn driven by a mortgage crisis, rising consumer debts, and mounting medical expenses, of late many average Americans are increasingly hungry for the country to rebound financially. Unfortunately, at the same time, a confluence of events is prompting a resurgence of literal hunger in the U.S. as well as many other corners of the world-at-large.

According to a recent report from The World Bank, global food prices are on the rise.  Between October 2010 and January 2011, the Bank’s food price index rose by 15 percent, as global prices of wheat, maize, sugar and edible oils increased sharply.…

In these tough financial times, many people are looking for ways to save a buck. And you’ll often hear us singing the praises of average Americans taking their financial futures into their own hands, whether it be by avoiding the perils of wasted money to taking advantage of bankruptcy benefits. But in addition to buttressing your budget, this time around we’re also trying to save you more of something else: trouble.

So let’s get to it. Here are seven tasks you shouldn’t try doing yourself (even in a bad economy):

(1) Automotive Oil Changes
First on our don’t-do-it-yourself list is something most will traditionally tell you is an easy way to save money: changing your own oil.…

Life after bankruptcy can be a challenge. It will take commitment, a new mindset and an entirely fresh set of budgeting habits.

People are surprised to find that when they look around, there really are countless ways for you to save, establish credit and rebuild the economic life you once had.

For a some filers, bankruptcy meant giving up a car payment you could no longer afford. With the new change, getting around town to run errands or schedule job interviews can be pretty frustrating. However, alternative modes of transportation are becoming more abundant. One example is the WeCar program, an idea already popular in larger cities and on college campuses.…

No one needs to tell you times are tough.

Too often, Americans just like you, already suffering under the intense strain of rising mortgage costs, consistent credit card debt, mounting medical bills, employment woes, and other blights on your bank accounts, are also looking for ways to further trim shrinking household budgets.

And since the lingering financial downturn has affected all socio-economic sectors of the country—even the upper-middle class and wealthiest Americans—dealing with sudden bills or a loss of income can be even more difficult for people used to a certain lifestyle.

So, whether you’re facing extended unemployment, are bankruptcy bound or just trying to salvage your savings, taking a long, hard look at your family’s budget can make a big difference.…

As someone facing serious financial difficulty, learning how much money is made by the huge banks to which you owe money can be frustrating. While we understand that we need to be accountable for our decisions, it stings to realize that profit models are often based on customers going into debt. Therefore, we can’t help but a feel a bit had, like the rube who just bought a cure-all tonic from the traveling pitchman selling from a horse and buggy.

CNN.com published an article recently that described what it deemed the “biggest rip-offs” in today’s society. We thought it relevant because knowing how some of these products are sold may encourage you to quit buying, using or subscribing to them and in the process, start saving more money to pay down debt or keep rebuilding after bankruptcy.…

Try as we might to understand some the esoteric banking principles that contributed to the recession or give the industry any benefit of the doubt, the folks on Wall Street just keep giving us reasons to believe they are, and will forever be, drastically out of touch with the way the rest of America lives.

Last year, CitiBank, one the nation’s major banking services players, announced a plan to provide customers with a truly free checking account, provided some account usage stipulations were met, in an effort to attract new accounts and to do their part in helping us stave off the effects of the recession.…

So the impact of your bankruptcy is settling in. You have mixed emotions but underneath, feel confident that it was the right thing to do. The phone has stopped ringing, the mailbox delivers good news (for the most part) and best of all, you can sleep again.

Now that it’s time to get back on track, saving money should be a top priority. And one way to do that is by examining what it takes for you to keep a roof over your head every month, even if you managed to avoid foreclosure. Today, thanks to the real estate crisis which saw developers nationwide building new home homes and apartment communities on every plot of improvable land, it is a buyer’s market.…