<prompt> Human: My original post can be found HEREFirst of all, thank you all for the advice. Its been incredible and the outpouring of support and encouragement has been unexpected and welcome. Im sorry if my responses have been few and far between but my inbox was inundated with messages and between work and the kids, its been next to impossible to stay on top of it all. I promise I read everything though. In fact, the wife and I made lists of the suggestions and had some serious discussions about what things we could implement and how... and realized were at a breaking point. We spoke to our credit union about debt counseling options like several of you suggested and pulled our credit reports, only to discover that debts from back when we lost our home to foreclosure and were evicted and first became homeless are still haunting us and compiling with the current debt we were already aware of. My wife has been crying a lot since we saw it all spelled out on paper. Aside from winning the lottery, our only option at this point appears to be bankruptcy.Weve always weighed our failures and successes against the theory that Well, at least we didnt file bankruptcy! because after numerous layoffs, a foreclosure, an eviction, a repossession, years of homelessness and dealing with medical debts from having a child with long-term health issues I guess it gave us some kind of misleading silver lining. So needless to say, the realization that we actually NEED to file bankruptcy has been, well, heartbreaking. Especially for my wife. But weve been reading all the inbox messages together and many of you suggested it and shared your own stories about bankruptcy and how it helped you overcome your own negative circumstances. I cant express enough how much that helped us. Thank you for that.So now my request for advice has evolved. How do we start this bankruptcy process? And how can we do it right and affordably? Weve contacted bankruptcy lawyers and so far they all charge around 1,500 and want payment up front... which we will never be able to afford. I found websites that promise discount bankruptcy options, like only to ask about them on rBankruptcy and discover its most likely fraud. Go figure. But thats why I asked before making any moves. Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations though? I dont even know where to start, I just know that the sooner I get the ball rolling the sooner we can get through it. Thank you again. EDIT: A lot of people are questioning my previous statement about the costs of benefits deducted from my paychecks as if I had a reason to pad that number? I dont know!. Im not totally comfortable providing a print-out of my paycheck, but this is a screenshot from ADP Keep in mind that this is just for my paycheck. My wife brings in another 400 net bi-weekly. As Ive explained repeatedly: Because both my wife and I are county employees, Calpers determines how much we contribute out of our pay for retirement. We work for a fairly poor county so the entire required cost falls completely on us. Our employer also offers MEC minimal essential medical coverage per the ACA guidelines, which forces us to use their county-provided insurance... despite it being so damn expensive. Its required. Luckily our children still qualify for Medi-Cal.  <response>: The library has do-it yourself bankruptcy books. Bankruptcies for dummies. I did mine but my debt was considerably less. Other than reading long chapters and dauntless paperwork it was surprisingly easy. 