We reported yesterday that NJ Housewife Teresa Guidice and her husband were declaring bankruptcy after digging a whopping $11 million dollar hole for themselves. A lot of you were outraged that it would be so easy for the Guidices to discharge their debts, and that they would be able to keep the designer goods they squandered a fortune on. Well Teresa has an answer for you, and it’s all about how her husband’s real estate investments failed and not about the way she spent them into the ground. She calls bankruptcy a “fresh start.” People Magazine gently points out that Teresa was regularly seen on the show flashing money around and buying a ton of furniture and luxury goods. While some of you claim those moments were staged, it’s clear she was living way beyond her means:

“While this is a personal matter, I realize that certain aspects of my private life will always be subject to scrutiny and distortion,” Giudice says in an exclusive statement to PEOPLE. “What is true is that due to the economy, most of my husband’s real estate ventures failed despite his hard work and effort. As a result, we looked to the Bankruptcy Court for a ‘fresh start.’”

Indeed court papers filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Newark, N.J., show that Giudice, 38, and her husband filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which requires liquidation of assets in order to pay creditors, in October of last year.
Papers also show that the couple had to undergo credit counseling, and were awarded a temporary stay on payments for their Cadillac Escalade and mortgage payments for properties.

In the documents filed, the pair declared their personal assets, which include real property and personal property, as $2,261,150. But their liabilities — $8,709,831.34 — far exceeded that number.

In addition, the couple had to assess their monthly income. Combining Joe’s salary as owner of G&G Stucco and Stone Specialist in Clifton, N.J., with Teresa’s income from Bravo and “monthly assistance from family members,” that number totaled $16,583.33. Their expenditures, including their mortgage, food, clothing, dry cleaning, health insurance and other expenses, total $16,582.

The couple owes more than $33,000 on various store credit cards, $85,000 for home repairs and $91,000 for materials used to build their new home.

During the first season of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, Giudice, who famously flipped a table on the show, and her family moved into their $1.7 million mansion in Towaco, N.J. The reality star, who was often filmed treating her daughters to new clothing and expensive toys, was also depicted flashing stacks of cash while furnishing the house. And in a recent episode on the second season, she boasted of spending significant funds on her daughter Gia‘s spa birthday party.

“When people fall, the way to success is to get up and learn from our mistakes,” Giudice says. “We are in that process.”

[From People]

How can you share your life on a reality show and suddenly declare that bankruptcy is a “personal matter”? If you open yourself up to the world, you open up the bad parts too. This woman isn’t going to change. She’ll keep spending to fill some need in her life and trying to get other people to bail her out. She wants to live a gaudy, extravagant lifestyle without dealing with the consequences for living beyond her means.