Car Bogged Down

I started the car up so that it could warm up so I could go home after work and everything started up fine. But when I was driving home it started to act as if I were moving through sludge. And this happened every time that I started up and finally got going. The engine also had a high and low idle to it every time that I stopped and then got going again. I made it home at last and that's when the problem started. One minute the enginge was running and doing fine and the next everything just died. So I thought okay maybe I could start it up again but that didn't work. The engine turned over and acted like it was going to catch but it didn't. So I was thinking that I may have a plugged or clogged fuel filter. And perhaps it finally clogged up enough that it just won't start up again until I change it out.I'm open to any possibility of it being something that I haven't thought of yet. So if anyone has any idea of what might be going please leave your thoughts. By the way I have a manual transmission 1.0L with about 173.5K miles on it.Thanks.

How old are the plugs, wires, distributor rotor? I'd start by pulling the spark plugs and looking for a clue. While the plugs are out, run a compression test and be sure we don't have a burned valve here.

Take the air cleaner off and look down the TB with a flashlight. Get a buddy to crank the motor over. When cranking you should see a fuel mist. If you don't you may have a fuel pump problem.