Foo - Poll: What expense(s) do you pay first?

When you sit down to pay your bills, there may be more bills than usual and/or costs may be higher than usual. However, your financial abilities currently make it so that you have to keep a budget and prioritize about which bills you pay immediately and those you put off.

Of the following, which expense(s) do you pay first and why? Please discuss.

1. HOUSING: Rent or mortgage.
2. Food.
3. Medications prescribed by a physician (not illicit drugs of addiction).
4. Electricity.
5. Heat.
6. Transportation.
7. Other.

Order of importance. Always paid on time:

Housing (rent)
Electricity (no gas in my place)
Credit cards (if there is a balance)
Car and home owner insurance
Cable/DSL
phones (cell and landline)
401K contribution
Savings

* * *

Car's paid off
Cards paid off
Never use heat - will use air in the summer
Food I buy what I need and I can afford. I don't go out much
Gas necessary but I do conserve fuel and only drive by car when necessary
medications - only on one - insurance covers most of it
health care - necessary evil but necessary - my employer subsidizes it but I make sure I have it
Gym membership

mortgage, savings, and tv(?) are automated, everything else I pay when it's due.

I have no idea on the order.....I have the bank take care of all that. I develop a new bill, I send it to the bank and they automate it if it's a recurring payment, and if it's a one time thing, I just use Visa.

When you sit down to pay your bills, there may be more bills than usual and/or costs may be higher than usual. However, your financial abilities currently make it so that you have to keep a budget and prioritize about which bills you pay immediately and those you put off.

Of the following, which expense(s) do you pay first and why? Please discuss.

1. HOUSING: Rent or mortgage.
2. Food.
3. Medications prescribed by a physician (not illicit drugs of addiction).
4. Electricity.
5. Heat.
6. Transportation.
7. Other.

1. Superanuation scheme: it comes out with my wage taxes before I even get my net pay.
2. Mortgage: I want to keep having some place to live. paid when I get paid.
3. Utilities/Rates: I like being able to have hot showers and then surf BF. cooking also is good. Usually paid on the day I get paid.
4. Food. I like to eat.
5. Medication: it's only a three monthly bill so I pay it irregularly but before buying groceries.
6. Everything else. What ever is left.

What is this 'budget' that you speak of?

we own our home so no morgage or rent.

food for the month. (including dog and cat food)

utilities, electric, gas, water, and oil in the winter.

all else can wait, like gas for the vehicles, and cable which includes phone and interwebz, and if it came down to it electric, gas, water, and oil could kiss my ass too!

no meds legal or illegal.

1. Housing. You gotta live somewhere.
2. Medication. Keeps your body in good shape.
3. Transportation. Gotta get to work. Could always starve a little or bum food off people. Harder to bum medication or transportation off people every day.
4. Food.
5. Electricity.
6. Heat.

1) Housing comes first (rent in my case)
2) Electricity is my heat, it comes second as losing the food in the fridge or my alarm clock would be an issue.
3) Food. It's hard to be alive without it. If stuff is tight it's a minimal amount, everything is from scratch, less meat.
4) Meds, assuming they are something you need to take opposed to an elective (acne meds or birth control for example)
3 (again)) Assuming the above is paid for, enough food to be happy with what I eat.
5) Heat/AC. I'll keep the place warm enough to prevent the pipes from freezing no matter what, but since it's in my lease that's part of rent in my mind. The choice to turn the heat from 50* up to a more comfortable 65-70* is lower on the list, and melds with the nicer food part.
6) Transportation. The first thing is that I don't believe in taking loans for depreciating assets. As such I don't have, and likely never will have a car loan. Note that I also drive a POS and will do so until the 6 figure student loan gets paid off.
7)Other.

Hmm,
0. I pay myself first. Savings.
1. Fixed amount set aside for health care. Insurance plus pre-tax health savings account.
2. Fixed amount set aside for food. Starvation is unhealthy, costly in the long run, and makes it hard to ride.
3. All other bills are paid as they are due. (from essentials like utilities, to discretionary like Netflix, cell phones and Internet)
4. Fixed amount for pocket money.
5. Any extra goes against debt reduction (e.g. extra mortgage payment)

When you sit down to pay your bills, there may be more bills than usual and/or costs may be higher than usual. However, your financial abilities currently make it so that you have to keep a budget and prioritize about which bills you pay immediately and those you put off.

Of the following, which expense(s) do you pay first and why? Please discuss.

1. HOUSING: Rent or mortgage.
2. Food.
3. Medications prescribed by a physician (not illicit drugs of addiction).
4. Electricity.
5. Heat.
6. Transportation.
7. Other.

Food first because you can't survive without it.
Housing second because you need a shelter.
Heat third because it's cold out there.
Electricity forth because most heating systems won't work without it and you need a refrigerator.
Transportation fifth but a what kind? The bike is the cheapest.
All others last.

#1: Loan shark


Everything else really isn't that important.

Charity is the first check, helps put my priorities straight.

Charity is the first check, helps put my priorities straight.

I applaud you for this.

I pay me first, then my bills. Boring, but it works.

1st -Tractor
2nd - Rental properties mortages
3rd - any credit cards
4th - cell & landline phones
5th - electric
6th - trash

(auto insurance, internet are automatic)

no home mortage, car loan, water/sewage or heat bill (free gas). I don't look at food as a "bill" - it's a pay as you go item.

Then there are the occassional bills: IRS Quarterly, State Quarterly, life insurance, home insurance, property taxes. Pay these (except IRS) when they come in.... pay IRS/State quarterlies when I have spare $$, and even then someone has to hold my hand down to push the "send" button.

#1: Loan shark


Everything else really isn't that important.


that's so true. i can't believe no one else gets a bill from the mob for protection.

I pay everything the second I get it.

I pay everything the second I get it.Me too. Well, maybe not the second I get it but within a day or two.

Food first because you can't survive without it.
Housing second because you need a shelter.

I put housing ahead of food. You don't pay your rent/mortgage and you'll get booted to the curb, but you can always find ways to get free food. (I spent 6 months homeless; trust me, there's more free food out there than you'd believe.)

I don't quite understand the question, although everyone else apparently does.

We pay all our bills on time, so the "order" is simply the order they are due each month. Some bills are paid automatically, whereas others are paid as the statements come in the mail/email.

Guido gets paid first. After my legs are safe, then the utilities and groceries.

All bills are paid around the time they come in. I do make sure the mortgage goes on payday.

Cycling expenses don't even make the list? Y'all are weirdos.

Cycling expenses don't even make the list? Y'all are weirdos.

My bike needs little maintenance if at all :) (I'd buy a new bike but photography equipment is higher on my "need" list right now).

My typical list of priorities is as follows:
1)Rent
2) Haagendaazs :D

If you are not paying yourself first you are wrong...(IMO). When you start work on Monday the US GOV wants your income from Mon-Tuesday. The state depending upon where you live wants Wed AM. Most of us live off the income we derive from Wed PM through Friday. If you take out money Pretax and have it automatically withdrawn you are paying yourself first.

You should always be the first bill on your list. F the rest of them.

I put housing ahead of food. You don't pay your rent/mortgage and you'll get booted to the curb, but you can always find ways to get free food. (I spent 6 months homeless; trust me, there's more free food out there than you'd believe.)

Your absolutely correct, I change my mine to reflect what you've said.

I don't quite understand the question, although everyone else apparently does.
We pay all our bills on time, so the "order" is simply the order they are due each month. Some bills are paid automatically, whereas others are paid as the statements come in the mail/email.
I pay mine on time too. I think the question was more of "If you had a situation where you couldn't pay them all, what would you do?" I know I went through some time in college where it was pretty clear that in order to not take out more loans my expenses were going to come very close to overrunning my savings. I ended up going through a similar thought sequence to avoid getting in over my head.

Believe it or not, there are some bills that if you were in a extreme financial situation like a loss of job that you would not pay. Any bill that is unsecured like credit cards you would stop paying right away. Car loans if you have other means of getting to work you would stop paying or sell the car and buy a cheap run around car. And cheap cars that run good are out there, I bought my daughter a 85 Saab conv with 98k miles 3 years ago and it's runs perfectly for only $3,200. School loans would you stop paying. And pay only those that you need to have in order to survive like a house, utilities and food. For a lot of people, not paying on inessential bills would free up at least a $1000 a month. Sure your credit will be screwed but it was going to be screwed anyways! So don't bother paying the nonessentials. Fortunately for me I have no debt, I buy with cash or not at all, I do have a doctor bill but I pay payments because it's interest and fee free.

Where people lose their homes is when they lose a job and continue to try to pay all their bills thinking their going to find a job, and in the process of trying to find a job they discover it's taking a lot longer then they thought and money has run out, and now they don't have money to pay anything.

1. HOUSING: Rent or mortgage. (paid for, so does not apply)
2. Food. (we raise most of our food - so really, doesn't apply, for us, food is luxury -we own about 850 tasty critters - most of our veggies come from the companies experimental organic garden, which is cared for by a worker)
3. Medications prescribed by a physician (not illicit drugs of addiction). (not on any - we are disgustingly healthy)
4. Electricity. (paid for by our company - about 100 dollars a month, home office)
5. Heat. (you got to be kidding, we live in the tropics)
6. Transportation. (company car - completely paid by our company - aside for trips to dinner, we don't drive it, the office is 300 meters away)
7. Other. (not much really - most everything is covered by our company)

Pretty much our entire budget is discretionary.