What are your budget priorities?

House payment, car payment, utilities, credit card, food, gasoline. But to start with, 10% of my salary goes straight into my savings. Then the bills.

When we were living really, really, really close to the edge (and sometimes dangling over it), food came first. Before utilities, before house payments, before creditors. It would take a bank much longer to foreclose and kick us out than it would take PG&E to cut off our electricity and gas; and it would take them longer to shut us off than it would take us to get really, really hungry. So if we were down to scrounging through coat pockets and the bottoms of purses looking for change, we bought groceries, with as much nutrition and bulk as we could get per dollar. Or dime.

I promised myself I would never forget what that was like, and decades later, I still haven’t.

1. Rent
2. Bills
3. Food
4. Social

I was homeless for a brief period of time and so my priority would be the mortgage followed by utility bills and then food. Everything else is a luxury but fortunately I can afford some luxuries.

Rent

Electric/Internet

Internet things like my website and Plex server

Food/Beer/Smokes (I put these down here since they can easily be adjusted. I won’t go hungry before paying for my plex server but I will eat more ramen if needed)

Phone

House staff wages, imagine having to serve your own tea…(((shudders)))

Having enough money to retire.

The rest is the typical shelter, food, car, etc. if I have to list the necessities in order I guess it’s food, shelter, internet to do my job, other utilities, transportation.

I also like to be able to pay for some entertainment and travel, but it’s secondary to the basic needs. A long weekend or a concert. I do these things fairly inexpensively.

Mortgage
Utilities
Insurance
Food
Gas/oil changes etc..
Phone/internet
Retirement & emergency savings

Not like any of that is really optional though.

On a regular basis, events with friends or family or trips.
At this time of year, Christmas gifts.

You know, I find it pretty hard to believe that everybody would go hungry to pay the rent. I wonder if you’ve ever actually done that.

^^That’s why food is first on my list, assuming I can get free water, or water is included with food.

@Jeruba I would cut down my food bills and even go hungry rather than risk losing the roof over my head. As it stands my number one priority is the mortgage though if I were starving I’m sure my priority would be food.

@Jeruba :: Food is low on my list since if I was unable to pay rent I would get food stamps.

Free food is easy to come by. I noticed like 10 squirrels and a bunch of doves in my yard today. I also have a big fig tree and a large garden still producing. I have several months of food stored. That puts it further down the list.