Budget Question

Yesterday I received a question about the budget cut:

"budget question: do you HAVE to pay the verizon bill in full? do you always pay your bills in full or do you ever suggest stealing from peter to pay paul?"  -ash  

It's a very good question.  This is best answered in two parts. 

1. The Mr. and I believe that not paying in full is only delaying your problem, not answering it.  Making payments for your payments is only causing you to never have any extra money.  If you can't afford to buy it in full, don't buy it.  Obviously cell phone bills are monthly service bills, not things you can pay for in full, but your payments should always be paid for in full.  The last thing you want to do is be drowning in payments for payments that you can't afford when an emergency strikes.  We're basically sitting on land mines, at any moment our nearly 10-year-old cars are going to bust something, not to mention an adventurous toddler and two animals that don't always know what is good for them.  With so many variables out there, we like to know we're not racking up extra payments on top of our fixed payments. This is not to say that we have never done this, it's why we believe so strongly against it.  Too many times we have found ourselves struck with an unintended bill and had to find out how to pay for it on top of our current bills.  It is such a situation of despair that I do not wish upon anyone.

2. There are exceptions.  The " If you can't afford to buy it in full, don't buy it." attitude only extends to those things you actually consciously sit down and agree you can afford (cell phones, cars, furniture, cable, etc.).  The bills that I believe are exceptions are the unintended bills, the emergencies.  Since these emergencies are going to need to be paid for on top of your normal monthly bills, making a payment plan would be ideal if you cannot afford to pay in full at that time.  For example, recently Zoe was sick and we were stuck with a $250 vet bill.  Obviously we do not have $250 extra this month to pay for that.  So we begged and pleaded and finally got the Vet to agree to a payment plan.  It was humiliating and aggravating, but necessary.  Another example would be car maintenance, most of these are unintended, so if you can get the service and make payments, that would be better.  In our opinion, these are the only exceptions to paying in full.  We agree that it would still be best to pay in full, but if you simply cannot, then making payments would be better than starving. 

Hopefully this answers your questions, ash!  Thanks for playing along.  :)

**Notice: I cannot answer what I think is best for everyone, only what The Mr. and I believe is best.