<prompt> Human: Say for example you have rent, gas, electric, car insurance, phone, and food, but you dont have enough to pay them all. How would you prioritize? Seems like a problem a lot of people in trouble have, but Ive never seen an answer.EDIT: Im not in this situation right now, Im just trying to foster discussion of something that I think a lot of budgeting advice lacks. How do you prioritize necessities?  <response>: Things that could get me sued if I dont pay Things I need that I will lose if I dont pay other necessary bills food everything else. All weighed against how flexible any given place I owe money to is. For example: My shelter payment is a lease. Im contractually obligated to make that payment, theres little to no flexibility, and my landlord would have a good case to take me to court for non-payment. So thats a top priority. Car insurance is necessary if Im going to be driving, from a legal sense; I cant afford to get caught driving without it. My car payment could also land me in hot water, legally speaking and due to it being financed through a bank, non-payment could result in it being re-pod, which means no getting to work to make money. Plus, all of those companies are the least flexible in terms of asking to make a late payment. My cell phone is used for work, and will get shut off if I dont pay within a certain period. My utilities are for the most part necessary, and will get shut off if I dont pay in time. Those all offer a little more flexibility in that I could call, explain my situation, and be given a week or two grace period to get the bill paid. Other bills, like a credit card payment have way more flexibility. I can choose to just make the minimum payment on my credit card if its necessary. Some utilities I can do without, so if they get shut off for a few daysweeks, Ill live. Food is mostly a non-issue. I live close enough to enough friends and family that if I were in that dire of a situation Id be fed. 