I was paying my bills today when I got to the cell phone bill and remembered that it was the first thing that I started paying for myself. It felt kind of bizarre to be responsible for a monthly payment like that. Before that, outside of one-time payments for things, the parents paid for everything.
So, what monetary exchange was it that made you an adult?
Cable bill? Phone bill? Purchased a car?
Buying my first car was the one that did it for me. It was my first brand new car and I bought it only a month or so after I graduated from college. The down-payment was money I had saved up during my internship.
I remember sitting in the dealership filling out the paper work expecting someone to come in and tell me to get out of there and quit wasting the “grown-up’s” time.
For the first couple of miles after I drove it off the lot I kept glancing in the rearview mirror expecting to see police lights behind me. Thought I would take my car away and tell me to come back “when I was older” or something like that.
Does this mean I can’t play with toys anymore?
When I was 17, I made monthly payments to the bank for my car. ($67.50 a month for my brand new 1976 Vega)
I learned that “I’ll do it later” works well when speaking to mom about homework. However, it doesn’t fly when speaking to the bank. They aren’t nearly as forgiving.
My next “grown-up” bill was apartment rent. What a reality check that was! Knowing that if I didn’t pay, I was O-U-T. That was followed by phone, utilities etc…Sure makes you re-examine your priorities, doesn’t it? Grocery shopping was another eye-opener. It was the mundane, everyday, take for granted kind of things that most impressed upon me a new found respect for my parents.
Mine was my cell bill too.
I was 18 and it was to a department store, Bullocks. What a freaky name.
October 1, 1999, at age 27, I moved into an apartment that was the first place I’d ever lived on my own. Before then I’d always had roommates or a girlfriend living with me; living in that apartment, for the nine months I was there, was one of those experiences that divides your life into “before that” and “after that.”
Oh yeah:
So the check for the security deposit on that apartment is what I was thinking of.
Duh. (And I wonder how my post count got so high.)
I was 17. I had to pay my lawyer to clear up a…misunderstanding…and keep me out of jail. Don’t know as that made me a “grown-up”, though.
Car repairs.
I got the priviledge of upkeep on my mom’s spare car. A POS at that. Some how it was cheaper to keep that car, in her mind, than to have my buy a newer, better quality car that didn’t cost me $4000 in repairs over the three years. Leasing wasn’t invented yet.
I suppose university fees,a nd if I don’t count the first year being spent in a student residence, after that, rent and electricity. Later, of course, our (UK) dealy beloved Poll Tax) 
Celyn fails to grow up properly but by heck the bills do grow!
Contact lenses.
January 1975 - my first apartment. Rent and phone bill. Summer of 76, I got my first new car. The flow to creditors has been pretty constant since then.
I paid for my own dental appointments out of my babysitting money when I was about 14. My dad had dropped me from his insurance because nothing was/is ever wrong with my teeth. The premiums cost more than paying cash for two cleanings a year. While, as an adult, I applaud that choice, I sort of wish he’d remembered to have handed me cash to pay the dentist when I went. I still don’t think it’s the responsibility of a 14-year-old to pay the dentist. And they wouldn’t let me leave without coughing up some cash.
And yes, eventually he did pay me back. Sometimes it took weeks because he’d keep forgetting.
I also had to buy my own contact lenses when I was 16 (and wasn’t allowed to get them any younger).
Then I paid my own tuition to go to college, including dorm fees, meal plans, books and beer, of course.
College tuition, but my first real monthly bill was a car payment. I bought it in 1984 and it was a white '79 Trans Am with T-Tops, low miles. That car was great. I had a lot of fun with it. I paid $6800 if I remember correctly.
I forgot an earlier montly bill - horse board. I couldn’t afford to keep paying with what I was making at the time (I was 16) so I had to sell him after a year. I worked some of that off by helping with lessons, but I couldn’t afford to show after that.
My first grown up bill at the age of 17 was doctor bills. I was pregnant and had to make my own co-payments.
Followed by rent and lights and the phone bill.
Car payment/car insurance. At 20.
Unless you count paying for my college books (the scholarship didn’t cover them.)
My first grown-up bill was my pager bill starting at age 14.
The funny thing is, I’ve had a pager, either personal or business-issued ever since. It’s 2004 and I still have a pager.
My first real purchase? With my own earned real money? I was 17 and it was a microwave. Cost $88 using my best friend’s Circuit City discount. 19 years and I still use it every day.
Next real purchase (after books and fees)? A big brass bed. First thing I bought after college. Now in the guest bedroom.
My mobile phone bill. I had to start paying for my own phone when I moved to Scotland for uni last year. My parents still pay my phone bill at home though. I also had to pay for accomodation. I set everything I need to pay for up on direct debit though. Otherwise, I’d never pay my bills…
I guess I had to fill out a tax form a few years ago because I started trading on the stock market (and lost my whole savings…). That felt kind of grown up I suppose.