Would you say monthly bills, are debts?

No, they aren’t debts. They are expenses. They become debts if you don’t pay them off as you accrue them.

No. In fact, @zenvelo said exactly what I was going to say: they aren’t debts, they’re expenses.

I would say it only becomes a “debt”, once you say “I am not paying that right now”, and they send you an overdue notice.
Otherwise, even at the checkout in a store, when the cashier tells you “that will be X €”, it is a debt, even if only for a few seconds.

Short term expenses, at that.

My bills always come after a service is rendered, so, yes, they are debts. If I had to pay up front before a service was acquired, then no.

Let me clarify my response.

I got a car loan to purchase a new car. For the sake of my example, the car cost $40000, and my loan is $30,000.

The $30,000 is a debt – an amount owed to the bank.

When I pay them $350/month, the $350 is an expense that is used to pay off the debt.

Like others said, they’re expenses. They can be converted to debts if they’re not paid or paid using some form of credit or loan.

Every month I pay off my credit cards in full. If I want to get a mortgage, anything I currently owe on the card is viewed as debt, even though it will be paid in full according to my history of always paying in full.

Monthly expenses are a debt in my opinion. At any given time you owe a balance for utilities or cell phone unless you pay off what you owe and stop that expense altogether.

At the same time I say I live debt free when I have no mortgage and no monthly car payment even though I have other expenses.

So, I think context matters.