Why do we say "Pay as you go"?

Meaning:

Pay for something as you use it

Background:

This expression appears to have originated in the USA around 1820. If Thomas Jefferson wasn't the one to coin it, he is one of the first recorded to have used it in the context of the government paying for expenditures from current funds rather than borrowing. It was included in Henry George Bohn's collection of proverbs published in 1855.

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