Between groceries and restaurants, Americans are spending more of their income on food than they have in 30 years.
That’s according to the latest data from the USDA, which shows that U.S. consumers spent more than 11% of their disposable income on eating — whether at home or at a restaurant — in 2022, the highest percentage since 1991.
“This is really a metric that’s about the share of our disposable personal income which the USDA tracks, and which recently was at essentially a 31-year high,” Jesse Newman, food reporter for the Wall Street Journal, told CBS News.
Experts say painfully high food prices, and ongoing inflation more generally, help explain why many Americans are down on the economy despite low unemployment, rising wages and steady economic growth. Inflation is expected to continue slowing this year, with the National Association for Business Economists on Monday forecasting that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) — a basket of common goods and services — will decline to an annual rate of 2.4% this year, compared with 4.1% in 2023 and 8% in 2022.
I’m not rich but I do pretty well, and I honestly cannot understand how the vast majority of people can afford to eat dinner. We try to eat mostly fresh, home cooked foods and it costs a fucking fortune.
You should try eating shitty ultra-processed foods instead. They’re much cheaper.*
*“Cheaper” only refers to cost of food and does not in any way refer to increased health-care costs related to poor diet.
My experience has been the exact opposite…the processed stuff in boxes has gone way up in price, but most of our produce has stayed pretty stable. Fresh berries have gotten a lot more expensive, but we just get frozen ones which are much cheaper. Seems like we’re always able to find great deals on melons, oranges, avocados, carrots, zucchini, etc. All hail HEB
It probably depends on where you live. Our groceries got cheaper this year compared to last, so that’s cool.
Yes but “cheaper this year” is still absurdly high compared to before the pandemic and we never got any increase in wages during that time.