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.
My coworker spent $17 on a whopper meal 5 days in a row.
Homie dropped $85 on whoppers this week. Like wtf
$50 would sound whack as fuck.
A nearby hotel currently has a $26 cheeseburger on their menu, and a few $12 drafts. 2 beers and a burger at $50 before tax and tip, looking at like $65.
For $85 here I could make steak for dinner every weeknight. But I was in the same trap as he was for a while.
Yeah Ive been there. But… That was when 2 mcdoubles and a 10 piece nug ran me like $5.
2 mcdoubles and a 10 piece nug today is $13 before tax.
I want you to understand that if he ever complains about money you have the internet’s permission to slap the ever living fuck out of him.
He makes half of what I make (he’s new/young). He has 3 kids. He has a galaxy s24 ultra. He has a PS5.
Me and fellow coworkers keep trying to get him into PC gaming. “I donno I can’t drop that kinda money.”
🤷♂️
I even gave him a $500 build list and told him I’d build it lol.
My slapper is itching
And then the restaurant association goes on the news whining about “nobody wants to eat out any more”.
This isn’t anywhere near that expensive, but there’s a local cafe my daughter likes me to take her to. A chai latte for me and a smoothie and a yogurt parfait for her (our usual) costs $20. And they’re a lot cheaper than plenty of other places offering similar fare.
Dude, $17 gets me a giant plate of local Mexican food and a Modelo. Who tf is spending that at Burger King
Yeah it’s sad but it makes me happy I was always cheap af and never really enjoyed the “premium” stuff like big Mac or whoppers. With the phone app and its deals paired with the cheapest offering most of those places I can still spend like 5-7 bucks and get more than enough crap food for a meal. I am pretty bad myself, but I also have no idea how anyone can enjoy 5 straight days of any fast food. It’s a once a week thing, maybe twice, depending on time and budget. Again I know it’s bad!
I bought chicken pad thai from an Asian cuisine place from the nearby (somehow not dying) mall Wednesday. It was $9.99 & almost a half-gallon of of some of the best pad thai I’ve ever had. So far it’s been 3 meals & I still have enough for one more.
Fuck fast food, they’ve pretty much lost me forever after this open & obvious price gouging. Hope they all die in a fire.
That sounds like a lot, but honestly it’s not much less than groceries these days. A week’s worth for me (one person) at Stop & Shop is $80-120 depending on what I get. If I was getting stuff for a burger, fries, and drink every lunch, it wouldn’t be that far behind. A couple bucks for convenience.
Groceries is a fuck of a lot more than lunch.
Groceries is lunch, dinner, snacks and breakfast. And toilet paper.
Yeah. Roughly $90 a week in groceries gets me 21 meals + snacks… Not 5 meals.