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 curious what the long term health affects of this are going to be as people are forced to eat less and less. Yes, it may help with obesity, but what about malnutrition? I’m overweight, but I’ve lost a fuck ton of weight in the last year from not being able to afford food and I’m at the point where it’s not uncommon to go a day or 3 without eating. And it’s only going to get worse for me. I just went to the grocery store today and bought food for the first time in a month and some sandwich fixings/bread, a pound of chicken, 2 tomatoes, a container of greens and two small bags of snacks cost over $50. Hopefully I can stretch that for a few weeks.
I’m so sorry for what you’re going through. Check out local food banks - they typically don’t ask questions and you can go to multiple food banks if you need to. Good luck to you.