The Spending Habits of the Average American
Published on - July 14th, 2009 (Modified on - December 1st, 2011) (by J.D. Roth) Last week, Diane dropped a line asking for information about the spending habits of the average American. She wrote:
I am trying to find sites that will provide average spending habits — such as how much an average person spends on food per week or how much a family spends on entertainment, that sort of thing. I am hoping to see where my habits line up with someone of similar means in the same part of the country.
I’m not sure of how to obtain regional information, but I know where to find national figures for comparison. Last week, a site called Visual Economics posted a chart showing where the average U.S. consumer spends her money. Here’s the chart in question, which has been making the rounds of the internet:
Click to open at full size in a new window.
Because I’m a skeptic by nature, I tracked down the source material used to create this chart. The data is drawn from the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey for 2007. Most writers seem to be missing this point (probably because the chart itself has a date of April 2009), but it’s an important one. This chart represents consumer behavior before the market meltdown — not after. (Here’s the source data [297k PDF].)
Some of the interesting bits from this survey:
- The average “consumer unit” surveyed had 2.5 people, of which 1.3 were wage-earners. This consumer unit earned $63,091 and had 1.9 vehicles. Exactly two-thirds owned their homes.
- This average consumer unit spent $49,648 in 2007.
- Average food spending was $6133, of which $3465 was spent on meals at home. Based on this data, one can conclude that the average consumer unit spends roughly $300 per month on meals prepared at home and roughly $225 per month on meals away from home.
- Average spending for housing was $16,920 for the year, which was way up from the $15,167 average for 2005. That’s an 11.6% increase in housing costs over just two years! Can you say “housing bubble”?
- I was surprised by the transportation costs. The average consumer unit spent $8758 on transportation, or about $725 per month. Holy cats! That’s insane. The average household could save big bucks quickly by optimizing their transportation costs.
Several readers asked for my opinion about this chart, including Sarah M., who wrote via Twitter: “I’d love to see your thoughts comparing the average annual consumer’s spending breakdown to what it should be!”
I don’t think it’s possible to say what the average consumer’s spending should be. There are too many variables. What works for me may not work for you. Each year, the average American spends $1881 on “apparel and services”, for example, but only $118 on books. My spending for these categories is nearly the opposite. In 2007, I spent $702.73 on books and $425.94 on clothing.
I actually think the source data [297k PDF] could be a great basis for a budget. I always have trouble deciding which categories to track in Quicken. If I opted to use the same category structure that the government uses when tracking consumer spending, I could easily compare my habits with the “average” American. (Too bad the government doesn’t track spending on comic books!)
Also, I’m puzzled as to why taxes aren’t included in this information at all. The chart doesn’t include taxes because the government survey doesn’t include taxes. If the average consumer unit earns $63,091 but spends $49,648, there are $13,443 unaccounted for. The personal saving rate in 2007 was less than 1%, so I’m guessing that most of the unspecified money goes to taxes.
Finally, I should note that last year we took a glimpse at the spending of the average American as revealed by The New York Times and the Consumer Price Index.
In my recent reader survey, there were many requests for more content aimed at non-U.S. readers. It’s unlikely I’ll devote entire articles to foreign issues, but when possible — such as today — I’ll try to find resources to help you do your own research. Here are similar surveys in other countries:
- Statistics Canada: Spending Patterns in Canada
- Australian Bureau of Statistics: Household Expenditure Survey, Australia
- U.K. National Statistics: Family Spending, Expenditure and Food Survey
How do your spending habits compare to those of the “average” American? I’m especially curious to hear how much GRS readers spend on books. The average of $118 per year doesn’t buy a lot of reading material. On the other hand, maybe people are using their public libraries! (One can dream, right?)
Lastly be aware of your spending habits that will help you be on your toe before taking any financial decision just by checking your credit report.More info how to get a free credit report?
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Mint offers the ability to compare your spending habits to people in a certain location. So you could see how your spending stacks up against others in your area, or a different city if you’re thinking of moving.
I’ve never used it, because I’m not worried about what everyone else is spending, only what I’m spending.
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I’m one of the people skewing the “reading” costs downwards… I read non-stop as a kid/teen, devouring several books a week, every week, all year. I used the library a lot, but also bought a lot of paperbacks… I had hundreds by the time I left for college. But then I completely stopped reading for fun. I might buy 2-3 books a year now, always nonfiction. My appetite for reading stories and learning new things is generally sated by browsing the web (I read a lot of news), which is easier to “put down” or enjoy in small chunks than a book (which will make me quite anti-social for the day or so it takes me to read it!).
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$448.76 from June 2008 – June 2009 AND we use the library heavily. To be honest, I know I spent more than that, because I also ordered from Amazon and half.com, and wasn’t in the habit of always breaking out things I paid with my Discover (cash back) card.
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I read a lot of books, but my spending is pretty low. I use the library and buy at used book sales or thrift stores. I go to a large used book sale semi-annually and spend about $30, at 50 cents a book.
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The numbers presented are the AVERAGE and are NOT what typical people spend. The average will be skewed high by the high income people. To get a better idea of what people spend look at the full report and dig into the income quintiles. So if you want to know what middle class people spend look at the 3rd (middle) quintile. Spending for the middle is 10-20% less than the average figures. e.g. the middle spends about $7900 on transportation while the average spends about $8700.
The consumer expenditure survey DOES track spending on taxes, pets, interest and vacations. That data is available on the BLS site, but just not presented explicitly in this chart. e.g. average property taxes were $1709 and federal income taxes were $1569 in 2007. Or for middle 20% they were $1255 in property taxes and $598 in federal taxes.
Pets are a subcategory of entertainment.
Interest payments for homes is part of housing, interest on cars is part of transportation and the miscellaneous category includes other finance charges.
Trips/vacations is harder to see. I think its mixed in with the other categories mostly. Food is in eating out. Airline tickets are part of public transportation. But they do have data on the actual amount spent on trips also, I see reference to it as a separate category in the CES anthology for 2008.
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$13,000 or so in taxes is probably about right for the income and family size stated.
Books? I used to spend a lot on technical books, but since I reviewed so many I now get them free from publishers. Our family also trades books back and forth, so my costs for a large amount of reading are pretty low.
Whatever I do buy, I buy used if it’s at all possible.
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I spent $100 on books in 2008. That’s less than the “average” but I’m pretty sure I read more than the average person. I use the library and trade books on http://www.bookmooch.com where books end up costing me about $2.40 each.
I’m horrified, but not really surprised to see that I spend as much on food for myself as a whole family. Still working on how to cook for one.
The chart doesn’t include vacations. My budget rolls vacations (including little weekends away) into leisure and I find I spend about 2x what the average unit does.
I spend much less on transportation. Gas is about 2/3 of what they say. Maintainace costs about 1/3 of what they say (I’m so glad I invested in a reliable car) and my car is paid for.
My income and housing costs are pretty similar to the given unit.
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Wow. I’m amazed how much money people spend. In our two person household, our monthly food budget is $300. That is for meals at home and eating out. Our entertainment budget is $75 a month, less than half what the average household spends.
I think it’s odd that they don’t track savings or taxes. Maybe when they do, they find that people are spending more than they make so they decided to leave the extra $13K as a mystery. I figure about $9,550 would go to Federal and State taxes (7.65% Social Security and Medicare tax, 5% effective rate for federal income tax at that earning level and 2.5% effective rate for state).
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if i had to guess, the $725/month includes the cost of an automobile purchase depreciated over it’s useful life, or the rental cost if it is leased. but that’s just a guess.
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For some categories such as tobacco, people either spend in that category or they don’t. That means instead of an average of 0.7% on tobacco, some people are spending $0 and others are spending $1000. A smoker would like to know how much other smokers spend on smoking, not how much the nation spends on average.
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Mint.com provides the ability to compare your spending with those in various states/cities or to America as a whole. I’m pretty sure the data is only comprised of other Mint users though – not the actual average American.
Still, it’s probably a better pool (and the data is local). Who wants to be compared to the average American – who doesn’t save and has no retirement fund and earns less than $40K a year?
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Think I left this post previously on the wrong site.
What exactly is covered in “household operations” category? Anybody know?
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Wow. Just as much spent on Dining Out (not food, just dining out) as on healthcare. Wow. I need to find better benefits…
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I found the breakdowns by income level, size of family, renter v homeowner, urban v rural, education level, etc., at the end of the source material fascinating.
Books are a great example. Less than a high school education — $40 on books. Masters or above — $260 on books.
I probably spend around $500/year on books and magazines (1 subscription plus a handful from the store for trips). Plus I go to the library about once a month and get 3-4 books at a time.
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I used to spend over $200. a year on books. Now I belong to paperbackswap.com and get all my books from there for just the cost of shipping my old unwanted books to others. I have a huge library of books now and usually get whatever book I want by adding it to my wish list.
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I spend a fortune on childcare—right up there with the mortgage, but my transportation and housing costs are very low because of where I live.
I also spend lots on books (for me and the kids), and at least $1000/yr on my gardening obsession (not veggies–I’m landscaping my yard myself and I looove flowers and bulbs).
I spend about $1000/yr on skincare products, which I’m embarrassed about. But Oil of Olay doesn’t do it anymore at my age!
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I agree with Kristin (#57). It is hard to get a handle on these data, since they don’t come out and say if this is pretax dollars, then what are the taxes, the health insurance, the contributions to retirement. Why are not payments for health insurance not included in medical costs? For example I can’t even tell from this graphic whether the average American spends more than they earn. It’s also difficult because some of the categories are not how I would intuitively group. Simple questions: is a vacumn cleaner in household maintenance or miscellaneous? Is the cost of a vehicle prorated over it’s lifespan or only counted when it is being paid off? As other mention the small categories are not true averages because they often all or nothing. The only thing I can tell is that that our household spends significantly less on housing, and significantly more on food/eating out. Is that good or bad? I don’t know.
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I used to spend a ton on books, one of my favorite pastimes, but during our 2007 debt paydown project I weaned myself off of Amazon and now get most of my books from my local library. I still buy a few books from Amazon and if I’m in a Target or K-Mart (which is rare) I generally end up leaving with a book.
I hit the library just about every week and pick a couple of books and always keep book lists in my purse to help me find titles (NYT times best books from 2008, best books of all times, best books from the 20th century, etc.)
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The chart states that the income is before taxes. I assumed that 401K contributions and health insurance was captured in the insurance/pension category.
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I am not really amazed at how much the “average” family spends per month eating out, but it reinforces why our family of three eats at home as much as possible. We live on one income and spend about $300 a month on food that we cook at home, and we are lucky enough that my mother-in law comes over every two to three weeks and gives us $30 so my husband and I can enjoy dinner while she watches our daughter. Other than that, our only meals out are when we are traveling.
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Half of my monthly income of around $800 goes towards rent ($400 for a room). About $100-$150 is spent on food/toiletries a month. $38 for cell phone (it’s the cheapest cell plan, but after taxes, ick!), don’t have a land line. $38 for water (I pay the water, and my roommate pays the electricity & internet). $50 a month for gas (I don’t travel much). Car insurance and renter’s insurance is another $80 a month. $20 a month for my medication. Whatever little is left over, I try to save. Not much left for books/fun/vacation. If I get a little extra from my freelancing that isn’t put back into the business, I usually try to save it in my emergency fund. (As for reading, I usually enjoy reading stuff for free on the internet, and often look for new reading materials, which is how I found this blog!)
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Karen has an interesting point about the skin care
I’d love to see this data broken down by male/female. I guess “consumer unit” means heterosexual marriage, but as a single girl my expenses are probably pretty different than a single guy. (Or at least one that doesn’t wear dresses, make-up or bras).
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Regarding books, to compare 2007 with the first six months of 2009. According to my mostly accurate spreadsheets from ’07 I spent $890 on books (please hold one moment while I kick myself). In ’09, thru six months, that amount is $124. Part of this drop is, I’m too damn busy. Three babies, full time job, two additional rental units and aspirations of a writing career. The other part is that I am trying to make a more conscious effort to unplug from media. In reality, I’ve probably replaced my book reading with blog reading. While cheaper, it still doesn’t have the desired affect of tuning out and letting your accumulated knowledge ferment (and hopefully gel).
Take my netbook, please…
Namaste
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Please disregard the income tax figures I gave before. The numbers I cited above on federal income taxes can’t be right. Those numbers are too low. Average effective tax rate for federal is about 12-13% range. I must have misunderstood what the BLS site meant. Maybe the numbers I cited are income from peoples tax returns? I dunno.
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I like some of you also question the accuracy of the data the graphic represents. It’s still a pretty cool graphic and it’s useful to see what the average American spends their money on.
-Gen Y Investor
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I live in Solo, Indonesia.
Unfortunately there is no public library here.
There are places to rent books, but they mostly carry magazines and comic books. You can rent one comic book for 10-20 cents per day.
I spent around US300 in the last 12 months to buy personal development, personal finance books.
One of my goal is to set up something like a public library here where people can read more quality books…does anyone has an idea how to do this?
Learn and grow!
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Hey! I love my public library.
It’s easy to when you don’t have any space for purchased books.
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My spending doesn’t really jive with the chart, but that’s because I don’t necessarily have ‘average’ priorities. My housing costs are only about 17% of my net income. I have a car payment that’s over $700/month, and that doesn’t even include gas or insurance. Up until moving last week, I had a $150/month bill for bridge tolls just driving to work. Total transportation costs for my wife and I are easily over $1000/month. I haven’t been keeping very close track of categorical spending lately, but I’d imagine we spend more on food than average (we go out to relatively expensive restaurants fairly often), and more on travel, but probably less on “entertainment” (it seems to not include eating out nor travel) or clothing.
It’s a lot easier to splurge on things like eating out when you’re content to live in a one-bedroom house for half the price that other people are paying for bigger places. We live in a fantastic location — we’re one block from the beach in a California beach/college town. That matters a lot more to me than buying a den, or an extra bedroom, or a room dedicated to a television, so we forgo those things and save on housing costs.
I spend nearly nothing on books. I probably buy a couple novels a year, and almost no non-fiction. Almost all of that reading (and it is a *lot* of reading) has moved online. For many subjects it’s a lot easier to find up-to-date “how to” type information online than it is to go to a bookstore, and I read a lot of this.
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$118 in books? Not me, I might end up spending $1000 over the next 12 months, that amount doesn’t include my books for college classes
It’s amazing how much time there is too read when there is no TV around.
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Hmm very interesting! I’d love to know how that’s changed now.
Regarding the non-US articles, I wouldn’t ever expect you to write those, they’re not your area of expertise. But a lot of your advice regarding IRAs, insurance, bank accounts is purely US centric, so I’d like to see more *general* information, or have it spelled out that they are based on US details to remind us. And if you could point us towards finding non-US blogs that have similar information to yours that would be brilliant too.
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They don’t display taxes for the same reason taxes are deducted from your paycheck. If you could easily see how much you were paying the government, even our dumbest citizens might figure out they are being robbed.
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One way I have been able to reduce my amount of frivolous spending is by getting rid of my ATM card. I wrote a post about this and am in the middle of an experiment to see how much money I can save by not carrying it around.
There have been numerous times where I wanted to buy a cup of coffee or get a bite to eat while I was on my way to work (even though I brought a lunch with me and my employer offers free coffee). I am just ‘weening’ myself off the card now, as I don’t feel the urge to spend anymore.
I can’t wait to find out how much I have saved after a month has gone by. I am three weeks into it now and already saved over $100.
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My car runs me about $3000 a year, not counting the actual cost of the car, which at this point averages out to a little over $900 per year. When the car was newer, I spent more on insurance and less on repairs, but as I recall it was about the same overall. It’s more than I spend on vacation or groceries, less than on utilities or recreation. I really don’t spend much on books, because I already have so many (and I use the library).
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It’s not too difficult to see why average transportation costs were about $8750. I think most people are only thinking about gas and repairs. But the graph actually breaks down the cost into 3 parts: gas/oil – $2384; expenses/other transportation – $3130; vehicle purchases – $3244. The graph also indicates the average family had 2 cars.
So the fact that yearly depreciation on 2 cars is $3244 is actually quite reasonable. Or if you find the depreciation concept too abstract, then just consider that if (for example) the “average family” buys a new vehicle for $15K and hangs onto it for 10 years before junking it, then you get roughly the same numbers with a large sample size. (i.e. every 5 years the average family purchases a new car for $15K, so the average outlay across families per year would be $3K)
I would guess $500 – $750 per vehicle in repairs is about normal, so that leaves an extra $1500 to $2000 unaccounted for in other transportation expenses. Airline tickets for the whole family once or twice per year will take a good chunk of that, plus keep in mind that a lot of people have significant parking and/or public transportation expenses. Here in the Northeast Corridor, spending $100/month on parking for your job is not at all unreasonable, or if you prefer not to park downtown you can take public transit, but that will cost you roughly the same.
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Since you’re asking…
I just started budgeting so I can’t look back and get an actual annual amount spent on books. But I’m guessing it’d be $800-$1200 for our 2.0 person consumer unit.
Looking forward to reading all the comments more closely. Since I’m just starting to budget (to see where all the money goes…because it sure goes) I always like to hear what others allocate.
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Information like this I always take with a grain of salt. My reasoning is that one never knows the accuracy of the data collected. The main question I have is how accurate were the spending figures given by the sample polulation polled.
If the majority of the population keep accurate records of their expenditure and the minority go from their perception of spending then the data is better than vice versa.
As shown by the diversity of expenditure figures in different categories given by previous commenters, the value of a chart like this is that it’s a great conversation starter.
Cheers
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I spend significantly less on transportation, insurance, and healthcare (even paying out of pocket and with medication I take forever). However, I spent quite a bit more on alcohol, food away from home, books, and education.
Of course, I’m also a young person, single, and a student.
My housing costs are right on, though, because I own. Seems smart when you’re young, but it’s really not.
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Rob Gerlsbeck just posted on Canadian figures (probably after seeing this post):
http://blog.moneysense.ca/rob-gerlsbeck/where-your-money-went/
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There have been a number of grumpy posts about taxes. I don’t begrudge my tax expenditures (well, maybe the part that goes to the war in Irag). In the US we are taxed less than most other countries, and yet we get a lot — transportation costs would be a lot more if we had to pay directly for transportation infrastructure, if there wasn’t Social Security, how much more would we all be spending to support our grandparents, or relatives with disabilities, if it weren’t for taxes, how much more would we be spending to insure ourselves against fire, or to protect ourselves against crime, or… well I could go on but I won’t.
Final note — unless we “get VERY rich slowly” we won’t be affected by the inheritance tax (well, if you’re dead, I’d argue you aren’t affected anyway!) and few of us will be affected by the gift tax, either.
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That is a great chart from Visual Economics. Thanks for sharing!
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Wow. I am impressed by how much the average American donates – 3.7% of spending!
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by the differences. I am a single New Yorker, so I spend a tiny fraction on transport (about $100/month) and waayyy more on alcohol and “personal care.”
Re: books, I use my library a lot, but including gifts for others I easily spend $1,200/year on books.
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Well, my “shelter” category is about double in price – it’s impossible to get away with an $800/mo mortgage or rent where I live. It’s only marginally higher percentage of my gross income, though (21.2).
I’ve only been tracking my spending accurately for a few months, but at the current rate I’m going, I expect to have spent about 60% of my income in these categories (compared to the chart’s 79%). I hope to either invest the rest or set it aside to purchase a home…
which brings me to a question I have that for you, JD. How does something like purchasing a home fit in with a savings plan? What are the different opinions on this–yours, the experts, the readers?
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I am in CA where the cost of living is high with housing, gas, food, etc. I pay so much in taxes that I can’t afford splurges on any books, eating out, or even fancy meals at home. It is back to the basics here as we are crushed with taxes. My household doesn’t look anything like this wheel.
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I spend more in some categories and less in others. For instance, I have spent about $750 on my daughter’s clothing so far this year. Could I spend less? Yes. Do I want to? No. I can afford to do so and enjoy putting her in cute clothes. Total amount of money I spent on my own clothing: $50. I spend about $40 a year on newspaper subscription but I get all my books from the library so no expenditures there.
Our mortgage is much higher than the average american’s but we also live in a higher cost of living area. Our total earnings before taxes is at least 3 times higher than the average so it is understandable that some of our expenditures are higher.
I am just surprised that some of the things are lower such as we spend less on healthcare, housekeeping supplies, and education.
We don’t purchase alcohol or tobacco, either.
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Inge – For starting a library, why not start with a kind of book exchange or co-op? A gas station in one of the small towns I drove through had one bookcase of used books for sale and another set-up as a book exchange (take a book, leave another). For the co-op, people could contribute books or cash and collectively decide what types of books to purchase. It would get readers involved from the beginning and you’d have a group to help manage it. Members could exchange books for free, non-members could rent books. If it was successful, you could grow it into a real library.
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The most striking thing for me about the data is that if you take 25% of the gross salary out for taxes (I don’t know what the tax brackets are, and I’ll grant you that the family may reduce their tax liability through retirement contributions etc.), then the post-tax income is $47,318. So if the average family was spending $49,638 then the average family was OVERSPENDING its income by $2,320 PER YEAR. As many people have noted these numbers may not be entirely reliable, but since neither “pets” nor “childcare” appear as line items, I wouldn’t be surprised if the average family was indeed overspending.
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These are of course averages, but if you look at just two expenses, housing and transportation, combined they account for 51.7% of the total. That may explain why we sometimes feel poor, so much is going to pay for what we think of as “basics”.
The healthcare portion looks out of whack. $2853 is only about 4% of total income, yet on a national level, we’re spending about 16%. Who’s paying for the difference???
It’s not in Insurance/Pensions, because nearly all of that is subclassified as social security and pensions, and not insurance. Is it possible that far more people are uninsured than we think?
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I’m French and live in Canada right now, so it’s probably not surprising that my habits are so different from the average American (plus, readers of this blog aren’t “average Americans” anyways)
First, transportation and apparel. I don’t own a car, neither does my husband (neither of us even have a license) and walk as much as is possible (whenever it takes 30 minutes or less to walk somewhere, and occasionally when it takes longer).
We don’t even have bus passes because even that would cost more than paying for individual tickets. Our average monthly expense for transportation is probably 10-20 dollars.
Apparel now. I just got new shoes. Running shoes, that is. My previous running shoes were bought in 2003, and I would have kept them if I hadn’t moved from France had had to leave a lot behind. (To be fair, they were really falling apart. I glued the sole back on a few times).
I own three pairs: a pair of running shoes, a pair of winter boots (Canada…) and a pair of sandals.
Shoes usually last me between two (sandals) and five (running) years (I don’t know for the winter boots. I only used them for one winter, so they’re good as new, really. They might last ten years or more).
I own two pairs of pants, both more than five year old.
And I could go on.
In other words, my apparel expenses aren’t really measurable in a monthly way, more of a yearly way. And even then, I don’t buy clothes every year.
However, I do spend money on graphic novels and videogames pretty much ever month. I do buy many books, even if I try to borrow them from the library as much as possible. My “entertainment” category, although smaller than the average American, is definitely bigger than transport or apparel.
Electronics would also be a “big” one. I do own a mp3 player, a laptop, and just bought a (refurbished) desktop. I also own several consoles, although I’ve never replaced any of them so they’re a one-time expense.
My TV in France was older than me (to be fair, I’m only 24), and we’re being given one here so no expense there either.
I could go on but I’ve been long enough as it is. I’ll just add that I have no insurance whatsoever. Of course, I’m French and live in Canada, both countries having universal health care. I don’t have a car. I don’t own a house. I’m young, without dependents and therefore have no death insurance yet. In my case, it makes sense, I think.
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As a Reply to #44, the Department of Labor’s interviewers do not skew results of interviews. When you deal with hundreds of thousands of data points, there will be some random errors (mainly human) where data got mixed up. In the aggregate, these will not have an impact. It is wrong to assume that there is something sinister going on or that the data is unreliable or tampered with. It’s just random error and I’m sorry that it happened with you, but those things do happen in very large surveys
JH
US Gov’t Economist
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Jericho Hill (#99)–You’re probaly right about this. The seeming “weirdness” of some of the numbers have more to do with taking very large aggregate numbers then trying to fit those numbers into a fixed number of households. That’s bound to create some numbers that just don’t look right, but manipulation isn’t likely to be the source.
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