What the Average American Consumes

NPR's Planet Money program used data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to break down what the average American buys. The data was part of CPI Detailed Report for December 2011. The figure below is from this report (it can be found on the below link) and it details up to approximately 93% of what Americans use their incomes for. From what I can discern, this is after taxes disposable income. Keep in mind also, this is just average, it won't necessarily be what you spend.

Here's a few big expenditures:

Rent/Mortgages: 31.5%
Groceries: 8.6%
Food at Restaurants, delis, etc: 5.7%
Cars (new & used): 5.7%
Doctors, Dentists, etc: 3%

Some interesting ones:

TV, Music, Cable, etc: 1.9%
Movies, concerts, gym, etc: 1.7%
Books, Magazines, Newspapers: 0.2%
Pets and their associated goods: 1.1%
Shoes: 0.7%
Women's Clothing: 1.5%
Men's Clothing: 0.8%



Note: I find it rather interesting first of all that Americans spend significantly more on shoes than on all books, magazines, and newspapers. Furthermore, this gives a bit more notice to how there is a significant shift in America from the old form of physical media to more electronic media (music, TV, etc).

Also, as can be expected, women spend far more on clothes than men, almost twice as much in fact.

Many commenters on the article noted that healthcare should be far higher. I assumed it would be, but then I realized the aspect of averages (youth tend to spend less on healthcare than older generations), and thus this being the case, possibly that is a "low-researched" answer.

Comparing 1949 to 2011: 

American's spend far less on food today as they did 62 years ago, almost 25% less in fact. There has almost been a complete switch in expenditure in housing expenses and food during this period as well. Transportation has risen, along with health care, but notably, apparel has decreased significantly ( maybe higher quantities of low cost clothes [Old Navy]?).


What do you think you spend your money on?

For more visit NPR's Planet Money page:

 http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/04/05/149997097/what-americans-buy