Keeping Track Of How Households Divvy Up Their Yearly Expenditures

People often wonder where all their money went. Happily, some of their tax dollars are devoted to answering that very question. The new Consumer Expenditures Survey from the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics has lots of intriguing (if, at times, appalling) data on how American households spent their money last year.

The biggest chunk went for shelter. Average household spending for housing was $13,918 last year, up 3.6 percent from the prior year. If you guessed that food was the next-biggest expense, guess again: It's transportation, which no doubt explains why gas-price rises cause more angst than milk-price increases. The average household spent $7,801 on transportation, up just 0.3 percent from the previous year. Vehicle purchases took the biggest share of this spending ($3,397). Nearly four times as much went for gasoline/ motor oil ($1,598) as for public transit ($441).

Average spending on food was $5,781, up 8.3 percent from the prior year. Though households still spent more money on food for home consumption ($3,347) than on food eaten elsewhere ($2,434), the latter category grew at a faster clip than the former (10.1 percent vs. 7.0 percent). Despite the supposed shift away from red meat, the average household's at-home expenditure on beef ($265) nearly equalled its combined outlays for poultry ($156) and fish/seafood ($128). Pork accounted for $181. If consumers were abiding by the food pyramid's advice, a typical household would have spent more than $187 for fresh fruits, $183 for fresh vegetables, $110 for processed fruits and $82 for processed vegetables. Elsewhere on the food chain, cereals and bakery products accounted for $461, sugar and other sweets for $128 and fats/oils for $89. A healthy $371 went for dairy products, of which fresh milk and cream accounted for less than half ($144). A typical household washed its food down with $459 worth of alcoholic beverages.

If females aren't better-dressed than males, they aren't getting their money's worth. Of the $1,816 the average household shelled out last year on "apparel and services," women age 16 and over spent $631 and girls 2-15 spent $108; men 16 and older spent $317 and boys 2-15 spent $89. Footwear cost $329 per household. For all the wailing people do about healthcare costs, average household spending in that sector rose last year by a smaller percentage than outlays for entertainment (6.5 percent vs. 7.7 percent). Of the $2,218 total in that latter category, $788 went for television/radios/sound equipment, $528 for fees and admissions and $381 for pets, toys, hobbies and playground equipment.