This Is What the Average American Spends in a Day (rates, savings)

[Suburban_Guy]

My housing would be higher, as well as overall food costs, but I don't spend much money on other things like clothing, alcohol, charity.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/a...121800618.html

With that in mind, GOBankingRates did some digging to determine how much the average American spends on a daily basis. To do so, it analyzed 2017 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 15 categories covering both essential and discretionary spending. And, it concluded that overall, the average American spends $164.55 a day. On a whole, that amounts to just over $60,000 a year, which is fine for folks who have the ability to spend that much and still contribute steadily to savings. But for those spending down their entire paychecks and racking up debt, it's a very different story.

[Parnassia]

How meaningful will an "average" be for something so complex, locale-driven, and broad reaching? IMHO not very.

[mathjak107]

not worth reading , thats for sure

[Lowexpectations]

The median American doesn’t make 60k gross so there’s that

[wheelsup]

Yearly expenditures / 365...it's irrelevant what someone else does, only what you do. Example we are around $55 each for my wife and I.

And yep I agree using average is bad unless the group measured was fairly homogenous.

[Serious Conversation]

It's very easy to spend way more than that.

Even a 1BR apartment in many areas will run more than what is listed. If you live an urban lifestyle, eat out a lot, socialize, whatever, you may be spending way more than this.

Someone living in a rural area, cooking all their own meals and such is going to be spending way less.

[Threestep2]

This is nothing but "printed matter".

[SWFL_Native]

I save on Dining out, entertainment, Gasoline, charity, education, and alcohol. But my housing is higher as is a few other misc expenses that I have.

All in all I net out to a much lower daily average.

[Quietude]

The correct way to look at this is by aggregate amounts over a month or a year. Daily figures are simply too variable, even for the dullest, most routine-driven and -organized person.

I've had a lot of success presenting personal spending as these aggregate figures - a vanilla example being "only $5 for coffee" multiplied by 300 or so days a year being "only" $1500.

You can divide costs until they're meaningless - just pennies per month for that vinyl roof, you know.

[Gerania]

I have better things to do than figure out how much I spend daily on entertainment. Posting on C-D is one of them.