NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – A new report from WalletHub finds that Louisiana and Mississippi are among the states where residents spend the highest percentage of their income on groceries.<\/p>\n
For many shoppers, the rising cost of food is taking a toll.<\/p>\n
\u201cI spend $150 bucks a week just for me,\u201d said Michael Beldon as he loaded groceries into his vehicle.<\/p>\n
Others have also noticed a spike in prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey seem a lot higher than they were a few months ago, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d said Abra Demmon.<\/p>\n
Beldon, who lives on a fixed income, said inflation has forced him to make tough choices.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I\u2019m on Social Security, and it\u2019s killing me. Absolutely killing me. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve had an egg in six months, so it\u2019s nuts\u2014really hurting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
How WalletHub Measured Grocery Costs<\/p>\n
Chip Lupo, a WalletHub writer and analyst, explained the methodology behind the report.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe analyzed the prices of 26 grocery items, and that includes meat, dairy, vegetables, fruits, frozen food, and cleaning products across all 50 states,\u201d Lupo said. \u201cWe totaled the cost of these items and then compared them to the median monthly household income for each state.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to WalletHub\u2019s findings, Mississippi ranks No. 1 among states where residents spend the highest percentage of their income on groceries, averaging 2.64%. Louisiana ranks No. 5, with residents spending an average of 2.39% of their income on food.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe rank these states based on the percentage of income spent on groceries rather than absolute grocery prices,\u201d Lupo said. \u201cSo, states with the highest grocery spending as a percentage of income tend to have lower median incomes\u2014not necessarily higher grocery prices.\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted that Louisiana has a slightly higher median household income than Mississippi, which accounts for the difference in ranking.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that accounts for the difference between No. 1 and No. 5, but the prices are pretty comparable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
How Other States Compare<\/p>\n
Some northern states fared better in the ranking.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got New Jersey and Maryland that are more at the lowest end, and it\u2019s the polar opposite at the top,\u201d Lupo said. \u201cMaryland and New Jersey are very high-income states. So theoretically, even if grocery prices are higher, they\u2019re spending a lower percentage of their income because they have higher earnings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ways to Save on Groceries<\/p>\n
Lupo said there are ways shoppers can reduce their grocery bills.<\/p>\n
\u201cTake advantage of sales, enroll in store loyalty programs\u2014you could get discounts that way. Buy store-brand items,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd if you have to use a credit card for your groceries, use the right card; get a card that\u2019s going to offer you rewards on your groceries.\u201d<\/p>\n
See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Click Here to report it. Please include the headline.<\/p>\n
Subscribe to the Fox 8 YouTube channel.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 WVUE. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – A new report from WalletHub finds that Louisiana and Mississippi are among the states where residents spend the highest percentage of their income on groceries. For many shoppers, the rising cost of food is taking a toll. \u201cI spend $150 bucks a week just for me,\u201d said Michael Beldon as he<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[96,6122,2348,4301,4299,4302,4300,42062,23657],"class_list":["post-57757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-louisiana","tag-consumers","tag-grocery-prices","tag-louisiana","tag-louisiana-dining","tag-louisiana-food","tag-louisiana-grocery-stores","tag-louisiana-restaurants","tag-sabrina-wilson","tag-wallethub"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117476559647302009","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}