We are what we eat

Our friends at the research site bundle.com have come up with some nifty numbers on how much is spent each year on food and drink. For the average American household, $3,778 goes for groceries and $2,736 for restaurants and bars. Break that out by city, and the numbers vary a lot. Folks in Austin, Texas spent the most ($12,447) and those in Detroit the least ($2,246). L.A. was at $8,310, which is 21 percent of overall daily spending (national average is 17 percent). Also, a much greater proportion goes for groceries than for dining out. Don't expect much rhyme and reason to the numbers - New Yorkers spent an average of $6,847, while folks in San Jose were at $10,419 (heavy wine drinkers?). Atlanta residents spent a greater percentage on dining out (57 percent) than anywhere else in the country. Who knew?
From bundle.com:

Mom was right. Eating out is a budget-buster. According to our data, the people who are spending the most money on food overall devote more money to dining out. In the ten cities with the biggest food budgets, residents spent more than $465 a month at restaurants on average -- or more than half of their food budget. In the ten cities with the smallest food budgets, people spent less than $150 a month in restaurants (on average), and considerably less of their food budgets overall. And as income rises, people spend more money on restaurants. Yes, wealthier people spend more money on groceries too, but their dining out spending increases faster. On groceries, people who earned more than $125,000 spent twice what people earning between $20,000 and $40,000 did -- and nearly four times what the lower-income group spent in restaurants.

Anyway, here's a monster infographic that lays out the particulars. Have fun.