Survey Finds 8.7% of U.S. Adults Used Credit Cards for Groceries They Could Not Repay in 2025 as Some Food Prices Fell

A December 2025 survey by the Urban Institute found that 8.7 percent of working-age adults used a credit card for groceries and could not make the minimum payment, up from 7.1 percent in 2023. @zerohedge reported the findings, which also showed that almost one in 10 adults used Buy Now Pay Later services for groceries and that more than one third of those users missed a repayment in the prior year.

Nineteen point six percent of respondents drew on savings not intended for daily expenses to buy groceries, while 5.2 percent used payday loan cash.

Fifty one point three percent said grocery costs rose substantially in the 12 months before the survey. The report noted that food prices overall had increased about 32 percent over five years. Bureau of Labor Statistics data cited in the report showed that only ground beef among tracked staples rose in price between December 2024 and December 2025, advancing from $5.58 to $6.52 per pound.

White bread fell from $1.91 to $1.83, fresh whole chicken from $2.06 to $2.02, a dozen large eggs from $4.15 to $2.71, and a gallon of milk from $4.10 to $4.05. Total U.S. household debt reached $18.77 trillion by the end of 2025, $740 billion above the prior year, according to Federal Reserve Bank of New York figures.

Debt edged up 0.1 percent to $18.8 trillion in the first quarter of 2026. Individual bankruptcy filings increased 12 percent in 2025 from 2024 and rose another 12 percent in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier. Initial unemployment claims stood at 215,000 for the week ending July 4.

GDP grew 2.1 percent in 2025 and again in the first quarter of 2026.