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.