Does Butter Cost Too Much?

OK, so some food prices are rising. (Have you checked the price of butter lately?) Still, we have nothing to complain about. In the early 1900s, feeding the family required 43 percent of every dollar spent by the average household. Today the figure is just 13 percent, close to the record low of 12 percent reached in 2007--and it includes restaurant spending. If we devoted the same share of our expenditures to food as families did in 1901, then the average household would be spending $21,000 a year on food instead of $6,400.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 100 Years of U.S. Consumer Spending