Constantly surprised by the total when you check out at the supermarket? Grocery shopping is expensive, with the average household spending almost eight percent of its income on groceries. But a new study shows that people on some diets are spending a lot more than others.
To find out the dietary types that are most expensive, the team at CouponBirds worked out the average price of a cart of common groceries at three popular supermarket chains: Kroger, Walmart and Target.
- Then they created those same carts for six common diets: vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, lactose-free, gluten-free and halal.
- They filled the carts with 45 common items with an average cost of $232.17 per week for an unrestricted diet.
- Then they made swaps to accommodate each of the six diet types and compared prices.
- So, what’s the most affordable diet? Vegetarian, with a month’s worth of groceries adding up to just $798.32, compared to $928.68 for an unrestricted diet.
- Those on a vegetarian diet could save an average of $130.36 per month.
- Going gluten-free will have you paying the most, as that monthly grocery bill is $1,039.88, on average. That’s an extra $111.20 per month for all those gluten-free foods.
The cost of household groceries for a week for each dietary type:
- Unrestricted diet - $232.17
- Vegetarian (4% of the U.S. population) - $199.58 (an average of $32.59 savings per week)
- Pescatarian (5% of the U.S. population) - $218.42 (an average of $13.75 savings per week)
- Vegan (1% of the U.S. population) - $223.61 (an average of $8.56 savings per week)
- Halal (less than 1% of the U.S. population) - $241.53 (an average increase of $9.36 per week)
- Lactose-free (36% of U.S. population) - $243.85 (an average increase of $11.68 per week)
- Gluten-free (31% of the U.S. population) - $259.97 (an average increase of $27.80 per week)
Source: Digg
Scott's Thoughts:
- Being a vegetarian never sounded so good!
- What about the donut diet? Is there one of those?
- The healthiest foods always cost the most! That is backwards!