The weekly shop in America: cheap meat, pricey fruit, hard numbers

An inflation rate measures how a price level changes. It tells you whether something has become more expensive. It does not tell you whether it is expensive.

If you are planning to move, the second question is the one that matters. You are not comparing America with last year's America. You are comparing America with your home country, and that comparison works on price levels, not rates of change.

And when it comes to groceries, the price level may be the biggest surprise Europeans get in America. Not because everything costs more, but because the structure is completely different.

Meat, and by a clear margin. Chicken, beef and pork are generally cheaper in the United States than in Germany, and they come in bigger packs.

Processed food, canned goods, frozen food, drinks and anything that is mass-produced and sold in bulk. American retail is built on volume, and that shows up in the price.

Also cheaper: gas, cars, electronics, big-brand clothing, furniture and household appliances. And eating out, measured by what lands on your plate.

Fresh fruit and vegetables out of season and away from where they are grown. Buy berries in Wisconsin in February and you will pay for it.

Dairy of European quality. Standard American cheese is cheap, but a decent alpine cheese costs many times what it does in Germany. The same goes for butter, yogurt without additives and bread worthy of the name.

And the famous exception: bakeries. Coming from Europe, you will spend your first few months standing in front of American bread wondering whether there has been a misunderstanding. Every larger city has excellent bakeries. They cost three to four times what you are used to.

The shelf price is before tax. In America, prices are shown without sales tax, which is added at the register depending on the state and city. In Texas that is a little over eight percent, in California more, and in Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon nothing at all. Many states exempt or reduce tax on groceries, though, which makes comparisons even murkier.

Pack sizes. American stores sell bigger. A price that looks higher per pack is often lower per kilo. Compare in your head and you will get it wrong. Read the unit price and you will see the truth.

Tipping. It is not part of the grocery bill, but it is part of the household budget. Eighteen to twenty-two percent at restaurants is the norm, not the exception, and it is not an optional extra: it is part of your server's pay.

It is your disposable income after taxes, after insurance and after housing. Everything else is noise.

Take a family with two children and a household income equivalent to 120,000 euros gross in Germany. After taxes and social contributions, a known amount is left, and healthcare and education are already covered.

In the United States, far more of a comparable gross income is left over, because the tax and contribution burden is lower. Out of that come health insurance, childcare if needed, and higher housing costs if you want to live in a good school district.

In many situations the result favors America, in some it does not, and it depends almost entirely on three factors: age, family size and location. Without doing this math, you have no basis for your decision, no matter how many inflation figures you read.

The range within the United States is wider than the gap between Europe and America. It is what I tell clients most often, and what they believe least often.

The same family on the same income lives in three completely different financial realities in San Francisco, Austin and Cincinnati. Rent can differ by a factor of three, property tax by a factor of two, health insurance considerably, but grocery prices hardly at all.

So if you want to save, you save through where you live, not what you buy. That is why choosing a location in America is not a matter of taste but the central financial decision of any move.

We have covered each state individually, including taxes and cost of living, in US states at a glance.

To make the numbers tangible, here is a typical shop for a family of four in a mid-sized American city, nothing fancy and not organic.

For staples, meat, dairy, fruit, vegetables, drinks and household goods, you are looking at roughly $200 to $300 a week. Shop more selectively, look for European products and insist on quality milk and bread, and you quickly reach $350 to $400.

Converted, that is in the same ballpark as in Europe, with one important difference: the upper end stretches much further. In Europe, good cheese costs a bit more. In America, it costs many times more.

For a household, that means the basics are affordable and European habits are expensive. If you embrace the country, you spend less than someone trying to copy their shopping list from home one to one.

When I put a European family's household budget in America next to their old one back home, it is never groceries that tip the balance. It is four other items.

Health insurance. For a family of four without employer coverage, easily $20,000 to $30,000 a year. This is the item that outweighs everything else.

Housing, including property tax. In Texas, property tax is high, but there is no state income tax. In California it is the other way around. Look only at the rent or the purchase price and you miss several hundred dollars a month.

Childcare and education. Public schools are free, but their quality depends on the school district, and so on where you live. Childcare before school age is expensive, often much more so than in Europe.

Getting around. In most areas, two cars are not optional. On the other hand, buying, fueling and insuring them is cheaper than in Europe.

These four items decide it. The shopping cart never does.

There is a psychological effect almost everyone who has gone back describes. You remember American prices as low because your first impressions come from vacations: gas, electronics, restaurant portions, outlet prices.

Those categories really are cheap, and they make up the smallest share of a resident's budget. What residents pay, tourists never do: insurance, property tax, childcare, the dentist, tradespeople.

That is why your vacation impression is the worst possible guide for a decision to move. If you are serious, live like a resident for four weeks: weekly shopping, a doctor's visit, car insurance and a look at the utility bills of a rented apartment.

And finally, something no number captures. American grocery retail is built around convenience to a degree that first irritates Europeans and then spoils them. Long opening hours, same-day delivery, curbside pickup, the most generous returns.

What is missing, at least in most suburbs, is the weekly market in the town square and the baker around the corner. Both exist, but you drive there instead of walking past.

Whether that is a loss depends on your own daily life. Either way, it belongs in the calculation, because it is part of what you give up and what you gain. We have described what life here looks like beyond the numbers in Small Town USA and Where in America is the best place to live.

Set up a table with two columns: your home country and your destination. Add twelve rows: housing, property tax or utilities, health insurance, childcare, school, two cars, insurance, groceries, eating out, phone and internet, power and water, savings.

Fill both columns with real numbers, not estimates from forums. For your destination, you can find rents, property tax rates and insurance premiums online within an hour.

In the end you have two totals and a comparison worth something. And like almost everyone, you will find that the decision does not hinge on the shopping cart or the tax rate. It hinges on three rows, and which ones they are differs for every family.

A weekly grocery run in America feels different, and that has little to do with prices. The stores are bigger, the choice is absurd, and there are forty kinds of breakfast cereal and three kinds of quark. You can find everything and still miss three things.

After six months, that sorts itself out. You know your stores, you know where to get the good cheese, and you shop differently than at home, not worse.

If that worries you, flip it around: the question is never whether you can eat well in America. The question is whether your household can carry the fixed costs that come on top of the groceries. Groceries are never what makes a move abroad fail.

And if you've done the math honestly and still go, you're going for the right reasons.

If you want to work out your household budget for a specific place, talk to Mount Bonnell Advisors in Austin, Texas.

Consultation & implementation

If you'd like to find out what this means for your own situation, the best step is to book a consultation.