Health & Welfare | Daily Report

Over the course of 2009, the average American household spent $6,514 on food and drink according to Bundle.com. The new site aims to become "the most complete free resource for information about how Americans spend and save," according to a post on the methodology behind the spending data used to delve into the eating habits of the nation.

Flickr photo by david_shankboneEast Village Whole Foods

The analysis found the average grocery bill for the year added up to $3,778, with bar and restaurant tabs accounting for another $2,736. An infographic accompanying the analysis, featured on FlowingData.com, ranks the biggest U.S. cities by the amount the average household dropped on food last year.

Austin, Tex. came in at number one, where the average household spent $12,447, although Manhattan could have bested the town on the Colorado River by about $600 if the borough were its own city.

In California, households in San Jose, on average, spent the third most money in the nation ($10,419), most of it on groceries ($5,439), while the average San Francisco household dropped more on dining out ($4,950) than on groceries ($4,373).

Despite their lower population, the average household in Irvine and Fremont spent more than the average Angelino household. Way down by the border near Tijuana, Chula Vista came in second to last. The average household there spent $2,914 on food and drink.

The analysis also confirmed that, "Eating out is a budget-buster. According to our data, the people who are spending the most money on food overall devote more money to dining out. In the ten cities with the biggest food budgets, residents spent more than $465 a month at restaurants on average – or more than half of their food budget."

The post wraps up the analysis with this take-away point: "There's food at every price, for every budget, and what we spend on what we eat has a lot less to do with how hungry we are – or even what we may actually like to eat – than how much money we have."

Most of the data used by Bundle.com comes from credit card transactions, but the data sources will expand as the site matures.