Your Grocery Payment Profile

The numbers behind your grocery bill tell a story most shoppers don't see at the register. The Urban Institute — a nonpartisan research group based in Washington, D.C. that studies economic and social trends annually — found that the financial pressure of buying food has spread well beyond typical month-to-month budgeting challenges. People are reaching into accounts they built for other purposes just to cover eggs, bread, and produce.

April's 2.9% grocery price increase wasn't a random blip. It was driven by a combination of higher fuel costs linked to the Iran conflict, weather events disrupting supply chains, and the ripple effects of trade policies. Those upstream pressures flow straight to the shelf price — and straight to Denver shoppers' wallets.

Buy Now, Pay Later services were built for big-ticket items — appliances, travel, furniture. The Urban Institute's findings reveal they've migrated to the grocery lane, where people are splitting a $120 weekly food run into four smaller payments. The danger is what happens when one of those payments gets missed. Among people using BNPL for groceries, one in three has already missed a payment — a rate that signals the financing method isn't solving the affordability problem, it's deferring it.

Meanwhile, a different group of shoppers — 35% of consumers — is using credit cards for groceries and paying the full balance every month. That's a disciplined strategy that sidesteps interest charges, but it represents a distinct minority. For the rest, the math is getting harder.

How Denver Shoppers Are Paying for Groceries

How Well Do You Know the Grocery Crunch?

Four questions. See how closely you tracked the Urban Institute's findings.

What share of Americans are using their savings accounts to pay for groceries, according to the Urban Institute?

• About 1 in 20 — Lower than the actual finding — the problem is more widespread. The Urban Institute found 1 in 5 Americans, or about 20%, are using savings to cover grocery costs.
• About 1 in 10 — 1 in 10 is the figure for Buy Now, Pay Later grocery users, not savings depletion. The savings number is twice as large: 1 in 5 Americans.
• About 1 in 5 — Correct. The Urban Institute's 2025 survey found that 1 in 5 Americans — about 20% — are dipping into savings accounts to pay for groceries.
• About 1 in 3 — 1 in 3 is the share of Buy Now, Pay Later grocery users who have missed a payment — a different and alarming figure, but not the savings statistic.

Among Americans using Buy Now, Pay Later services for groceries, what fraction has missed at least one payment?

• About 1 in 10 — 1 in 10 is actually the share of all adults using BNPL for groceries. Among that group specifically, the missed-payment rate is much higher.
• About 1 in 5 — Higher than that — the Urban Institute found a missed-payment rate of 1 in 3 among BNPL grocery users, suggesting the payment plan itself is stretching too thin.
• About 1 in 3 — Correct. One in three people who used Buy Now, Pay Later for groceries has missed a payment — a sign that short-term financing isn't solving the underlying affordability problem.
• About 1 in 2 — The actual figure is 1 in 3, not half — though even that level of missed payments is notable for a tool increasingly used on a recurring weekly purchase like groceries.

What share of consumers used a credit card for groceries in 2025 AND paid the full balance each month?

• About 15% — The actual share is higher — 35% of consumers bought groceries on a credit card and paid the balance in full, according to the Urban Institute. That's the disciplined-credit group.
• About 35% — Correct. Nearly 35% of consumers bought groceries with a credit card in 2025 and paid the balance in full — a strategy that avoids interest but still requires cash flow to be there at the end of the month.
• About 50% — The Urban Institute found 35%, not half. That means the majority of grocery shoppers are NOT in the paid-in-full credit card category — many are using riskier methods.
• About 60% — 35% is the correct figure. A majority of shoppers are NOT using the disciplined credit card approach — the rest are using savings, carrying balances, or turning to Buy Now, Pay Later.

The Urban Institute study comes as grocery prices rose 2.9% in April. Which combination of factors drove that increase?

• Supply chain disruptions and worker shortages — Labor wasn't among the factors cited. The April increase was tied to higher fuel costs from the Iran conflict, weather impacts on supply, and trade policy changes.
• Higher fuel costs, weather impacts, and trade policies — Correct. All three upstream pressures — fuel costs tied to the Iran conflict, weather disruptions to supply chains, and trade policy effects — combined to push grocery prices up 2.9% in April.
• Corporate profit margins and packaging costs — Corporate pricing wasn't cited as a driver in this reporting. The factors were fuel costs from the Iran conflict, weather events affecting supply, and trade policies.
• Minimum wage increases and transportation delays — Neither factor was cited. The 2.9% April increase was driven by higher fuel costs tied to the Iran conflict, weather-related supply disruptions, and trade policy pressures.

The Urban Institute's survey captures something important: the grocery store has become a financial stress point for households across income levels. Using savings not designed for daily expenses — retirement accounts, emergency funds, money set aside for a car repair or a medical bill — means the cost of a price spike at the supermarket echoes into a household's financial security for months or years afterward.

For Denver shoppers, where Colorado's unemployment rate sits at 3.9% and the national rate is 4.2%, the strain isn't coming from widespread joblessness. It's coming from the gap between what wages cover and what the weekly cart costs — a gap that 2.9% in a single month can widen faster than most budgets can absorb.

The Economic Context Behind Your Grocery Bill

• 2.9% — Grocery Price Increase (April)
• 3.9% — Colorado Unemployment Rate
• 4.2% — National Unemployment Rate
• 333.95 — Consumer Price Index (All Urban)

Common Beliefs About Grocery Budgets — Checked

Buy Now, Pay Later is a safe way to handle grocery bills when money is tight.

Verdict: mostly false

The Urban Institute found that among people using BNPL for groceries, one in three has missed a payment. Splitting a recurring weekly expense into installments creates compounding risk — a missed payment on food is a different problem than missing one on a couch.

Using savings for groceries is rare — most people have enough in their checking accounts.

Verdict: false

One in five Americans is currently dipping into savings accounts to pay for groceries, per the Urban Institute's 2025 survey. Notably, 20% said they were specifically using savings not intended for daily expenses — meaning emergency and long-term funds are being drawn down.

Paying groceries on a credit card is a sign of financial instability.

Verdict: mixed

It depends on what happens at the end of the month. The Urban Institute found that 35% of consumers bought groceries by credit card in 2025 and paid the balance in full — a disciplined approach. The instability shows up when balances carry over or when BNPL payments start getting missed.

Ways to Reduce Grocery Financial Pressure

1. Try 'Backwards Shopping' — A strategy gaining popularity that starts with what you already have at home — then builds a list only around gaps. The method is designed to prevent overbuying, which adds cost on top of already rising prices.
2. Audit Your Payment Method — If you're using Buy Now, Pay Later for groceries, the Urban Institute data shows that one in three users in your position has already missed a payment. Groceries are a recurring expense — installment plans can compound rather than solve the pressure.
3. Separate Your Savings Goals — If you're pulling from non-daily-expense savings, flag that account separately. Twenty percent of Urban Institute survey respondents said they were using savings not meant for everyday costs — knowing which account is which helps you see the real cost of each shopping trip.
4. Watch for Best-By Date Waste — Overbuying items that expire before use adds effective cost per meal even when price tags stay the same. Matching purchase quantities to realistic consumption is part of what makes 'backwards shopping' effective.

About the Urban Institute Data

The Urban Institute is a nonpartisan research organization based in Washington, D.C. It tracks economic and social policy trends annually through surveys covering household finances, health, housing, and more.

The grocery payment findings cited in this story come from the Urban Institute's 2025 survey data. The survey captured how Americans across income levels are adapting their payment behaviors in response to rising food costs — including the emergence of Buy Now, Pay Later as a grocery financing tool and the drawdown of savings not intended for everyday expenses.

Grocery price data (2.9% increase in April) reflects multiple upstream pressures: higher fuel costs tied to the Iran conflict, weather-related supply chain disruptions, and trade policy effects. Labor market data cited for context comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 2026.

The Urban Institute's data doesn't describe a crisis happening somewhere else. It describes the financial math that Denver families are solving every week — at King Soopers, at Safeway, at the neighborhood market. When one in five Americans is pulling from savings just to fill a cart, the grocery store has become something it wasn't designed to be: the front line of household financial survival.

The question of how to pay for food used to feel settled. For a growing share of Americans, it no longer is.

Sources & References

• Primary source: Denver7 — Kelly Broderick
• Urban Institute — Annual economic and social policy tracking survey — grocery payment behavior findings, 2025
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — National unemployment rate, June 2026, seasonally adjusted