A 72-year-old retiree sold her car after $10,000 in credit-card grocery debt. The Urban Institute says one in 10 shoppers missed a minimum payment in 2025.
Seventy-two-year-old retired teacher Laurie Lumbra lives on about $1,400 a month. A few years ago she started paying for groceries with credit cards. The balance hit $10,000.
"It gets very depressing. You feel like you're such a failure," she told Marketplace.
Lumbra sold her car to pay the debt, cut up the cards, and now rides a bike to the food bank. She is not alone.
The Urban Institute's 2025 Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey shows the cumulative cost of groceries has risen 32% over five years. Nearly two-thirds of Americans aged 18 to 64 used a credit card for groceries this year. One in 10 of those could not always make the minimum payment, triggering late fees and penalty interest. Another 19.6% paid only the minimum, letting interest compound.
Nearly one in 10 turned to Buy Now Pay Later services for food, and a third of that group missed at least one payment. Another 5.2% used cash from payday loans. Just under 20% drew down savings, the survey found.
Retirees on fixed incomes face particular risk, the report said, because they lack wage growth or flexible work options to close the gap.
The USDA's Economic Research Service projects food-at-home prices will rise 2.7% this year and 2.9% in 2027. Beef and veal are expected to increase 10.7%, fresh vegetables 6.8%, and sugar and sweets 7.2%. Supply-chain disruptions, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, bird flu, tariffs on Mexican tomatoes, and drought reducing cattle herds have all fed the price rises, the ERS said.
The Iran war is also driving fuel shortages that raise shipping and production costs. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Corporation (Alpha Score 64, Moderate), told NBC News the war is costing the average U.S. household more than $1,200.
"Although access to credit and savings can provide a lifeline for families struggling to meet basic needs, relying too much on these strategies may lead to financial instability if they have a hard time keeping up with debt," the Urban Institute report said.
The Urban Institute surveyed working-age adults, but the structure of the pressure – fixed income against rising outlays – is hardest on the already retired.
SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is available to households with gross income at or below 130% of the federal poverty line. For a single-person household in 2025, that threshold is roughly $1,580 a month in gross income, which covers Lumbra's reported $1,400. The program provides an average monthly benefit of about $230 per person.
Debt-reduction strategies include the avalanche method, paying the highest-interest balance first, or the snowball method, paying the smallest balance first. Balance-transfer cards offering 0% APR for a promotional period can cut interest costs, but the rate resets after 12 to 18 months.
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