Here's how much more Americans are spending on basic monthly bills compared to 5 years ago (2024)

• The average US household now spends $25,513 a year on the 10 most common bills.
• The biggest monthly bills Americans pay each month are mortgage, rent, and auto loans.
• Other bills like utilities, mobile phones, and health insurance have also skyrocketed.

Despite lower inflation in the last 18 months, many Americans still don't feel great about the economy, thanks in part to the rising costs of everyday items.

A report published on March 7 from Doxo, a payment platform for household bills, shows that the average US household now spends $25,513 a year — 34% of the median household income — on the 10 most common bills. This includes mortgage payments, rent, and mobile phones.

According to Doxo's data, with additional information from the US Census Bureau, the average household is now spending $2,126 a month on the top 10 bills, up 4% from a year ago and 19% since 2019. Meanwhile, median US household income was up just 0.2% in the past year and 14% since 2019.

Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, a personal finance expert and author of "Bounce Back: The Ultimate Guide to Financial Resilience," told Business Insider that some of these increases can be attributed to rising interest rates.

The biggest monthly bills Americans pay each month are mortgage, rent, and auto loans, according to the report.

The average mortgage payment is now $1,402, up 11% from 2019. That growth pales compared to rent — which is up 27% to $1,300 — and car payments — up 33% to an average of $496 — in the same time period.

House prices have stabilized slightly, with mortgage interest rates hovering above 7% for most of the past year. This has led to a stalemate in the housing market as some buyers hold out for lower rates and people with pre-pandemic mortgages with low interest rates are reluctant to sell.

On the other hand, Khalfani-Cox notes that a similar lack of supply in rental units has a stronger impact on rent prices.

"We have a shortage of affordable homes and apartments, but it's easier to get a rental unit, and landlords have more leverage to raise prices," Khalfani-Cox told Business Insider.

The other most common bills include utilities, auto insurance, cable and internet, mobile phones, health insurance, life insurance, and home security.

Of those monthly bills, utilities, mobile phones, and health insurance have jumped the most in the last five years. The monthly cost for utilities now averages $362, up 25% since 2019. The cost of owning a cellphone jumped 29% to $121, while health insurance is up 30% to $114 each month.

The increase in costs since 2019 for the four remaining bills — auto insurance, cable and internet, life insurance, and home security — have seen more modest increases, ranging from 11% for cable and internet to 16% for auto insurance.

The most common monthly bills are just part of the picture for many

These bills are just one piece of the picture showing the current cost of living. Khalfani-Cox noted that there are monthly expenses that don't come in the form of a single bill but still have an immense impact on a household's finances, like debt.

"Things like credit card bills, student loans, and even buy now pay later obligations increasingly consume a big chunk of people's budgets," Khalfani-Cox said

She also pointed to escalating food prices and inflation at the grocery store.

Overall inflation peaked at a year-over-year rate of 9.1% in June 2022. However, food at home prices (i.e. food you bring home from the grocery store) were hit even harder, reaching 13.5% in August of the same year.

While that number was just 1.0% in February, we are not seeing deflation like we are starting to see in other areas.