As prices keep rising, Idaho college students have some of nation’s cheapest grocery bills
The list of expenses for a college student seemingly goes up year after year.
For starters, college tuition costs have risen by nearly five times the inflation rate in the last fifty years. Meanwhile, textbook costs have increased by 67% between 2008 and 2018, with college students paying nearly $350 a year for textbooks, according to the National Association of College Stores.
So what about eating out and grocery costs? Those prices have risen, too.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, from September 2021 to September 2022, food-at-home prices — food bought from a grocery store and cooked at home — rose by 13%, while eating-out prices rose by 8.5%.
My eLearning World, an online learning and college trends website, estimates in a new study that college students nationwide are spending, on average, $294.06 per month on groceries and a further $369.36 on eating out.
Over the course of the school year, that equates to approximately a national average of $2,352 in groceries and $2,954 in eating out.
For some students around the nation, grocery costs can climb to over $500 per month or $4,000 per school year.
Fortunately for Idahoans, food prices for college students within the state fall below the national average. Using data from BLS, My eLearning World calculated that Idaho students pay the third least in the nation on groceries, coming in behind Kansas and New Hampshire.
On average, college students in Idaho will pay $209.24 per month in grocery costs, which is about $1,673 over the school year. The Idaho Statesman recently reported that between two of the state’s largest grocery chains, it is approximately 11.6% cheaper to shop at Fred Meyer than at Albertsons.
But the two chains may become more comparable in the near future following the news that Kroger — who owns Fred Meyer — is set to purchase all of Albertsons Companies Inc.’s outstanding stock in a $24.6 billion deal.
Kansas ($186.62) and New Hampshire ($98.40) are the only two states that enjoy cheaper per month.
On the other end of the spectrum, students in Hawaii may enjoy island life but may also wish they lived elsewhere — they pay, on average, $521.39 per month to land as the most expensive state for college students. Alaska and New York are the second-most expensive, costing $437.70 per month.
States comparable to Idaho
Here are some of the cheapest states to attend college in for grocery costs:
New Hampshire - $98.40
Kansas - $186.62
Idaho - $209.24
Utah - $210.37
Arkansas - $210.37
South Dakota - $214.89
Texas - $216.02
Nevada - $222.81
Virginia - $228.46
Arizona - $234.12
