Personal Finance
What to Budget for Breakfast in Kentucky
Learn whether the day's first meal is cracking budgets in Kentucky
We've already made up a shopping list for you: 10 typical breakfast items — including a dozen eggs, half-gallon of milk and a can of coffee — that altogether will cost you an average $26.52 nationwide. Is the cost of breakfast better or worse where you live?
Breakfast food prices in Kentucky
Fried chicken and waffles with syrup.
In Kentucky, you'll pay an average $22.91 for our basket of typical breakfast foods, according to the latest quarterly Cost of Living Index from the Council for Community and Economic Research. That's 15% less than the national average. The Cost of Living Index data is collected from two metro areas in Kentucky:
| City | Amount |
|---|---|
| Louisville | $22.34 |
| Lexington | $23.48 |
Breakfast food prices in Kentucky
Breakfast served with coffee, orange juice, croissants, cereals and fruits
Here's what's in our shopping cart, with the average prices in Kentucky and the country as a whole:
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| Breakfast Item | Average for Kentucky | Average for US |
|---|---|---|
| Sausage (1 lb.) | $3.60 | $4.20 |
| 1/2 Gallon of Milk | $1.14 | $1.92 |
| Eggs (12) | $1.11 | $1.73 |
| Margarine | $1.24 | $1.14 |
| Bananas (1 lb.) | $0.52 | $0.55 |
| Bread (1 loaf) | $3.19 | $3.35 |
| Orange Juice (1 container) | $3.43 | $3.51 |
| Coffee (1 can or brick) | $3.72 | $4.33 |
| Sugar (1 lb.) | $1.97 | $2.24 |
| Cereal (1 box) | $3.01 | $3.55 |
What's cooking?
If those numbers seem high to you, then you'd better get cracking. You'll need a good breakfast to give you the fuel to keep bringing home the paychecks to cover today's food prices.
If you’re like most people, breakfast matters to you. Americans tend to eat the start-of-the-day meal virtually every day, and most of our breakfasts — 70% — are served at home, according to the market research firm The NPD Group.
Find out what's happening in Across Kentuckyfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Many of us also put some effort into our breakfast. NPD says eggs and other more "involved" and traditional breakfast foods are becoming more popular, especially among millennials. Mercifully, you won't find any jokes about avocado toast here.
Maybe for your next morning meal you'll want to whip up a plate of chicken and waffles — an undeniable Kentucky favorite.
Sorry — we may have left a few key ingredients off our list, but knowing the prices of the other breakfast staples can help you build some room in your brekkie budget for the extras that make mornings even more yummy where you live.
Happy eating!