American households spent an average of $539 on bakery products and $131 on postage and stationery in 2024. Those are a few of the quirkier spending habits tracked and categorized in the Consumer Expenditure Surveys, a nationwide survey of more than 30,000 people. The federal government has conducted detailed expenditure surveys since 1888. The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases this data, which includes spending details on hundreds of items for different generations, in one-year batches.