The charts below show US spending patterns from 1966 to 1996

The pie charts indicate the changes of living expenditure in US families from 1966 to 1996.

It can be seen clearly that the highest percentage of spending in US in 1966, which was food with the figure for approximately 44%, dropped to 14% in 1996. Obviously, most American households would consider food as the priority when purchasing in 1966, with the figure for approximately 44%. However, 30 years later, only 14% family budget was spent on it as is shown. At the meantime, the proportion of cars rose from 23% (the second position) to 45%, making up the biggest items of expenditure in 1996. As for the figures of petrol and furniture, they accounted for 9% and 10% respectively in 1966, but fell slightly to 8% in both in 1996. The ration of eating out doubled accordingly with the decline of food consumption in 1996, reaching to 14%. However, as the spending on computers significantly increased from 1% to 10% thanks to the technology advance and internet prevalence, the proportion of books saw an opposite trend, going down from 6% to 1% in 1996.

To sum up, cars replaced food and dominated the expenditure in American families, meanwhile, spending on eating out and computers had increased with the changing times.