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As high costs of living take their toll on families’ ability to meet basic needs, the
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latest Urban Institute research finds many families may be taking on debt to pay for their groceries—increasingly turning to credit cards, payday loans, and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options or depleting their savings.


Using data from Urban’s December 2025
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Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey (WBNS), the analysis examines how working-age adults are faring financially with grocery costs, finding that:
- More than 1 in 4 experienced repayment challenges when using credit cards to purchase food for their families—where they could accrue interest or fees that could be challenging to repay.
- Nearly 1 in 10 used BNPL to pay for groceries; among them, 1 in 3 (34.8 percent) missed a payment in 2025.
- About 19.6 percent paid for groceries using savings that were not intended for daily expenses in 2025, and 5.2 percent used cash from a recent payday loan.
- More reported using a credit card to pay for groceries and not always making the minimum payment in 2025 than reported in 2023 (from 7.1 percent in 2023 to 8.7 percent in 2025), signaling worsening financial distress among families. While access to credit, loans, and savings can provide a lifeline for families struggling to meet basic needs, relying too much on these strategies may lead to further financial instability if families have a hard time paying off debt or if they deplete their savings.

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Thanks,


- The Stakeholder Outreach team

U R B A N I N S T I T U T E

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