How are consumers dealing with sky-high food costs? Skipping meals, switching to lower-cost brands — and taking on more debt.

In the past two years, the monthly cost of a nutritious diet for a family of four jumped 48% from $675 to $1K. And many have turned to “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) loans to scrape by.

Everything is too damn expensive

… But rising food costs have “been the most stubborn of all the categories,” per Walmart’s CEO.

• Going up: Annual food costs in the US rose 8.4% in March.
• Going down: Monthly food costs fell in March for the first time since 2020.

Except not fast enough to relieve budget pressures — as Americans turn to BNPL apps for their grocery bills.

Per a LendingTree survey, 27% of BNPL users are bridging paychecks with these loans — and 21% are buying groceries with them.

BNPL is a slippery slope

These loans — often seen as temporary solutions to bigger problems — are easy to get and require minimal credit checks.

• But it’s easy to forget to pay them back, late fees can rack up, and therefore negatively impact credit scores.
• “You are putting yourself into the cycle of debt that would be very difficult to get out of” — per Payment Specialist Terri Bradford.

The industry isn’t regulated like the credit card industry — but that’s at risk of changing. Earlier this year, the UK proposed rules thath could make it more difficult to qualify for loans and restrict marketing conducted by BNPL companies.