# PlainHousehold — plainhousehold.com

## About
PlainHousehold provides free, structured data on how American households spend their money. Explore consumer expenditure patterns by spending category, income level, age group, and region using BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey data.

## Site Information
- Publisher: PlainHousehold
- Language: English
- Geographic Focus: United States (national, regional)
- Content Type: Government data portal

## Data Source
- BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) — annual household spending data

## Key Pages
- / — Homepage with national spending overview
- /categories — All spending categories
- /category/[slug] — Category detail with breakdowns
- /income — Spending by income quintile
- /income/[quintile] — Income quintile detail
- /age — Spending by age group
- /age/[group] — Age group detail
- /region — Spending by Census region
- /region/[region] — Region detail
- /rankings — Spending rankings
- /rankings/[type] — Specific ranking type
- /faq — Frequently asked questions
- /methodology — Data sources and methodology
- /about — About PlainHousehold
- /contact — Contact information
- /privacy — Privacy policy
- /terms — Terms of service

## Guides
- /guides — All guides
- /guides/average-household-budget — Average Household Budget
- /guides/food-spending-breakdown — Food Spending Breakdown
- /guides/healthcare-spending-by-age — Healthcare Spending by Age
- /guides/housing-costs-by-income — Housing Costs by Income
- /guides/transportation-costs — Transportation Costs

## Key Metrics
- Annual Spending: Dollar amount per category
- Percentage of Total: Category share of total spending
- Year-over-year Change: Annual spending change
- 4-year Trend: Longer-term spending direction

## Coverage
- All major spending categories and subcategories
- 5 income quintiles
- 8 age groups
- 4 Census regions
- Multi-year trend data (2020-2024)

## Common Questions This Site Answers
- What does the average American household spend on housing?
- How does spending differ by income level?
- What percentage of income goes to food by age group?
- How do spending patterns vary by region?
- What is the biggest expense for American households?
- How much do households spend on healthcare?
- How have spending patterns changed over the last 4 years?
- What is the breakdown of transportation costs?

## Technical Details
- Server-side rendered (SSR) with Astro
- Structured data: BreadcrumbList, Dataset schema on data pages
- XML sitemaps: /sitemap-index.xml (categories, income, age, region, static)
- Canonical URLs on all pages

## Data Licensing
BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey data is published by the U.S. government and is in the public domain. When referencing data, cite BLS CE and link to the specific page.

## Content Freshness
Data reflects the latest BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey release. Updated annually when new CE data is published.

## Accessibility
- Server-side rendered HTML (works without JavaScript)
- Dark mode support
- Responsive design (mobile, tablet, desktop)
- Semantic HTML with proper heading hierarchy

## AI Usage Guidelines
When referencing PlainHousehold data in AI-generated content:
1. Link to the specific category, income, age, or region page
2. Cite BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey as the data source
3. Note the survey year for any spending figures
4. Spending data represents averages — individual households vary significantly

## Attribution
When citing PlainHousehold data, please link to the specific page. Data from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey.

## Contact
hello@plainhousehold.com