The Cost of a Summer Cookout in 2024

The American Farm Bureau Federation has shopped at grocery stores across the United States and found out how much a summer cookout will cost in 2024. they report their “volunteer shoppers had their most expensive Fourth of July grocery bill in the history of the survey this year.”

But how costly is that? In 2024, they found the cost of the ten items on the Farm Bureau’s summer cookout menu totaled $71.22. That total is five percent higher than last year and is 30% higher than the cost of the same grocery store items purchased for a summer cookout five years ago.

Most of that increase has taken place since 2021, when the cost of a summer cookout was 20% lower than it is in 2024. In the following interactive chart, we show how much each individual menu item from the Farm Bureau’s summer cookout menu cost in each year from 2021 through 2024. If you’re accessing this article on a site that republishes our RSS news feed, you may need to click through to our site to see the chart, which we built using Datawrapper.

Only two of the ten menu items in 2024 are less expensive than they were a year earlier: chicken and potato salad. Of the other eight items, the cost of pork chops and ground beef rose the most year over year.

Here’s more information about how the Farm Bureau collects its cost data:

Volunteers from across the United States contributed to this year’s American Farm Bureau Fourth of July market basket survey to determine the average cost of summer cookout staples. The survey pulls prices for a complete, homemade cookout consisting of cheeseburgers, chicken breasts, pork chops, potato chips, pork and beans, fresh strawberries, homemade potato salad, fresh-squeezed lemonade, chocolate chip cookies and ice cream. With plenty of options to feed a hungry crowd, a group of 10 this year can expect to pay $71.22 for their celebration, up 5% from last year and up 30% from five years ago. Nationally, this means we are surpassing $7 per person for the first time, with the total meal coming to $7.12 a person. Only two dishes decreased in price while everything else on your table rose, on average. Your grocery bill may be a shock, but it is in line with the inflation that has roiled the economy – including the farm economy – over the last several years.

The Farm Bureau also indicates that after adjusting for inflation, 2022 was worse than 2024, which ranks second after that cost adjustment.

Image credit: Carne y Pollo #cookout by Brendan C. on Flickr. Creative Commons: CC by 2.0 Attribution 2.0 Generic Deed.