Grocery budget calculator
Add everyone in your household by age and sex, and this grocery budget calculator estimates a food-at-home benchmark per week, month and year on each of USDA's four food plans, from Thrifty to Liberal. It uses USDA's costs for July 2026 and applies USDA's own adjustment for household size. If someone eats some meals away from home, enter how many a week and their share comes down.
USDA monthly cost per person, July 2026
| Person | Thrifty | Low-Cost | Moderate-Cost | Liberal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Child, 1 | $114.50 | $165.80 | $186.70 | $226.80 |
| Child, 2–3 | $172.90 | $173.80 | $207.40 | $252.60 |
| Child, 4–5 | $188.60 | $179.30 | $221.90 | $268.30 |
| Child, 6–8 | $209.60 | $262.80 | $305.10 | $357.00 |
| Child, 9–11 | $242.20 | $271.60 | $350.20 | $408.20 |
| Female, 12–13 | $224.40 | $269.60 | $322.20 | $401.50 |
| Female, 14–18 | $260.50 | $271.10 | $324.60 | $400.60 |
| Female, 19–50 | $253.90 | $276.10 | $337.10 | $430.20 |
| Female, 51–70 | $236.50 | $269.00 | $331.40 | $399.70 |
| Female, 71+ | $260.90 | $268.80 | $330.80 | $395.40 |
| Male, 12–13 | $258.90 | $316.80 | $392.50 | $460.90 |
| Male, 14–18 | $326.70 | $322.10 | $403.70 | $474.70 |
| Male, 19–50 | $319.20 | $317.40 | $398.70 | $487.50 |
| Male, 51–70 | $281.40 | $299.50 | $375.00 | $449.30 |
| Male, 71+ | $268.50 | $296.90 | $364.70 | $449.00 |
For someone in a household of four. The Thrifty plan groups teens and adults as 14–19 and 20–50; the table shows its cost for the matching group.
Where the numbers come from
Every month the US Department of Agriculture prices four food plans: Thrifty, Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost and Liberal. Each plan is a basket of foods for a nutritious diet, costed for 15 age and sex groups and updated for food prices with the Consumer Price Index. The calculator takes its figures from the two July 2026 reports, the Thrifty Food Plan and the Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost and Liberal Food Plans, both issued in August 2026. New months appear on USDA's monthly reports page. To see how far grocery prices themselves have moved, use the grocery inflation calculator.
The costs in the reports are for one person living in a household of four. For other sizes, a footnote in both reports gives the correction: add up everyone's cost first, then adjust the total.
| Household size | Adjustment |
|---|---|
| 1 person | add 20% |
| 2 people | add 10% |
| 3 people | add 5% |
| 4 people | none |
| 5 or 6 people | subtract 5% |
| 7 or more people | subtract 10% |
Children under 12 have one cost for their age group whatever their sex. From 12, USDA prices females and males separately. The plans start at age 1, so babies under a year aren't covered.
The age groups also differ between plans. The Thrifty plan groups teens and adults as 14 to 19 and 20 to 50, while the other three plans use 14 to 18 and 19 to 50. The calculator puts each person in the right group for each plan, so a 19-year-old's Thrifty figure and Low-Cost figure come from different rows of the reports.
The weekly figure is the sum of the weekly rows USDA prints, adjusted for household size. USDA adds up unrounded costs instead, so its own total can differ by a few cents. For the one household the reports print a total for, the Thrifty plan's reference family, the calculator shows USDA's figure: $236.50 a week, where the printed rows add up to $236.60.
What the four plans assume
All four plans assume every meal and snack is made at home. There's nothing in them for restaurants, takeout, school lunches or a coffee on the way to work, and USDA gives no rule for taking them off. The calculator uses the one Iowa State University Extension gives: each meal a person eats away from home takes 1/21 off their cost, because the plans cover 21 meals a week. A man aged 30 living alone who eats 7 of his meals out comes to $253.92 a month on the Low-Cost plan instead of $380.88. That is arithmetic on USDA's figures, not a USDA figure, and it counts every meal as the same size, though a skipped lunch costs less than a skipped dinner.
The plans aren't built on the same foundation, either. The Thrifty plan was reevaluated in 2021 and rests on 2013 to 2016 food consumption data and 2015 to 2016 prices. The other three still rest on 2001 to 2002 data and the 2005 dietary guidelines, carried forward with price indexes. That's why the plans don't climb in even steps: for men aged 20 to 50, Thrifty costs $319.20 a month and Low-Cost $317.40, and boys aged 14 to 18 and children aged 4 to 5 show the same flip.
The Thrifty plan's reference family (a man and a woman aged 20 to 50 with children aged 6 to 8 and 9 to 11) is the family the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 uses to set the maximum SNAP allotment. It's also the calculator's starting example: $1,024.90 a month on the Thrifty plan in July 2026.
From a USDA figure to your own budget
The plans tell you what a healthy diet costs at four price levels. They can't tell you where your household is today. To find out, total 4 to 8 weeks of grocery receipts, leave out what isn't food (detergent, pet food, pharmacy items), turn the weekly average into a monthly one by multiplying by 4.333, and see which plan your real number sits closest to. Divided by 21 meals a week, the same figures give a cost per home-cooked meal, which is how cooking at home vs eating out compares them with a restaurant bill.
Our article on how much to spend on groceries has ready-made budgets for common households and what households actually spend according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. How to track grocery spending compares five ways to get the receipt total without it turning into a second job. Duneed, our iPhone app, reads each receipt's lines with their prices and totals the month by category.
Questions
How much should a family of 4 spend on groceries a month?
On USDA's July 2026 figures, the reference family of four (two adults aged 20 to 50, children aged 6 to 8 and 9 to 11) costs $1,024.90 a month on the Thrifty plan, $1,127.90 on Low-Cost, $1,391.10 on Moderate-Cost and $1,682.90 on Liberal. Teenagers cost more to feed than younger children, so enter your own family's ages above for a figure that fits. Grocery budget for a family of 4 has the common combinations worked out.
How much should one person spend on groceries?
With USDA's 20% single-person adjustment, a woman aged 20 to 50 living alone comes to about $305 a month on the Thrifty plan and $516 on Liberal. For a man the same age it's about $383 to $585. Grocery budget for one person has every age band, per week and per meal.
What's the difference between the Thrifty and Low-Cost plans?
Thrifty is USDA's lowest-cost plan and the one SNAP benefits are based on; it was fully revised in 2021. Low-Cost is the next level up, on the older 2001 to 2002 basis. Because of that difference, Thrifty costs slightly more than Low-Cost for a few groups, including men aged 20 to 50.
How do I keep to the budget once I have it?
At the shelf, compare what you're paying per ounce or per item rather than per pack. The unit price calculator does that for up to six products at once.