Grocery Budget Calculator

The grocery budget calculator estimates what your household should spend on food each month, starting from the USDA Food Plans and adjusting for how many adults and children you have, which state you live in, and any dietary restrictions. It returns all four USDA levels and recommends the moderate one.

The USDA publishes what food costs a household that cooks at home, split by age and by four spending levels, and updates it every month. The thrifty plan is the one SNAP benefit amounts are calculated from. The moderate plan is the middle of the four and the one this calculator recommends. The 2024 figures it uses come from the USDA Food Plans cost of food reports at fns.usda.gov.

For two adults and two school-age children, those figures work out at $818 a month on the thrifty plan, $1,072 on low-cost, $1,334 on moderate and $1,604 on liberal, before any state adjustment. Twenty-six states then move that up or down: Hawaii and Alaska are the two highest, Mississippi the lowest, and a state without its own adjustment keeps the national figure.

Two things the arithmetic does not do, both worth knowing before you trust the number. It never asks anyone's age, so it assumes an adult of 35 and a child of 8; if your children are teenagers the real cost is higher, because USDA costs for a 12 to 18 year old exceed those for a 6 to 11 year old at every level. And it has no waste factor, which matters here more than most places.

Picky eating costs money in a way no food plan models. You buy the safe foods, then you buy what everyone else is eating, and a share of the second gets scraped into the bin uneaten. Treat the calculator's number as what a household spends when everyone eats the same meal, and expect to sit above it while a short accepted food list is doing the shopping.

How to set a grocery budget for a family

Work out a monthly grocery figure from the USDA Food Plans, adjust it for where you live, and check it against what you actually spent.

1. Count who you are feeding

   Adults and children separately, because the USDA figures differ by a wide margin. Anyone eating most meals at your table counts, including a child who is only there half the week.

2. Pick the plan level that matches how you shop

   Thrifty assumes every meal is cooked at home from the cheapest workable ingredients. Liberal assumes convenience and cuts of meat you chose rather than settled for. Most households that cook most nights land on moderate.

3. Adjust for your state and your restrictions

   Regional food costs move the figure by a lot more than people expect, and a gluten-free or dairy-free household pays a premium on staples that the national number does not carry.

4. Compare it against last month's actual spend

   Pull one month of grocery receipts or one month of card statements. The gap between that and the calculator is the useful output, not the calculator's number on its own.

Common questions

How much should a family of four spend on groceries per month?

Using USDA 2024 food plan costs, this calculator puts two adults and two school-age children at $1,334 a month on the moderate plan before any state adjustment. The same family comes to $818 on the thrifty plan, $1,072 on low-cost and $1,604 on liberal. Where you live moves all four.

What are the four USDA food plans?

Thrifty, low-cost, moderate and liberal, in rising order of what they assume you spend. The thrifty plan is what SNAP benefit amounts are calculated from. All four assume meals are prepared at home, so none of them include takeaway or eating out.

Why does the calculator ask which state I live in?

Because food costs are not national. The USDA figures are a country-wide average, and this calculator scales them by state: Hawaii and Alaska sit well above the average, Mississippi well below it. Twenty-six states carry their own adjustment and the rest use the national figure unchanged.

Does having a picky eater make groceries more expensive?

In most houses, yes, and this calculator does not account for it. You end up buying the safe foods and buying what the rest of the family is eating, and some of the second gets thrown out. There is no waste factor in the arithmetic, so read the result as a floor rather than a target.

What ages does the grocery budget calculator assume?

It does not ask, so it assumes every adult is 35 and every child is 8. USDA costs for a 12 to 18 year old are higher than for a 6 to 11 year old on all four plan levels, so a household with teenagers should expect to spend more than the figure shown here.

Is the grocery budget calculator free?

Yes, and it needs no account. Your budget and the full breakdown appear straight away. Saving that breakdown as a PDF asks for an email address first.