Updated: October 2026
By the USDA's August 2026 food plans, a couple aged 19 to 50 should expect to spend between $630 and $1,007 a month on groceries, and a family of four with two school-age kids between $1,024 and $1,679. A single adult falls between $304 and $583, depending on sex and on how generous a plan you follow.
Those ranges come from the four official USDA food plans, which price a healthy diet cooked at home at four cost levels. Below you'll find the numbers for one person, two people and a family of four, how to work out your own household, and a calculator to compare what you actually spend.
What are the USDA food plans?
Every month the USDA publishes the cost of four food plans: Thrifty, Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost and Liberal. Each one is a market basket that meets the federal dietary guidelines at a different price level, assuming all meals and snacks are prepared at home. The costs are updated monthly with the Consumer Price Index for each food category.
The latest reports cover August 2026 for the Thrifty plan and August 2026 for the other three plans, both issued in September 2026. You can find every past month on the USDA's monthly cost of food reports page.
Two things worth knowing before you read the tables:
- The Thrifty plan is the one used for SNAP. Its reference family of four sets the maximum SNAP allotment, according to the report.
- The plans are built on different data. The Thrifty Food Plan was reevaluated in 2021 and uses 2013-16 consumption data. The Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost and Liberal plans are based on 2001-02 data. That's why, for some groups, the Thrifty plan comes out slightly above the Low-Cost plan.
How much should one person spend on groceries a month?
The USDA prices each person by age and sex, assuming a four-person household. For someone living alone, the report says to add 20 percent. With that adjustment, an adult aged 19 to 50 living alone comes out at:
| Plan (August 2026) | Woman, 19-50 | Man, 19-50 |
|---|---|---|
| Thrifty | $304 | $383 |
| Low-Cost | $331 | $381 |
| Moderate-Cost | $403 | $478 |
| Liberal | $515 | $583 |
Calculated from the Thrifty and Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost and Liberal reports, plus the USDA's 20% one-person adjustment. The Thrifty plan uses the 20-50 age group and the other plans use 19-50.
So for one person, somewhere between $300 and $600 a month covers the full range of USDA plans.
How much should 2 people spend on groceries a month?
For two people, you add both individual costs and then add 10 percent, as the USDA report instructs. For a couple where both are 19 to 50:
| Plan (August 2026) | Couple, both 19-50, per month | Per week |
|---|---|---|
| Thrifty | $630 | $145 |
| Low-Cost | $652 | $151 |
| Moderate-Cost | $808 | $186 |
| Liberal | $1,007 | $232 |
Calculated from the August 2026 USDA reports: woman plus man, plus 10%. Weekly figures use the USDA's own factor of 4.333 weeks per month.
The gap between the cheapest and the most generous plan is about $377 a month for a couple, so which plan you compare against matters as much as the number itself.
What is a good grocery budget for a family of 4?
A family of four needs no adjustment: you just add up the four people. The USDA's own reference family for the Thrifty plan is a man and a woman aged 20 to 50 with two children aged 6-8 and 9-11, and its August 2026 cost is $1,023.70 a month. Here's the same family on every plan, plus a family with younger kids:
| Plan (August 2026) | 2 adults + kids 6-8 and 9-11 | 2 adults + kids 2-3 and 4-5 |
|---|---|---|
| Thrifty | $1,024 | $934 |
| Low-Cost | $1,126 | $945 |
| Moderate-Cost | $1,388 | $1,163 |
| Liberal | $1,679 | $1,435 |
Calculated from the August 2026 USDA reports by adding each family member. The $1,023.70 Thrifty figure for the older-kids family is published directly in the Thrifty report.
Children's costs grow quickly with age. A 9-to-11-year-old on the Moderate-Cost plan costs $349.50 a month, against $207.10 for a 2-to-3-year-old, according to the August 2026 report.
How do you calculate a grocery budget for your own household?
The USDA reports explain the method in a footnote, and it works for any household:
- Look up each person in the report by age and sex, in the plan you want to compare against.
- Add them up.
- Adjust for household size, because the costs assume a four-person household:
| People in the household | Adjustment |
|---|---|
| 1 | Add 20% |
| 2 | Add 10% |
| 3 | Add 5% |
| 4 | None |
| 5 or 6 | Subtract 5% |
| 7 or more | Subtract 10% |
Source: footnote 2 of the August 2026 USDA food plan reports.
Grocery budget calculator
Pick the household closest to yours and type in what you spend on groceries in a typical month. You'll see how it compares with each USDA plan.
Enter an amount to compare.
Source: USDA Food Plans, Cost of Food at Home, August 2026 (issued September 2026). Household totals calculated with the USDA household size adjustments.
Being above the Liberal plan isn't automatically a problem. Special diets, allergies, a high cost of living area or a lot of entertaining at home can all push the number up. What matters is knowing where the extra is going.
How do you compare your real spending with the USDA numbers?
The USDA plans only count food and drinks for meals cooked at home. Your grocery receipt usually holds more than that: paper towels, detergent, shampoo, pet food, maybe a bottle of wine. If you compare your full receipt total with a food plan, you'll look like you overspend even when you don't.
To get an honest comparison you need two things: a full month of receipts, and the food separated from everything else. Your bank statement can give you the first, but not the second. It shows "SUPERMARKET $142.80", not what was in the bag.
That's the job TicketBrain was built for. It's an iPhone and Android app that reads your grocery receipts line by line:
- Scan a receipt with your camera or pick a photo from your gallery. The AI reads every product, its price and quantity.
- Each line gets a category, so food, household goods and personal care come apart on their own. You review and fix any line before saving, and the app warns you if a receipt looks like a duplicate.
- Set a monthly budget, for example the USDA Moderate-Cost figure for your household, and the home screen shows what you've spent against it and whether you're on pace.
After a month you can put your real food spending next to the tables above. If your bill has jumped and you can't tell why, our post on why your grocery bill doubled walks through the usual causes, and our comparison of the best apps to track grocery spending covers the other tools out there.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I spend on groceries a month for one person?
By the USDA's August 2026 food plans, an adult aged 19 to 50 living alone would spend $304 to $515 a month for a woman and $381 to $583 for a man, after the USDA's 20% adjustment for one-person households.
How much should 2 people spend on groceries a month?
A couple aged 19 to 50 would spend $630 a month on the Thrifty plan, $652 on Low-Cost, $808 on Moderate-Cost and $1,007 on Liberal, based on the August 2026 USDA reports with the 10% two-person adjustment.
What is a good grocery budget for a family of 4?
For two adults aged 19 to 50 and two kids aged 6 to 11, the August 2026 USDA plans range from $1,024 (Thrifty) to $1,679 (Liberal) a month. With kids aged 2 to 5, the range is $934 to $1,435.
Do the USDA food plans include household supplies?
No. The plans price food and drinks for meals and snacks prepared at home. Cleaning products, paper goods, personal care items and restaurant meals are not included, so compare them only with the food part of your receipts.
How often does the USDA update the cost of food?
Every month. The costs of all four plans are updated with the Consumer Price Index for each food category, and the reports are published on the USDA's monthly cost of food reports page.
Find out what you really spend
TicketBrain is free during early access, with no account needed and your receipts stored on your phone. Scan this week's receipts and you'll have your first real number by the end of the month.