Wealthy PotAverage Grocery Bill: What Households Spend, and What USDA Says a Month of Food Costs
The average US household spends $519 a month on groceries, about $120 a week, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There is a second number almost nobody quotes, and it is arguably more useful: the US Department of Agriculture publishes an official monthly food budget, updated every month, at four different cost levels. For a family of four in August 2026 those run from $1,023.70 to about $1,679. This page gives both, explains why they are so far apart, and shows how to work out the figure for your own household.
Table of Contents
The Short Answer
- $519 a month is what the average US household spends on food at home, per the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey for 2024 ($6,224 a year). The average household in that survey has 2.4 people.
- That works out to about $120 a week, plus another $329 a month eating out.
- USDA's Thrifty Food Plan costs $1,023.70 a month for its reference family of four in August 2026, the latest month published. The Liberal plan for the same family comes to about $1,679.
- For one adult, the Thrifty plan runs $304 to $383 a month depending on sex, and the Liberal plan $515 to $583.
- USDA's tables are per person in a four-person household. Smaller households get more per head: add 20% for one person, 10% for two, 5% for three. Larger households get less: subtract 5% at five or six people, 10% at seven or more.
- The USDA plans assume every meal and snack is cooked at home. The BLS figure measures what people report actually spending. That difference explains most of the gap.
- Grocery prices rose 2.2% in the 12 months to August 2026, well below the 13.5% peak of 2022 but still 23.7% above where they stood five years earlier.
What People Actually Spend
The Bureau of Labor Statistics runs the Consumer Expenditure Survey, which asks households to record what they buy. Its "food at home" line is the closest thing there is to an official grocery bill. For 2024, the most recent year published, the average was $6,224 a year, or $518.67 a month.
The average on its own is nearly useless, because it blends a single person living alone with a household of six. The survey publishes the same line by household size, and that is the version worth reading:
| People in household | Groceries per month | Eating out per month | All food per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $283 | $187 | $470 |
| 2 | $507 | $339 | $847 |
| 3 | $633 | $384 | $1,017 |
| 4 | $725 | $487 | $1,212 |
| 5 or more | $856 | $444 | $1,300 |
| All households (average 2.4 people) | $519 | $329 | $847 |
Two things stand out. Groceries do not double when the household doubles: a two-person household spends $507, not twice the $283 that one person spends. And the household of five or more actually spends less on restaurants than the household of four, which is what feeding five people at restaurant prices does to a budget.
Inside the grocery bill itself, one category dominates:
| Grocery category | Per year | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Meats, poultry, fish and eggs | $1,414 | $118 |
| Fruits and vegetables | $953 | $79 |
| Cereals and bakery products | $779 | $65 |
| Dairy products | $631 | $53 |
| Other food at home (snacks, sugar, fats, condiments, non-alcoholic drinks) | $2,447 | $204 |
| Total food at home | $6,224 | $519 |
The USDA Food Plans: Four Budgets, Not One Average
Every month, USDA publishes the cost of a specified basket of food that meets federal nutrition standards. It does this at four cost levels, described by USDA as "four cost levels: the Thrifty, Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost, and Liberal Food Plans, illustrating how a healthy diet can be achieved at various costs." Each plan lists particular foods in particular quantities; the plans differ in what is in the basket, not only in what it costs.
This is not an average of what anyone spends. It is a costed standard, which makes it the right tool for a budget and the wrong tool for a comparison. A household choosing between the Thrifty and the Moderate plan is choosing a way of eating, not discovering a fact about itself.
The latest report available is for August 2026, issued in September 2026. Here is what USDA says one person costs to feed for a month, at each level:
| Person | Thrifty | Low-Cost | Moderate-Cost | Liberal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Child, 1 year | $114.20 | $165.10 | $185.80 | $226.00 |
| Child, 4-5 years | $188.30 | $178.80 | $221.40 | $267.60 |
| Child, 6-8 years | $209.20 | $262.00 | $304.50 | $356.30 |
| Child, 9-11 years | $241.90 | $270.90 | $349.50 | $407.40 |
| Female, 19/20-50 years | $253.70 | $275.70 | $336.10 | $428.80 |
| Male, 19/20-50 years | $318.90 | $317.20 | $398.10 | $486.20 |
| Female, 51-70 years | $236.30 | $268.70 | $331.00 | $399.20 |
| Male, 51-70 years | $281.20 | $299.00 | $375.00 | $448.80 |
| Female, 71+ years | $260.50 | $268.10 | $329.80 | $394.10 |
| Male, 71+ years | $268.20 | $295.90 | $363.70 | $447.70 |
Three details about these figures are worth knowing before you use them.
They are updated monthly using the CPI. USDA states that "the costs of the Thrifty Food Plan, 2021 Market Baskets for each age-sex group are updated monthly by using the Consumer Price Indexes." Weekly and monthly figures are linked by a fixed rule: monthly cost equals weekly cost times 4.333, and all costs are rounded to the nearest 10 cents.
The Thrifty plan carries legal weight. Its reference family of four is, in USDA's words, "used to determine the maximum Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) allotment, which is then adjusted downward for smaller households and upward for larger households." The plan was re-evaluated in 2021; USDA describes it as representing "a nutritious, practical, cost-effective diet," built on the Dietary Reference Intakes and the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines, priced from 2013-16 consumption and 2015-16 price data and carried forward with the CPI. Because the plan is repriced every month, that reference-family figure moves: it was $994.40 in June 2025 and $1,023.70 in August 2026.
The other three plans are much older. USDA says the Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost and Liberal plans rest on "the 1997-2005 Dietary Reference Intakes, 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and 2005 MyPyramid food intake recommendations," are "based on 2001-02 data," and that the 2021 Thrifty re-evaluation "begins the process to address" them. They are still updated monthly for prices, but the basket behind them has not been revisited in two decades.
That vintage gap shows up in the table itself. For an adult man aged 20 to 50, and for a child aged 4 to 5, the Thrifty plan is more expensive than the Low-Cost plan, which reads backwards until you know that the Thrifty basket was rebuilt in 2021 while the Low-Cost basket still comes from the 2007 report.
Geography matters enormously and USDA prices only three areas. For the same reference family of four in August 2026, the Thrifty plan costs $1,023.70 in the contiguous 48 states and DC, $1,294.70 in Anchorage, and $1,556.00 in Hawaii.
The Household Size Rule Almost Nobody Quotes
Here is the part that most pages quoting USDA get wrong, usually by lifting a single family-of-four figure and presenting it as the answer for everyone. USDA's per-person costs are calibrated to a four-person household, and the report carries an explicit adjustment for every other size. In USDA's own words:
"The costs given are for individuals in 4-person households. For individuals in other size households, the following adjustments are suggested: 1-person, add 20 percent; 2-person, add 10 percent; 3-person, add 5 percent; 4-person, no adjustment; 5- or 6-person, subtract 5 percent; 7-(or more) person, subtract 10 percent. To calculate total foods costs for a household, (1) sum the food costs for each individual in the household and then (2) apply the appropriate adjustment factor based on household size."
The logic is economies of scale in a kitchen. A single person buys the same bag of rice and the same bottle of oil as a family does, wastes more of the perishables, and cannot buy the large pack. Feeding one costs more per head than feeding four. A household of seven costs less per head again.
Working it through for a couple aged 20 to 50 on the Thrifty plan:
- Sum the individuals: $318.90 for the man plus $253.70 for the woman equals $572.60.
- Apply the two-person factor: add 10%, giving $629.86 a month.
Skip step 2 and you underbudget by $57 a month, or about $690 a year. For a single adult the error is larger in percentage terms, because the adjustment is 20%.
What Your Household Should Budget
Applying USDA's rule to USDA's August 2026 figures gives a monthly grocery budget for the common household shapes, at all four standards:
| Household | Thrifty | Low-Cost | Moderate-Cost | Liberal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One woman, 20-50 | $304 | $331 | $403 | $515 |
| One man, 20-50 | $383 | $381 | $478 | $583 |
| Couple, 20-50 | $630 | $652 | $808 | $1,007 |
| Couple, 51-70 | $569 | $624 | $777 | $933 |
| One woman 20-50 plus two children (6-8 and 9-11) | $740 | $849 | $1,040 | $1,252 |
| Family of four (two adults, children 6-8 and 9-11) | $1,023.70 | $1,126 | $1,388 | $1,679 |
| Family of five (add a child 4-5) | $1,151 | $1,239 | $1,529 | $1,849 |
Use these as budget targets rather than as predictions. The Thrifty column is the level SNAP benefits are built on and assumes careful shopping and cooking from scratch; the Liberal column assumes neither. Most households aiming to cut a grocery bill are trying to move down a column, not to hit the average.
Why the Two Numbers Disagree
Put the two sources side by side for a four-person household and something strange appears: BLS says such a household spends $725 a month on groceries, while USDA's cheapest plan for a family of four averaged $980 a month across 2024. Actual grocery spending is about 74% of the thriftiest official budget. That is not a contradiction, and it is not evidence that families are eating better than USDA expects.
| Four-person household, 2024 | Per month |
|---|---|
| What they spend on groceries (BLS) | $725 |
| What they spend eating out (BLS) | $487 |
| What they spend on all food (BLS) | $1,212 |
| USDA Thrifty plan, reference family of four, 2024 average | $980 |
The gap has one main cause. USDA assumes that all meals and snacks are prepared at home. BLS households are not doing that. They are buying about $487 a month of restaurant and takeaway food, which comes off the grocery bill and goes onto a different line. Total food spending for a four-person household is $1,212 a month, roughly 24% above the Thrifty plan, not below it.
The second reason is what each number is for. USDA is pricing a fixed basket that meets a nutrition standard. BLS is recording what people report buying, whatever that was, including the weeks the budget ran short. One is a target, the other is behaviour. Neither is wrong, and anyone quoting a single "average grocery bill" without saying which of the two they mean is leaving out the important half.
Which Way Grocery Prices Are Moving
The two sets of figures above sit at different dates, so it helps to know what has happened to prices in between. The BLS consumer price index tracks food at home separately from restaurants, and the two have parted company.
| Category | Change, 12 months to August 2026 |
|---|---|
| Food at home (groceries) | +2.2% |
| Nonalcoholic beverages | +3.7% |
| Fruits and vegetables | +3.2% |
| Cereals and bakery products | +2.6% |
| Other food at home | +2.4% |
| Meats, poultry, fish and eggs | +1.1% |
| Dairy and related products | -0.3% |
| Food away from home (restaurants) | +3.4% |
| All items | +3.4% |
Groceries are currently rising more slowly than prices in general, and more slowly than restaurants. That is a recent development. Over the 12 months to August 2022 the grocery index rose 13.5%, the fastest in four decades, and the cumulative effect has not gone anywhere: food at home in August 2026 was 23.7% more expensive than in August 2021. A grocery bill that feels permanently higher than it used to be is reading the data correctly.
Note which figures belong to which source. The percentages above are price changes from the CPI. The dollar figures earlier in this page are USDA plan costs and BLS spending. They should not be combined: USDA has already applied the CPI in arriving at its August 2026 costs.
Is Your Grocery Bill High?
Comparing yourself to $519 a month tells you very little, since that average covers a household of 2.4 people with an unknown number of restaurant meals. A more useful sequence:
- Separate groceries from eating out. Sort three months of card statements into two buckets. Most people who think they have a grocery problem have a restaurant problem, and the fix is different.
- Build your own USDA number. Take the age-sex figures from the table above, add up your actual household, then apply the size adjustment. That is your benchmark, not the national average.
- Pick which plan you are aiming at. If you are above the Liberal figure for your household, the issue is unlikely to be food prices. If you are below Thrifty, check that the shortfall is not coming out of fresh produce or protein.
- Compare against the same season. Grocery spending moves with school holidays, entertaining and travel. Match this November against last November.
- Put the number in a budget. Food belongs in the "needs" half of a 50/30/20 budget, and our budget calculator will do the split. See where food sits against everything else on average monthly expenses, and how it compares with the other bill people watch most, the average electric bill.
If the target is to cut the bill rather than measure it, the levers that move real money are planning meals before shopping, buying protein on the unit price rather than the pack price, and reducing waste. Our guide to meal planning on a budget goes through the method.
Sources & Methodology
- USDA Food Plans: Monthly Cost of Food Reports, the landing page for the series. The August 2026 editions used here are the Thrifty Food Plan report, the Cost of Food at Home at Three Levels report and the Alaska and Hawaii report, all issued September 2026.
- USDA Thrifty Food Plan cost dataset, June 2021 to present, used for the 2024 calendar-year average and the June 2025 figure.
- BLS, Consumer Expenditures 2024, for food at home, food away from home and the category split.
- BLS Consumer Expenditure Surveys, Table 1400, Size of consumer unit, 2024, for spending by household size.
- BLS, Consumer Price Index, August 2026, for the 12-month price changes. Series CUUR0000SAF11, "Food at home in U.S. city average, all urban consumers, not seasonally adjusted," was used for the longer comparisons.
Method notes. USDA publishes weekly and monthly costs per individual; monthly cost is weekly cost times 4.333, and all USDA costs are rounded to the nearest 10 cents. Household totals other than the Thrifty family of four are our own arithmetic, summing USDA's published per-person costs and then applying USDA's stated household-size adjustment. BLS publishes annual amounts per consumer unit; monthly figures here are those amounts divided by 12. The 2024 Consumer Expenditure Survey is the most recent available; we will update this page when the 2025 survey is published.
This article is for general information and is not financial advice. Figures are from USDA Food and Nutrition Administration and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, checked against the primary sources on 2026-09-30. Averages include households that spend nothing in a category, and USDA plan costs are budget standards rather than measurements of anyone's spending, so your own numbers may differ widely.
FAQ
What is the average grocery bill per month?
$519 a month for the average US household, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey for 2024. That household averages 2.4 people, and the same survey shows $283 a month for one person and $725 for four.
How much should a family of four spend on groceries?
USDA's August 2026 figures put a family of four (two adults and children aged 6-8 and 9-11) at $1,023.70 a month on the Thrifty plan, about $1,126 on Low-Cost, $1,388 on Moderate-Cost and $1,679 on Liberal. Those assume every meal is cooked at home. In practice BLS finds four-person households spending $725 on groceries and another $487 eating out.
How much should one person spend on groceries a month?
On USDA's August 2026 Thrifty plan, about $304 for a woman aged 20 to 50 and $383 for a man, after the 20% single-person adjustment. The Liberal plan runs $515 and $583. BLS finds one-person households actually spending $283 a month on groceries plus $187 eating out.
Why does USDA publish four different food plans?
Because there is no single cost of eating well. USDA describes the four levels as "illustrating how a healthy diet can be achieved at various costs." The plans differ in which foods are in the basket and in what quantities, not only in the total.
What is the Thrifty Food Plan?
USDA's lowest-cost plan, re-evaluated in 2021, which USDA describes as representing "a nutritious, practical, cost-effective diet" with all meals prepared at home. Its reference family of four is the figure used to set the maximum SNAP allotment, which is then scaled down for smaller households and up for larger ones.
Do I use USDA's figures as they are published?
Not unless you have exactly four people. USDA's per-person costs assume a four-person household. Add 20% for a one-person household, 10% for two, 5% for three, and subtract 5% at five or six people and 10% at seven or more, after summing the individuals.
Why is the USDA figure so much higher than what people actually spend?
Because USDA prices every meal and snack as cooked at home. Households spend part of their food budget in restaurants instead. Counting both, a four-person household spends about $1,212 a month on food against a Thrifty plan of roughly $980 for the same year.
How fast are grocery prices rising?
Food at home rose 2.2% in the 12 months to August 2026, below the 3.4% rise in all items and the 3.4% rise in restaurant prices. Groceries are still 23.7% more expensive than they were in August 2021.
Are groceries more expensive in Alaska and Hawaii?
Substantially. USDA prices the same Thrifty family of four at $1,023.70 in the contiguous 48 states and DC, $1,294.70 in Anchorage and $1,556.00 in Hawaii for August 2026.
Cite This Page
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"Average Grocery Bill: What Households Spend, and What USDA Says a Month of Food Costs." Wealthy Pot, 2026. https://wealthypot.com/average-grocery-bill/
