How much should a family spend on groceries? The USDA food plans explained

For a family of four with two school-age children, the USDA's food plans put the monthly grocery bill between about $1,000 on the thrifty plan and $1,600 on the liberal plan in 2026. Where your family lands depends on how you shop, not on eating better or worse. All four plans describe a healthy diet.

What the USDA food plans are

Every month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture publishes the cost of four food plans for people of each age and sex. Each plan is a shopping list of foods that meet federal nutrition guidelines, cooked at home, priced at current grocery prices. The plans differ in cost, not in nutrition:

• Thrifty: the lowest-cost plan. It assumes almost everything is cooked from scratch. It's the basis for SNAP benefits.
• Low-cost: a careful shopper who buys store brands and plans meals.
• Moderate: close to what a typical middle-income family spends.
• Liberal: more variety, more convenience foods and more expensive choices.

Monthly cost by age, August 2026

These are the USDA's monthly costs per person, U.S. average. For ages 12 and up, the figure is the average of the female and male values.

Source: USDA Food and Nutrition Administration, Cost of Food at Home, August 2026. The thrifty plan uses the 2021 market basket; the other three use the 2007 basket, which is why the thrifty plan is higher than low-cost for some young children.

Teenage boys are the most expensive family members to feed. On the moderate plan, a boy aged 14–19 costs $403 a month, against $323 for a girl the same age and $207 for a toddler.

Add up your household

To estimate your family's grocery budget:

1. Look up each person's monthly cost for the plan that matches how you shop.
2. Add them together.
3. Adjust for household size. The USDA figures assume a four-person household. Add 20% for one person, 10% for two, 5% for three. Take off 5% for five or six people and 10% for seven or more. Larger households buy in bulk and waste less.

For two adults aged 38 and 40 with children aged 9 and 4, the totals come to about $1,003 (thrifty), $1,043 (low-cost), $1,305 (moderate) and $1,590 (liberal) a month at U.S. average prices.

LifeCalculator's family budget calculator does these steps automatically from the ages you enter and scales the result by your state's price level for goods.

What the plans don't include

• Restaurants and takeout. The plans cover food prepared at home only. Our budget calculator adds a separate line for eating out, estimated at a quarter of the grocery bill.
• Household items. Paper towels, cleaning supplies and toiletries are bought at the grocery store but are not food. Budget for them separately.
• Special diets. Gluten-free, allergy-friendly or mostly organic diets usually cost more than the moderate plan.
• Alaska and Hawaii. The USDA publishes separate, higher thrifty plan costs for these states.

Using the plans to cut your bill

If you're spending well above the liberal plan for your family, most of the gap is usually convenience foods, snacks and waste rather than the core diet. The biggest levers are planning meals for the week before shopping, buying store brands, cooking larger batches and using leftovers, and buying produce that's in season.

Moving from the moderate to the low-cost plan saves this example family about $260 a month, over $3,000 a year. See how groceries fit into the rest of your budget with the family budget calculator, or read what a family of four costs in every state.