USDA Food Plans 2026: How Much to Spend on Groceries a Month

Quick answer: USDA's Thrifty Food Plan, its lowest-cost food budget, was $1,024 a month for a family of four in September 2026, or $236.30 a week.¹ One adult comes to about $305 to $383 a month and two adults to about $630 on that plan. The highest-cost plan reaches $1,682 for a family of four.¹

Every USDA figure assumes all meals and snacks are cooked at home. In 2024, households of four spent about $725 a month on groceries and $487 on eating out.² The Thrifty cost also sets the top SNAP benefit, so it is the number to know if you use food benefits.

USDA reprices these plans every month. This guide uses the September 2026 report, the latest one posted when we checked on October 29, 2026.¹

How much should you spend on groceries each month?

It depends on who is in your household, because USDA prices every age and sex group separately and then adjusts for household size.¹ The table gives the Thrifty and Moderate-Cost plans for common households. The Low-Cost and Liberal plans are in the calculator below.

Household	Thrifty, per month	Thrifty, per week	Moderate-Cost, per month
1 woman, 20–50	$305	$70	$404
1 man, 20–50	$383	$88	$478
Woman 20–50 and a child 2–3 (2 people)	$469	$108	$598
Woman and man, both 20–50 (2 people)	$630	$145	$808
Two adults 20–50 and a child 6–8 (3 people)	$821	$190	$1,091
Two adults 20–50 and children 6–8 and 9–11 (4 people, USDA's reference family)	$1,024	$236	$1,389
Reference family plus a child 4–5 (5 people)	$1,152	$266	$1,530
Reference family plus children 2–3 and 4–5 (6 people)	$1,315	$304	$1,727

September 2026 USDA costs for the 48 contiguous states and D.C. PantryPath arithmetic: we added USDA's published monthly cost for each person, applied USDA's household-size adjustment and rounded to the dollar.¹

How much does one person spend on food per month?

A woman aged 20 to 50 needs about $305 a month on the Thrifty plan, and a man the same age needs about $383.¹ On the Moderate-Cost plan the range is $404 to $478.¹ USDA suggests adding 20% to the cost of a one-person household.¹

For comparison, one-person households spent an average of $283 a month on groceries and $187 on food away from home in 2024.²

What is a monthly food budget for two people?

Two adults aged 20 to 50 come to about $630 a month on the Thrifty plan and $808 on the Moderate-Cost plan.¹ That is less than the two one-person budgets added together, which is $305 plus $383, or $688. USDA adds 10% to the combined cost of two people instead of 20% to each.¹ Households of two spent an average of $507 a month on groceries in 2024.²

How much should a family of four, five or six spend on groceries?

USDA's reference family is a man and woman aged 20 to 50 with children aged 6 to 8 and 9 to 11.¹ Its Thrifty cost is $1,024 a month, and your own number moves with your children's ages. Each added person raises the total. USDA takes 5% off the combined cost once a household has five or six members.¹

USDA also publishes a Thrifty cost for Anchorage and for Hawaii, where food costs more. The reference family cost $1,296.90 a month in Anchorage and $1,573.60 in Hawaii in September 2026.¹

What are the four USDA food plans?

USDA produces four food plans at rising cost levels: Thrifty, Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost and Liberal.³ Each one lists the foods and drinks, by weekly amount, that make a healthy diet when you buy them and prepare them at home. The cost is that market basket priced at average food prices.³

Plan	Family of 4, per week	Family of 4, per month	Spending level it reflects
Thrifty	$236.30	$1,024	Lowest cost; sets the maximum SNAP benefit
Low-Cost	$260.10	$1,127	Second from the bottom quartile of food spending
Moderate-Cost	$320.50	$1,389	Second from the top quartile
Liberal	$388.00	$1,682	Top quartile

USDA, September 2026. USDA prints the family total only for the Thrifty plan. The other three rows add USDA's published cost for each of the four people.¹ The spending levels come from USDA's description of the plans.³

The Thrifty plan was rebuilt in 2021 after the 2018 Farm Bill ordered a fresh look, the first since 2006.⁴ The other three plans' baskets were last rebuilt in 2007, and their cost levels were set in 1983.³ The tiers do not line up for every age group: a man aged 20 to 50 costs $319.00 a month on the Thrifty plan and $317.70 on the Low-Cost plan.¹

The monthly cost of each plan changes with the Consumer Price Index, not with a new basket.¹ The One Big Beautiful Bill Act requires that the next Thrifty reevaluation come no earlier than October 1, 2027 and that future reevaluations be cost-neutral.³ USDA posts each report as a PDF, and the history as Excel files, on its monthly reports page.¹

How do you work out your own household's food budget?

List everyone in your household by age and sex.
Pick a plan and look up each person's monthly cost in USDA's table, or enter the people below.
Add the costs together.
Apply USDA's household-size adjustment: add 20% for one person, 10% for two, 5% for three, nothing for four, and subtract 5% for five or six and 10% for seven or more.¹

Take a woman aged 30 and her 2-year-old. On the Thrifty plan that is $253.90 plus $172.50, or $426.40. Add 10% for a two-person household and the budget is $469 a month, about $108 a week.¹

How many people are in each age and sex group?

Child, 1 year Child, 2–3 years Child, 4–5 years Child, 6–8 years Child, 9–11 years Female, 12–13 Female, 14–19 Female, 20–50 Female, 51–70 Female, 71 and older Male, 12–13 Male, 14–19 Male, 20–50 Male, 51–70 Male, 71 and older

Enter the people in your household to see a monthly budget on each USDA plan.

Estimate from USDA's September 2026 costs for the 48 contiguous states and D.C., with USDA's household-size adjustment applied. Weekly is monthly divided by 4.333.

How much do families spend on groceries and eating out?

Real households spend less on groceries than the USDA plans, and they also buy meals away from home. The Bureau of Labor Statistics asks households what they spend each year in its Consumer Expenditure Surveys. We converted the 2024 yearly averages to monthly figures.²

Household size	Groceries (food at home)	Food away from home	USDA Thrifty example, Sept 2026
1 person	$283	$187	$305–$383
2 people	$507	$339	$630
3 people	$633	$384	$821
4 people	$725	$487	$1,024
5 or more (5.7 on average)	$856	$444	$1,152–$1,315

BLS 2024 yearly averages divided by 12, and USDA September 2026 costs. The two are not like for like: the survey covers all ages and incomes, in 2024 dollars.²¹

Across all households, food cost $10,169 in 2024, or $847 a month. Groceries were $6,224 of that ($519 a month) and food away from home was $3,945 ($329 a month).² USDA's plans count only food prepared at home, so your restaurant and takeout spending sits on top of them.¹

How do the USDA food plans connect to SNAP?

By federal law, the June cost of the Thrifty Food Plan for the reference family sets the maximum SNAP benefit for the next federal fiscal year. That year starts each October 1.³ USDA scales that amount down for smaller households and up for larger ones, and gives smaller households slightly more per person.¹⁵

People	Maximum SNAP benefit, FY 2027	Thrifty plan cost, Sept 2026
1	$306	$305 (woman) to $383 (man)
2	$562	$630 (two adults 20–50)
3	$808	$821 (two adults and a child 6–8)
4	$1,023	$1,024 (reference family)

SNAP maximums apply October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027 in the 48 states and D.C.⁵ Thrifty costs are PantryPath arithmetic from USDA's September 2026 table.¹

The maximums come from one reference family of four, not from each household's ages, so they can sit above or below the Thrifty cost for a particular household.¹ Most households also get less than the maximum. USDA expects a SNAP household to spend about 30% of its own resources on food, so it subtracts 30% of net income from the maximum. For a four-person household with a $1,023 maximum and $317 as 30% of net income, the benefit is $706.⁶

Our guide to how SNAP benefits are calculated walks through the full formula, and the SNAP guide covers how to apply.

How are grocery prices changing?

Grocery prices are rising more slowly than restaurant prices. In September 2026, food-at-home prices were 1.8% higher than a year earlier and food-away-from-home prices were 3.5% higher.⁷ The USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) forecasts food-at-home prices to rise 2.3% in 2026, with a likely range of 1.9% to 2.7%.⁷ For 2027 it forecasts 1.0%, but the range is wide, from -5.2% to 7.5%.⁷

Items differ. Egg prices in September 2026 were 20.6% lower than a year earlier. Beef and veal were 3.5% higher, fresh fruit 4.9% higher and fresh vegetables 2.8% higher.⁷ Because USDA reprices its plans every month, your target budget will drift with these changes.¹

How can you spend less than the plan?

Start at home. University of Minnesota Extension suggests checking your cupboards, planning meals and writing a list before you shop. That helps you avoid impulse buys and extra trips.⁸ The same guide lists these habits at the store:⁸

Compare store brands with national brands, and check that the labels match.
Use unit prices, the cost per ounce posted on the shelf.
Buy only amounts you can store and use before they spoil.
Know your usual prices so you can spot a real sale.
Skip convenience stores, which almost always charge more for food.

Unit prices can also decide between fresh, frozen and canned. Iowa State's example prices put green beans at $0.06 an ounce canned, $0.08 frozen and $0.13 fresh.⁹ Those are the university's example prices from 2019, not today's, but the same division works on any shelf tag.

For ready-made plans, see our budget grocery list for a family of four, our week of meals on a budget and 20 ways to stretch SNAP. The cheap family dinners collection helps when you cook most nights.

What can a food pantry add to your grocery budget?

A pantry does not replace a food budget, but the food it gives you is food you do not buy. PantryPath's directory lists what each confirmed pantry says it stocks. Of 7,566 confirmed listings, 5,338 list items, and the table shows how many of those list each type.¹⁰

Item listed	Pantries	Share of 5,338
Fresh produce	3,385	63%
Canned goods	3,064	57%
Dry goods and grains	2,798	52%
Meat and poultry	1,907	36%
Dairy products	1,702	32%
Bread and bakery	1,439	27%
Frozen foods	709	13%
Hygiene and personal care	2,209	41%
Diapers and baby supplies	1,331	25%
Cleaning supplies	732	14%

PantryPath directory analysis, queried October 29, 2026, confirmed listings with a state. A listing means the pantry reports stocking the item, not that every visit includes it.¹⁰

Use the pantry search to look up pantries in your area. Our posts on what pantries give you and how often you can visit explain what to expect.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is $1,000 a month a lot for groceries for two people?

It is at the top of USDA's range. Two adults aged 20 to 50 cost $630 on the Thrifty plan and $1,008 on the Liberal plan.¹ Households of two spent about $507 a month on groceries in 2024, and $847 a month on all food including meals out.²

Is $100 a week too much for groceries?

For one adult it is more than the Thrifty plan, which is $70 to $88 a week. It sits within the Moderate-Cost plan's range of about $93 to $110.¹

Can you feed a family of 4 on $100 a week?

That is 42% of the $236.30 Thrifty cost for the reference family, so it takes planning and outside help.¹ SNAP and food pantries can cover part of the gap, and our budget grocery list shows one low-cost approach.

Can you live on $300 a month for groceries?

On the Thrifty plan, $300 is about what a woman aged 20 to 50 needs ($305) and less than a man the same age needs ($383). A budget of $200 is well under both.¹ One-person households averaged $283 a month on groceries in 2024.² At those amounts, planning meals and comparing unit prices matter most.⁸

How much does a family of four spend on groceries in a year?

Households of four spent an average of $8,697 on groceries in 2024, plus $5,847 on food away from home.² The Thrifty plan for the reference family works out to $12,288 a year ($1,024 times 12), and the Liberal plan to about $20,180.¹

Does the USDA food budget include eating out or household supplies?

No. The plans price foods and beverages bought and prepared at home, so restaurant, takeout and delivery meals are extra.¹ The BLS separates "food at home" from "food away from home" the same way.²

How often do the USDA food plans change?

Every month, for food inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers.³ The foods in the Thrifty basket have not changed since 2021, and the next possible change is October 1, 2027 or later.³

Does SNAP cover the full Thrifty Food Plan cost?

Only the maximum benefit is tied to it, and only for households with little or no net income. Most households get the maximum minus 30% of their net income.⁶ Check the eligibility guide to see if you qualify.

How much should I budget for a teenager's food?

On the Thrifty plan, a girl aged 14 to 19 costs $260.00 a month and a boy $326.30, which is more than a man aged 20 to 50 at $319.00. On the Moderate-Cost plan the figures are $323.30 and $403.50.¹ These are before the household-size adjustment.¹

How we checked this

On October 29, 2026, we read USDA's monthly Cost of Food report (September 2026, page updated October 19). We read its USDA Food Plans overview, the Thrifty Food Plan, 2021 page and the FY 2027 SNAP cost-of-living page (updated October 21). We also read USDA's SNAP eligibility page, the ERS Food Price Outlook (October 2026 forecast) and BLS Consumer Expenditure Surveys Table 1400 for 2024. USDA's MyPlate budget page would not load from our tools, so we did not cite it.

The household totals, weekly figures, calculator, higher-plan family totals and BLS monthly conversions are PantryPath's arithmetic from those tables. USDA's costs are national averages, and your local prices will differ. The pantry figures come from 7,566 confirmed PantryPath listings, of which 5,338 list what they stock.¹⁰

Your next step: find your household in the table. Then check whether you qualify for SNAP or search for a food pantry to take pressure off the monthly total.