How To Find A Good Monthly Grocery Budget For Your Family
Updated on April 14, 2026
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How much should you spend on your monthly grocery budget? Are you overspending? Here’s how to create a realistic monthly goal!
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
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Are you overspending? It can be difficult to know when so many factors, like geographic location, diets, and allergies, can all affect your monthly grocery budget. Here’s how you can see how you stack up and if you have room for improvement!
How Much Should Your Family Spend On Groceries Each Month?
As inflation continues, it’s hard to know how much you should be spending on food for your family. Dave Ramsey used to say you should spend about 10% of your monthly income on groceries. However, Dave Ramsey now endorses the USDA Food Plans: Monthly Cost of Food Reports.
This USDA Food Plan report assesses the average grocery expenses for families in 4 different groups: thrifty, low-cost, medium-cost, and liberal. Numbers are updated every month to reflect market changes. Below you can see the average costs for the time this post was written (2026).
Monthly Grocery Budget Calculator
If you want to get even more specific, check out the USDA-endorsed Grocery Budget Calculator. This calculator lets you customize the age ranges and the number of meals eaten at home for your family. Here’s the result for my family of 2 adults and 3 small children who eat all meals at home. Keep in mind the Grocery Budget Calculator does not account for any special allergy or diet restrictions.
How Do Dietary Restrictions Affect A Grocery Budget?
Dietary restrictions like low cholesterol, low sodium, or allergies and intolerances can cause a family to spend more on groceries. For example, if you have a child with a gluten allergy, you will need to pay for name-brand gluten-free products instead of the cheaper generic brand breads and pastas. Families with special dietary considerations will need to increase their grocery budget to accommodate these important differences.
What Other Factors Affect Grocery Expenses?
- Location: Some states have higher-priced foods in some or all categories
- Number of Family Members: More people equals more expenses
- Age of Family Members: A toddler will eat less than a teenager
- Number of Meals at Home: If you are a stay-at-home mom with kids, you’ll spend more on groceries than if you ate lunch at work or school.
- *Diet Choices: Organic, Non-GMO, Vegan, etc., will all be higher priced
*If you’re unsure about how to handle dietary choices for your family on a limited income, check out my post A Dietitian’s Best Advice for Eating Healthy on a Budget.
Helpful Ways To Save Money On Groceries
Thankfully, Groceries are one area of the budget you can really take control of if you’re paying attention. While everyone in the family obviously needs to eat, there are lots of options for saving. Check out these ideas below.
- Compare Grocery Prices: Learn to compare prices across brands and package sizes to get the best deal.
- Cut out Unnecessary Expenses: Eliminate junk foods, extra “little treats”, and foods that can’t be finished before expiration.
- Simplify Recipes: Cut down on fresh herbs and special ingredients. Learn to substitute with ingredients on hand.
- Shop for Sales: Watch weekly ads for nearby stores. Buy extra sale items while they are cheap to avoid paying full price later.
- Buy In Bulk: buy more for a lower price per ounce when it makes sense
- Start A Capsule Pantry: Organize your cupboards, freezer, and fridge in a way that maximizes the ingredients on hand.
- Meal Plan: Plan meals to buy only what you need.
- Cook From Scratch: Almost all homemade meals are cheaper than processed foods.
- Cash-Back Apps: Check for additional money-back on apps like Fetch or Ibotta
My $500 Grocery Budget For a Family of 5
As a stay-at-home mom with littles living on one income, I keep our grocery budget very low. Actually, it’s about half as much as the USDA expects my family to spend. As a “retired” dietitian, I continue to keep appropriate nutrition a priority in our home. I use the USDA’s MyPlate as an easy guide to ensure my family gets all the major food groups regularly.
Thankfully, my family does not have any allergies or other dietary restrictions that raise our grocery budget, and we live in the Midwest, where food is reasonably priced. I have used all of the tricks I mentioned above to keep our monthly grocery budget low, but it didn’t happen overnight.
Advice For Beginners
Sticking to a grocery store budget takes time and self-discipline. You won’t get it right every month, so try to give yourself grace and learn from your mistakes. The best way to know if you’re meeting your goals or not is to keep track of your expenses every month. You can use an app (I like the free version of EveryDollar) or even paper and pencil. Make sure to track all of your grocery expenses.
After tracking how much money you spent on groceries in a month, think about oddities that may have affected your spending. Were you on a vacation? Did you host any parties? Were the kids in school or out of school? Make a mental note of these and try to anticipate any changes for the next month. Then, set yourself a goal amount you’d like to spend or save on groceries for the following month.
Each month, continue to assess your spending and learn new skills like shopping sales, cooking from scratch, etc., that can continue to stretch your dollar. Most importantly, keep at it. It’s hard work, but you’ll thank yourself for it later!
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