How Much Should You Spend on Groceries? Set Your Own Number

“How much should I spend on groceries?” is one of the most common budgeting questions, and one of the hardest to answer with a single number. A grocery budget that’s generous for a single person in a small town might be impossibly tight for a family of five in an expensive city. Diets, allergies, cooking skills, time and local prices all matter.

So rather than offering a number, this post walks through a way to find your number: one based on what you actually spend, checked against a reasonable benchmark, and set at a level you can sustain.

Step 1: Find out what you spend now

Before deciding what you should spend, find out what you do spend. Gather three months of bank and card statements and pull out every grocery purchase: supermarkets, warehouse clubs, farmers’ markets, grocery delivery and the corner shop.

Three months smooths out the irregular big stock-up trips. If one of those months included a holiday or a party, use four months, or adjust for it.

Example: The Nguyens, a family of four with two school-age children, find:

Month	Grocery spending
July	$820
August	$760
September	$910
Average	$830

Step 2: Separate food from everything else

Grocery receipts often include things that aren’t food: cleaning supplies, toiletries, paper towels, pet food, medicine, even clothing or electronics at a big-box store. Lumping these into “Groceries” makes your food spending look higher than it is and hides spending in other categories.

Pick a few typical receipts and estimate the non-food share, or split the transactions in your budget.

Example: The Nguyens look at their receipts and find about $90 a month of household goods and toiletries. Their actual food spending is about $740 a month.

Going forward, they’ll split these purchases into Groceries and Household. That way each category tells the truth.

Step 3: Convert to a per-week or per-person figure

A monthly figure is hard to feel in the store. Weekly figures are easier to work with, because many people shop weekly.

Formula: monthly amount × 12 ÷ 52

Example: $740 × 12 ÷ 52 ≈ $171 a week, or about $43 per person per week.

Per-person figures are useful for comparisons, but remember that young children usually eat less than adults and teenagers often eat more.

Step 4: Compare with a benchmark

A benchmark tells you whether your spending is broadly in line with what households like yours spend, or well above or below.

In the US, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) publishes monthly “food plans” at four cost levels, from the Thrifty plan to the Liberal plan. They estimate the cost of a nutritious diet prepared at home for different ages and household sizes, and they’re updated regularly to reflect food prices. Other countries publish similar figures, and your local government statistics office may have average household food spending data.

Look up the current figures for your household’s ages and size, rather than relying on a number from an article, because food prices change.

How to use the benchmark:

• Spending near the low-cost or moderate level suggests your budget is in a reasonable range for a home-cooked diet.
• Spending well above the highest level often means there’s room to save: convenience foods, frequent small trips, waste, or premium brands.
• Spending well below the lowest level might be fine if you garden, buy in bulk or eat simply, but check that you’re not cutting nutrition or relying on credit to cover the gap.

Keep in mind that the benchmarks assume food is prepared at home and don’t include restaurant meals, alcohol or non-food items. Local prices vary considerably too.

Step 5: Decide on a target

Now choose your number. There are three common approaches:

Keep it where it is. If your spending matches a benchmark that feels right for your household and your budget balances, your current average is your budget. Write it down and track against it.

Trim gradually. If you want to spend less, aim for a 5% to 10% reduction rather than a dramatic cut. Big cuts tend to rebound.

Example: The Nguyens decide to aim for 10% less on food: $740 × 0.9 = $666, which they round to $670 a month, or about $155 a week. That frees $70 a month for their emergency fund.

Raise it. If your current budget is unrealistically low and you keep going over, raise it. A budget that fails every month teaches you to ignore it.

Ways to bring the number down

If you’re aiming to trim, these tend to be the most effective changes, though which ones work best depends on your household:

• Plan meals for the week before you shop. Even planning four or five dinners cuts impulse buying and waste.
• Shop with a list and fewer trips. Each extra trip is another chance for unplanned purchases.
• Cook a little more, prepare a little less. Pre-cut vegetables, pre-made meals and single-serving snacks cost more than their basic ingredients.
• Use what you have. A weekly look in the fridge and freezer before planning meals reduces waste.
• Compare unit prices, not shelf prices. Larger packages aren’t always cheaper per unit.
• Try store brands for staples where you can’t tell the difference.
• Watch the extras. Snacks, drinks and treats can add up to a surprising share of the bill.

Don’t cut so hard that groceries spill into takeout. A tight grocery budget that leads to two extra takeout meals a week usually costs more overall.

Tracking your grocery budget during the month

A monthly grocery budget can be hard to manage because the month’s spending is spread across many trips. A few ways to keep it on course:

• Use a weekly figure. $155 a week is easier to track than $670 a month.
• Check after each big shop. Is the month’s spending roughly on pace? Halfway through the month, you should have spent roughly half the budget.
• Account for months with five weekly shops. Several months a year have five of your shopping day. A weekly budget handles this automatically; a monthly one needs a little slack.

Review after three months

After three months on your new target, look again:

• If you’re consistently under, consider lowering the target a little more, or enjoy the slack.
• If you’re consistently over, find out why. Rising prices, a growing teenager or a new diet are good reasons to raise it. Frequent small trips might be worth addressing first.

Grocery prices change, so a grocery budget isn’t set once. Review it a couple of times a year.

Tracking groceries in Kemback

In Kemback, you can split a single supermarket transaction across Groceries and Household, set rules so purchases at your regular stores are categorized automatically, and see grocery spending by payee in the reports. The overview compares this month’s spending with last month’s, so you’ll know early if you’re running ahead.

The right grocery budget isn’t the lowest possible number. It’s one that feeds your household well, fits the rest of your plan, and that you can stick to month after month.

#groceries #budgeting basics #food budget

This article is general information, not financial, tax or legal advice. For decisions about your situation, talk to a qualified professional.