Average grocery bill for a family of 4 in 2026 (US / UK)
In the US, USDA’s September 2026 food plans price a family of four (two adults aged 19–50, children aged 6–8 and 9–11) at $236 a week on the Thrifty plan and $1,389 a month on the Moderate-Cost plan. The Low-Cost plan sits at $1,127 a month and the Liberal plan reaches $1,682.
In the UK, ONS Family Spending (FYE 2025) shows households of two adults and two children spending £98 a week on food and non-alcoholic drinks, about £426 a month. Similar households on the lowest incomes spend around 11% less, and those on the highest incomes around 9% more.
All of these figures cover food eaten at home. Restaurants, takeaways, alcohol and household supplies such as cleaning products are separate costs, so budget for them separately. The eating out calculator works out the eating-out figure for your household.
Average grocery budget by family size
US figures are USDA plans for September 2026, adjusted for household size. Each row is one example household; your own mix of ages will move the number, which is what the calculator above is for.
| People | Household | Thrifty / month | Moderate / month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Woman, 19–50 | $305 | $404 |
| 2 | Couple, 19–50 | $630 | $808 |
| 3 | Couple + child 4–5 | $799 | $1,004 |
| 4 | Couple + children 6–8 and 9–11 | $1,024 | $1,389 |
| 5 | Couple + children 4–5, 6–8, 9–11 | $1,152 | $1,530 |
| 6 | Couple + children 2–3, 4–5, 6–8, 9–11 | $1,315 | $1,727 |
UK figures are the average weekly spend on food and non-alcoholic drinks for each ONS household type, FYE 2025.
| Household (ONS) | Per week | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Non-retired: one person | £40.30 | £175 |
| Non-retired: two adults | £73.20 | £317 |
| One adult with one child | £55.00 | £238 |
| One adult with two or more children | £69.40 | £301 |
| Two adults with one child | £81.60 | £354 |
| Two adults with two children | £98.30 | £426 |
| Two adults with three or more children | £119.60 | £518 |
| Three or more adults without children | £110.10 | £477 |
| Three or more adults with children | £125.60 | £544 |
Why a teenager costs as much as an adult
On the Moderate-Cost plan USDA prices a boy aged 14–18 at $93.10 a week — more than a man aged 19–50 at $91.90. A boy of 12–13 is already at $90.50, against $70.30 for a child of 6–8. A girl of 14–18 costs $74.60, close to a woman’s $77.60.
In practice, the same family of four needs about $1,462 a month on a moderate plan once both children are teenagers, compared with $1,389 while they are 6–11. For boys the step up comes at 12, so that birthday is a good time to raise the grocery budget.
Thrifty vs Moderate: what’s in the basket
Each USDA food plan is a market basket: a list of foods, in amounts, that together give a family a healthy diet with every meal and snack made at home. All four plans meet nutrition guidance; they differ in cost.
- Thrifty is USDA’s lowest-cost healthy diet. It was re-evaluated in 2021 and sets the maximum SNAP benefit. It assumes most food is cooked at home from basic ingredients.
- Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost and Liberal are built from what American households at progressively higher levels of food spending ate, adjusted to meet nutrition guidance. The higher plans leave room for pricier foods and more convenience food.
- Moderate vs Thrifty. For the family of four above, Moderate costs 36% more than Thrifty, $365 a month.
How to stay under your grocery cap
- Think in weeks. A weekly figure ($321 for the moderate family of four) is easier to steer than a monthly one, because you can still correct course before the next big shop.
- Track as you go. Adding up receipts on the 30th shows what already happened. Logging each shop when it happens takes seconds when you can say what you spent or snap the receipt, and you see how much of the cap is left while there is still time to adjust.
- Plan for growth spurts. Raise the budget when a son turns 12, before the extra cost shows up as an overspend.
- Keep eating out separate. The figures here are for food at home. A separate cap for takeaways and cafés keeps them from using up the grocery money.
Frequently asked questions
- How much should a family of 4 spend on groceries per month?
- In the US, USDA’s September 2026 plans put a family of four (two adults, children aged 6–8 and 9–11) at $1,024 a month on the Thrifty plan, $1,127 on Low-Cost, $1,389 on Moderate-Cost and $1,682 on Liberal. In the UK, two adults with two children spend about £426 a month on average (ONS, FYE 2025).
- How much should a single person spend on groceries?
- On USDA’s Moderate-Cost plan, a woman aged 19–50 living alone needs about $404 a month and a man about $478, including USDA’s 20% adjustment for one-person households. In the UK, non-retired people living alone spend £40 a week on average, about £175 a month.
- Is the USDA Thrifty plan realistic?
- It is a costed healthy diet and the basis for SNAP benefits. It assumes every meal and snack is made at home, mostly from basic ingredients. If your week has less time for cooking, start from the Low-Cost or Moderate-Cost plan.
- Does the grocery budget include eating out?
- No. Both USDA and ONS figures here cover food and non-alcoholic drinks for eating at home. ONS reports eating out separately: households of two adults and two children spend £56.40 a week on restaurants and hotels on top of their groceries.
- Why does the calculator ask for sex from age 12?
- USDA prices children under 12 the same regardless of sex, then sets separate costs for males and females from age 12, because energy needs start to differ. Asking keeps the estimate matched to the USDA figures.
- How much should a family of 4 spend on groceries in my region?
- On USDA’s Moderate-Cost plan, adjusted for region (CapKin estimate), a family of four (two adults, children aged 6–8 and 9–11) needs about $1,597 a month in the Northeast, $1,405 a month in the Midwest, $1,154 a month in the South, $1,497 a month in the West, $1,759 a month in Alaska, $2,135 a month in Hawaii, against $1,389 for the U.S. average. In the UK, two adults with two children spend about £405 a month in London, £437 a month in Scotland, £477 a month in Northern Ireland, against £426 on average.
- How do school lunches change the grocery budget?
- In the US, a meal eaten away from home takes 1/21 of that person’s weekly food cost off the grocery budget (the Iowa State SpendSmart method). If both children in the family of four eat lunch at school on weekdays, the moderate budget drops from $1,389 to about $1,233 a month. School meals still cost money, so budget for them separately. UK figures are what households spend, including typical lunches out, so the UK estimate doesn’t change.
- What percentage of income goes on groceries?
- In 2025, U.S. consumers spent 4.8% of disposable personal income on food at home and 9.7% on food in total (USDA ERS). In the UK, food and non-alcoholic drinks are 11% of total household spending (ONS, FYE 2025). Add your take-home pay under “Refine your estimate” to see your own share; it stays in your browser.
- How often are the figures updated?
- USDA publishes new food plan costs every month and ONS publishes Family Spending once a year. This page uses the USDA report for September 2026 and ONS FYE 2025, and is updated as new releases come out.
How we calculate this
US figures are USDA’s official food plan costs for each person in your household (September 2026), adjusted for household size. UK figures are what ONS finds households like yours spend (FYE 2025). Optional answers such as your state or lunches out add CapKin estimates, each shown as its own line under “How we got this number”.
Full methodology and sources
United States. We use the Official USDA Food Plans: Cost of Food at Home, U.S. Average, September 2026 (Thrifty, Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost and Liberal). USDA gives a weekly and monthly cost for each person by age and, from 12, by sex. We add up the people in your household and apply USDA’s household-size adjustment: +20% for one person, +10% for two, +5% for three, −5% for five or six and −10% for seven or more. Monthly costs are USDA’s own (weekly × 4.333).
- The Thrifty plan uses age bands 14–19 and 20–50, the other plans 14–18 and 19–50. On Thrifty, our 14–18 band uses USDA’s 14–19 figure and our 19–50 band uses 20–50.
- Thrifty was re-evaluated in 2021 with newer data, while the other three plans are based on 2001–02 food data updated for prices. That is why, for children aged 4–5 and boys aged 14–18, the Low-Cost plan comes out slightly below Thrifty.
- All plans assume every meal and snack is prepared at home.
United Kingdom. We use ONS Family spending in the UK, FYE 2025 (April 2024 - March 2025), Workbook 2: average weekly household spend on food and non-alcoholic drinks for each household type (Table A23). We match your household to the closest ONS type and convert to a monthly figure as weekly × 52 / 12.
- Adults are people aged 19 or over; everyone younger counts as a child. One- and two-adult households where everyone is 71 or over use the ONS “other retired” figures.
- Typical is the ONS average for your household type. ONS does not split spending by both household type and income for families with children, so Tight and Comfortable scale it by the gap between the lowest and highest income fifth and all households of the same size: Table A26 for one adult (£34.80 / £38.30 / £50.80 a week for lowest / all / highest) and Table A29 for two or more adults (£61.60 / £69.10 / £75.60), three-year averages for FYE 2023 to FYE 2025. This scaling is our estimate, not an ONS figure.
- Households of one adult with children come from a small ONS sample (about 100 households), so treat those results as a rough guide.
Refine adjustments (CapKin estimates)
Answers under “Refine your estimate” are optional. Without them the number is the plain USDA or ONS figure above. Each adjustment shows up as its own line under “How we got this number”.
- US region. Food-at-home spending per person in the region against the U.S. average, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Surveys (2024 and 2025 averaged, because single-year regional figures are noisy): Northeast +15%, Midwest +1%, South −17%, West +8%. This reflects what households spend, which mixes prices, incomes and habits.
- Alaska and Hawaii. USDA publishes only the Thrifty plan cost for a reference family of four in Anchorage and Hawaii ($1,296.90 and $1,573.60 a month, against $1,024.00 for the U.S.). We apply that ratio (+27% and +54%) to whichever plan you pick. USDA prices other parts of Alaska 0.79% to 56.42% above Anchorage.
- UK region. Food and non-alcoholic drinks per person in the region against the UK average, from ONS Family Spending Table A33 (three-year average, FYE 2023 to FYE 2025).
- Meals away from home (US). Each meal a person eats away from home in a week takes 1/21 of their cost off, before the household-size adjustment. This is the method of Iowa State University’s SpendSmart. UK figures already reflect typical lunches out, so the UK number doesn’t change.
Comparisons and recommendations
- Recommendations come from fixed rules over your answers. The same answers always give the same cards, and a card shows only when one of your answers triggered it.
- Savings shown on a card come from the same data: the next cheaper USDA plan or ONS level for your household, or food waste figures from WRAP (£1,000 a year for a household of four) and the EPA ($728 per person a year), scaled to your household.
- Income share uses USDA ERS (4.8% of disposable income on food at home, 2025) and ONS Table 4.2 (11% of total spending, FYE 2025). Eating out is compared with BLS food away from home per person (US) or ONS restaurants and hotels for your household type (UK).
- Support schemes are only ever “you may be eligible” with a link to the official page. We use the SNAP FY2027 income limits, the WIC 2026/27 income guidelines and Healthy Start values. The agency that runs each scheme decides who qualifies.
What we don’t adjust for, and why
- Vegetarian or vegan diets, gluten-free food and allergies, pregnancy and very active teenagers. There are no official cost figures for these, so they shape the advice and leave the number as it is.
- Organic food and the shops you use. Neither USDA nor ONS prices them, and we don’t use commercial price comparisons.
- Babies under 1. USDA plans start at age 1, so formula and baby food are not in the estimate.
Your spending, eating-out, income and benefits answers stay in your browser. They are never part of a shared link, the email or our analytics.
Figures last checked 2 November 2026. This calculator gives an estimate for planning, not financial advice.