How Much Should I Spend on Groceries? (and Stick to the Grocery Budget) (2024)

Is your grocery spending out of control? Here’s how to make a grocery budget (and stick with it!). Figure out how much you should spend on groceries, plus my best strategies to save on food.

How Much Should I Spend on Groceries? (and Stick to the Grocery Budget) (1)

Several years ago my husband and Icut our monthly expenses in half. We set a monthly grocery budget of $330 for the two of us based on what we were spending.

And now that we’re a family of four, with a teen and a preteen, we are still able to maintain our grocery budget at around $400 per month.

I’ve learned over the years that guessing and assuming when it comes to the budget won’t work. Coming up with a number for a frugal grocery budget cannot be random. In fact, it must be strategic!

WHY MAKE A FRUGAL GROCERY BUDGET

The simple reason to create a frugal grocery budget is to save money. What you do with the money you save is entirely up to you!

  • Our “one-day” dream was to buy a house with cash, and you know what? We did it!
  • Maybe your dream is to pay for your kids’ college so they don’t have to take on student loans
  • Or save up for a new-to-you car
  • Or to build an emergency fund in case of unforeseen job loss

Whatever the reason, the biggest reason to make a frugal grocery budget is to spend less on food.

HOW TO MAKE A GROCERY BUDGET

MAKE A COMMITMENT TO REDUCING YOUR FOOD BUDGET

You absolutely cannot create a frugal grocery budget, or work within a budget if you’re dead set against it. It simply will not work.

  • Mentally prepare yourself first. Commit to making a food budget – no if’s, and’s or but’s allowed. There will be a cap on your spending. If you reach the bottom of the money jar before the month is over, you’ll have to learn to make do with what you have.
  • Take heart: eating well with only your pantry at hand is not an impossible task. We have gone 33 days without spending any money at all.
  • The whole family needs to be on the same page with the grocery bill as well. Sit down with the family to explain why it’s important to have a grocery budget, and how it will allow you to achieve your greater money goals together.
  • Explain how it will help you stop living paycheck to paycheck, and how to be more mindful when grocery shopping.

Soup nights, leftovers, and meat-less meals go over much easier when the family knows the reasoning behind them.

How Much Should I Spend on Groceries? (and Stick to the Grocery Budget) (2)

WHAT IS A REASONABLE FOOD BUDGET PER MONTH?

How much should I budget for groceries? I get this question A LOT. And honestly, there is no right answer!

Your food budget will be unique to YOUR family, life situation, dietary needs, and where YOU live, including the stores close to YOU and the types of food that YOU like to buy.

Coming up with our $400 grocery budget wasn’t some stroke of genius. We simply tallied up our average cost of groceries and said we wouldn’t go any higher.

This is just one way to create a budget though, and it might not be the best way for you to create one. Use the scenarios below or a grocery budget calculator as guidelines to help determine how much YOU should spend on food.

SCENARIO 1: GROCERY BUDGET BASED ON FOOD COSTS

Every month the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) publishes a report with what they think the average cost of food is for families of various ages and sizes. They break it down into four plans: Thrifty Plan, Low-Cost Plan, Moderate-Cost Plan, and Liberal Plan.

Here’s a short summary of the average family of four.

If your family has less than or more than 4 people, or if you want to know specifics for ages and genders, the report gets pretty granular. Use the most recent report to get specifics for your family.

SCENARIO 2: PERCENTAGE OF SPENDING TO DETERMINE FOOD BUDGET

To find the percentage of the money you spend on food at home:

  • (One Month Post-Tax Income) – (Grocery Spending in One Month)
  • Divide by One Month’s Post-Tax Income
  • Minus 1
  • Multiply by 100 and ignore the negative sign

This will tell you what percentage of your monthly income you’re currently spending on food, and you can decide to increase or decrease your food budget from there.

SCENARIO 3: GROCERY BUDGET BASED ON YOUR INCOME

Of all the scenarios, this one is the most important because your food budget depends on how much money you make.

A friend once said that the food you buy does not determine your grocery budget and I couldn’t agree more.

If our grocery budget is based on the quality of food we buy, we have it backward. It’s entirely contradictory to the basic rules of budgeting!

It’s like saying because you want to buy a nice big new house, you need to have a bigger paycheck. But that’s not how it works. We start with the paycheck first, and THEN we see what kind of house we can afford.

The same goes for grocery budgeting…

We start with the money we have, and THEN see what quality of food we can afford.

If you don’t like that answer and want to be able to spend more money on quality food, then find ways to save money elsewhere and put more funds toward your food bill.

How Much Should I Spend on Groceries? (and Stick to the Grocery Budget) (3)

OTHER FACTORS TO CONSIDER WITH YOUR FOOD EXPENSES

Even when you think you have a general idea of how much you should spend on food, there are still other factors to consider:

  • Allergies (i.e. dairy-free or gluten-free)
  • Dietary restrictions (i.e. no pork, undergoing a healing diet like GAPS, or when you have sensitivities to specific foods)
  • Whether or not you garden, can, or preserve
  • The amount of processed food you eat vs. how much real food you eat
  • How many stores you can easily access
  • How much are you able to cook from scratch
  • Growing kids and teenagers (and their friends)
  • Hosting company (and whether or not that’s included in your food budget or a separate hospitality budget)

All of these will affect whether the grocery bill goes up or down.

Remember that how much you spend on food now is not set in stone forever. You can work really hard to get it as low as possible so you can save for a house, a new car, or boost your emergency fund. You might also have to increase your grocery budget as your family grows or the needs of your family change.

In any case, the starting point is knowing how much you have to spend on food!

HOW TO STICK TO YOUR FOOD BUDGET

Now that you have your food budget figured out, you need to stick to it! These strategies can help you keep your spending in check.

  1. Keep track of your spending. Continue to gather your receipts and note what you’re spending.
  2. Review your spending habits every week. Add up what you’ve spent so far for the month, and subtract that from your frugal grocery budget – will you make it to the end of the month based on what’s left?
  3. Hold yourself accountable. Keep your family in the loop. Together you can work towards sticking to your grocery budget, and you can celebrate when you do!
  4. Make a meal plan. Meal plans can make or break your grocery budget. Everything you buy should have a purpose, and by planning strategically, you can save on food and come in under budget. Just don’t forget to stick to the grocery list!
  5. Be willing to cook from scratch. You don’t necessarily have to make EVERYTHING from scratch but making SOMETHING from scratch in order to save a few dollars will go a long way. Start with this list.
  6. Postpone shopping by one day. This is a mental trick because most of us have enough food to get through one more day. Get creative – can you make it another day? How about another? You might be surprised how long you can put off a trip to the grocery store.
  7. Know when to cut corners. Little cheats like not adding shredded cheese on top of a dish, stretching ground beef with minced vegetables or lentils, or even making no-yeast bread instead of biscuits to save the butter can all add up to savings each month.
  8. Shop less often. Fewer trips to grocery stores mean fewer impulse buys.
  9. Check the clearance rack first. See if any of your usual buys are on sale, or if there’s something you can substitute for an item on your list.
  10. Eat from the pantry as often as possible. If you already have it in your house, you might as well eat it. And anything you’ve already paid for doesn’t add an expense to your current grocery budget.
How Much Should I Spend on Groceries? (and Stick to the Grocery Budget) (4)

LOWER YOUR GROCERY SPENDING

Beyond sticking to your grocery budget, you may also want to consider ways to save on groceries and lower your spending even more. This doesn’t happen overnight, so be prepared for the long haul.

There are many ways to reduce your grocery spending, like monthly meal planning with seasonal produce, cooking from scratch, buying in bulk, and using coupons and rebate apps (although I have chosen not to use coupons anymore). But here are some “out of the box” ways you can cut your spending:

  1. Categorize your spending. Do this according to the foods you bought and eliminate anything that didn’t fall into a major food group.
  2. Stop buying food when you’re doing other things. (i.e. a bag of popcorn while browsing Target, coffee from Starbucks while running errands)
  3. Conduct a pantry inventory. Include your fridge and freezer inventory. This is so you can see how much food you ALREADY have before you go shopping again.
  4. Avoid food waste. Wasting food is throwing away money. You can even avoid waste by using up food scraps.
  5. Stretch cuts of meat into more meals. Stretch chicken into 7 meals, a pork loin into 7 meals, and 2 pounds of ground beef into 8 meals!
  6. Cutting back on meat means you are eating more fruits and veggies. This, in turn, means you’re eating healthier!
  7. Keep your pantry stocked with real foods. Keeping real food on hand helps you have the ingredients you need to make a tasty meal. Then you’re not tempted to buy junk or eat out.
  8. Start a price book. Creating a simple price book can save a lot – HUNDREDS of dollars a year.
  9. Focus on reducing the cost of one food group. Start with coffee, cheese, milk, dairy, produce, or meat.
  10. Substitute expensive items for things that cost less. Making food substitutions is the first thing I have my Grocery Budget Bootcamp students do. Many save up to $100 the first week!
How Much Should I Spend on Groceries? (and Stick to the Grocery Budget) (5)

DO YOU NEED SOME HELP WITH YOUR GROCERY BUDGET TODAY?

There is no better time than right now, to start using the above strategies to create your frugal grocery budget! But if you need more help, I invite you to join the waitlist for my flagship course, Grocery Budget Bootcamp. Enrollment is currently closed, but you can join my FREE 5-day Crush Inflation Challenge and start saving money on groceries tomorrow!

  • In this course, I teach my strategic system of making healthy food work within your budget, plus so much more!
  • It’s very much like a college class, so enrollment is only open twice a year. You can either register for the course or join the wait list on this page.
  • As of this writing, my students have collectively saved over $20 million dollars. THAT’S A LOT OF MONEY!

You can get your piece of the pie – just register for Grocery Budget Bootcamp, or sign up to be notified when enrollment is open!

MORE GROCERY BUDGETING TIPS

  • How to Make a Meal Plan that Works
  • How to Budget for Bulk Purchases
  • The Secret to a Healthy Grocery Budget
  • How to Save Money with a Pantry Challenge
  • 5 Fail-Proof Ways to Reduce Grocery Spending
  • Eating Real Food on a Budget

How Much Should I Spend on Groceries? (and Stick to the Grocery Budget) (6)

Fight Inflation Workshop!

Sign up for my FREE Fight Inflation Workshopand learn simple strategies to save money, even with rising food costs!

Share this post:

Share on FacebookShare on X (Twitter)Share on PinterestShare on Email

How Much Should I Spend on Groceries? (and Stick to the Grocery Budget) (2024)

FAQs

How Much Should I Spend on Groceries? (and Stick to the Grocery Budget)? ›

It's up to you how much you want to spend on food per month, but the recommendation given by Dave Ramsey (I confirmed this with Paige Schmidt, a Dave Ramsey Certified Financial Coach) is around 10-15% of your income.

What is a realistic budget for groceries? ›

According to the USDA guidelines, you might spend $979 a month on a thrifty plan, $1,028 on a low-cost plan, $1,252 on a moderate-cost plan and $1,604 on a liberal plan. The USDA guidelines can provide a starting point for a food budget, but they don't consider all the variables that can affect cost.

What is the grocery budget rule? ›

If you're wondering how to create a monthly food budget, another tool to use is the 50/30/20 rule. This simple and intuitive grocery budget formula suggests that you spend your net (after-tax) monthly income this way: 50% for living essentials (e.g., groceries, housing, transportation, healthcare, etc.)

How much money do you save buying groceries vs eating out? ›

Facts & Findings. Americans save around $12 by opting to cook and eat at home, with the average home meal costing $4.23 versus over $16 per meal at an inexpensive restaurant. Annually, it costs over $13,000 more to eat out than it costs to prepare the same amount of food at home.

How far does $100 go at the grocery store? ›

Spending $100 on groceries won't fill up the shopping cart as much as it did five years ago. Inflation-battered shoppers now need to spend $137 for the same basket of staples that they were able to buy for $100 in 2019, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal.

What is the 50 30 20 rule? ›

The 50-30-20 budget rule states that you should spend up to 50% of your after-tax income on needs and obligations that you must have or must do. The remaining half should dedicate 20% to savings, leaving 30% to be spent on things you want but don't necessarily need.

What should a single person spend on groceries a week? ›

Broken down by household size: One person - $156.02. Two people - $220.82.

How to stick to a grocery budget? ›

  1. Track current spending.
  2. Allocate a percentage of your income.
  3. Avoid eating out.
  4. Plan your meals.
  5. Keep a fridge grocery list.
  6. Eat before you go to the store.
  7. Be careful with coupons.
  8. Embrace the bulk section.
Feb 22, 2024

How to grocery shop on a tight budget? ›

Tips for grocery shopping on a budget
  1. Plan your meals and shopping list. ...
  2. Consider purchasing non-perishable items. ...
  3. Strategically purchase perishable items. ...
  4. Consider buying in bulk. ...
  5. Consider generic brands. ...
  6. Use coupons strategically. ...
  7. Don't grocery shop when you're hungry.

What is a reasonable food budget for 3 adults? ›

The average grocery budget for a family of 3 can vary depending on factors like location and dietary preferences. A moderate-cost plan can range from $387 to $1,031 per month, while a thrifty plan can range from $287 to $764 per month.

Is it cheaper to cook or eat out? ›

Is It Cheaper to Cook or Eat Out? For those who want a quick and easy answer: It's generally cheaper to cook food at home than eat out.

Is it cheaper to eat out or buy groceries in 2024? ›

However, Vericast's 2024 Restaurant TrendWatch reports restaurant prices climb much higher and faster than groceries — an average of 5.1% annually versus 1.2%. In addition to the financial benefits, variety, healthier options, lower prices, and the comfort and convenience of home make eating in more appealing.

How much does the average person spend grocery shopping? ›

The average American household spends an average of $475.25 a month on groceries, according to the most recently available dataset from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics from 2022. That's a total of $5,703 spent on groceries in a year.

Which grocery store has the most savings? ›

According to MarketForce Information's 2024 U.S. Grocery Panel Study, these are the 10 grocery stores that offer the most value for your money, according to shoppers.
  • WinCo Foods. ...
  • Giant Eagle. ...
  • Market Basket. ...
  • Wegman's. ...
  • ALDI. ...
  • BJs. ...
  • Costco. ...
  • Sam's Club.
Mar 21, 2024

Is it cheaper to grocery shop every day? ›

Aim for Weekly

“I always recommend to my clients to check out the weekly sales, and they can meal plan around those items,” she said. “Not only will you save money for the meals that week, but you can plan ahead, and stock up and save.”

How often does the average American go to the grocery store? ›

According to a survey carried out in July 2023 in the United States, some 41 percent of respondents were shopping for groceries once a week. Another 29 percent were doing so two to three times a week, while only 6.2 percent shopped for groceries daily.

Is $100 a month for groceries enough? ›

To stick to a budget of $100 a month, or $25 a week, you'll have to eat for less than $4 each day. For breakfast, try a bowl of oatmeal with half a banana and a scrambled egg, which should cost less than a dollar. Get into the habit of repackaging ingredients from dinner for lunches the next day.

What is a reasonable food budget for a family of 4? ›

What is the average weekly grocery bill for a family of four? According to the USDA, the average weekly grocery bill for a family of four in the United States fluctuates between $150 to $300.

How to only spend $100 a month on groceries? ›

Here how I save big bucks on groceries and how you can, too.
  1. Planning Ahead Pays Off. ...
  2. Meat Costs More. ...
  3. Stock Up During Sales. ...
  4. Stick to In-Season. ...
  5. Price Match Your Way to Savings. ...
  6. Couples and Families Can Still Enjoy Savings, Too.

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Ouida Strosin DO

Last Updated:

Views: 5337

Rating: 4.6 / 5 (56 voted)

Reviews: 87% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Ouida Strosin DO

Birthday: 1995-04-27

Address: Suite 927 930 Kilback Radial, Candidaville, TN 87795

Phone: +8561498978366

Job: Legacy Manufacturing Specialist

Hobby: Singing, Mountain biking, Water sports, Water sports, Taxidermy, Polo, Pet

Introduction: My name is Ouida Strosin DO, I am a precious, combative, spotless, modern, spotless, beautiful, precious person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.