USDA grocery cost reference

Estimate grocery costs with USDA Food Plans.

For a four-person example—age 30 on the USDA Female row, age 30 on the Male row, and children ages 7 and 10—the May 2026 Mainland U.S. food-at-home references are $1,018.20 a month on Thrifty, $1,122.00 on Low-Cost, $1,386.70 on Moderate-Cost, and $1,675.30 on Liberal. These are reference amounts, not a recommended household budget.

Last updated: August 15, 2026.

Household calculator

Compare all four USDA reference levels.

USDA reference month: May 2026.

The interactive calculator needs JavaScript. The USDA method, limits, and source data remain available below.

Worked four-person example

May 2026 USDA Food Plan references

No household-size adjustment

Household used: age 30 on the USDA Female row, age 30 on the Male row, and children ages 7 and 10. Four people use the published sums without a household-size adjustment.

Thrifty

$1,018.20 / month

$234.90 / week · $12,218.40 / year

Low-Cost

$1,122.00 / month

$258.90 / week · $13,464.00 / year

Moderate-Cost

$1,386.70 / month

$320.00 / week · $16,640.40 / year

Liberal

$1,675.30 / month

$386.60 / week · $20,103.60 / year

See the official USDA citations and normalized May 2026 data. Weekly and monthly values use the published one-decimal amounts; annual values equal the monthly reference multiplied by 12. A different household can produce different results.

From reference to your receipts

See your household’s grocery spending by item and category.

USDA Food Plans are national food-at-home references. Radish separately builds monthly totals from the grocery receipts you review and save—without linking a bank account. Missing receipts make the view incomplete.

Free to download. Review and save one receipt before choosing a monthly or yearly plan for continued use. Requires iOS 18 or later. Optimized for English-language US grocery receipts and USD totals. Manual entry remains available.

Get Radish for iPhone See how receipt tracking works

How the calculation works

Match each age to a USDA row. Children under 12 use the Child rows. Beginning at age 12, the source tables split costs into Female and Male rows.
Add each member’s food cost. The calculator separately sums the published weekly and monthly values for the selected plan.
Apply household size. USDA says to increase the sum by 20% for one person, 10% for two, and 5% for three; use no change for four; decrease it by 5% for five or six and 10% for seven or more.
Round to the nearest 10 cents. This follows the rounding precision in the published tables. Annual figures are the adjusted monthly amount multiplied by 12.

How to read the four results

USDA publishes Thrifty, Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost, and Liberal Food Plans. The figures are national reference levels for food and beverages purchased for preparation at home. This calculator shows all four without selecting one as right for your household.

The Thrifty Food Plan also supports federal nutrition-program administration, but this page does not calculate SNAP eligibility or benefits.

What this estimate does not know

It uses Mainland U.S. tables and does not apply USDA’s separate Alaska or Hawaii tables.
It does not include restaurant meals, takeout, delivery fees, household supplies, or non-food receipt items.
It does not account for your location, dietary needs, food access, pantry inventory, waste, benefits, income, debt, or other financial goals.
USDA’s Female and Male rows are source-table categories. Selecting a row here does not describe or infer a person’s identity.
The result is a public reference calculation, not financial, medical, nutrition, or benefits advice.

Official source and transparent data

The calculator uses USDA Food and Nutrition Service Food Plan tables for May 2026. USDA describes the four plans, food-at-home scope, monthly updates, household-size adjustment, and rounding method on its official pages.

The public JSON preserves the plan names, age bands, weekly and monthly values, source workbook URLs, file hashes, and household-size factors used by this calculator.

Grocery budget calculator FAQ

How does the grocery budget calculator work?

It matches each household member to the applicable USDA age table, adds the published food costs, and applies USDA’s adjustment for household size. The page then shows Thrifty, Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost, and Liberal reference amounts.

What do the four USDA Food Plans mean?

They are four national food-at-home reference levels published by USDA: Thrifty, Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost, and Liberal. They are not four promises about what a specific household can or should spend.

Why do people age 12 or older need a Female or Male USDA table selection?

The source tables publish separate Female and Male cost rows beginning at age 12. The selector only chooses which published USDA row the calculator uses; Radish does not store the choice or infer anyone’s identity.

Does the estimate include restaurants, takeout, or delivery fees?

No. USDA Food Plans cover food and beverages purchased for preparation at home. Restaurant meals, takeout, delivery fees, household supplies, and other non-food purchases are outside this estimate.

Does the calculator cover Alaska and Hawaii?

No. This calculator uses the Mainland U.S. tables in the published dataset. USDA publishes separate Alaska and Hawaii tables, which are not represented here.

Is this a personalized budget, financial recommendation, or SNAP benefit estimate?

No. It is a transparent calculation from national USDA reference tables. It does not know your income, location, dietary needs, local prices, benefits, pantry inventory, or financial goals.

What are the May 2026 USDA Food Plan costs for this four-person example?

For age 30 on the USDA Female row, age 30 on the Male row, and children ages 7 and 10, Thrifty is $234.90 a week and $1,018.20 a month; Low-Cost is $258.90 and $1,122.00; Moderate-Cost is $320.00 and $1,386.70; Liberal is $386.60 and $1,675.30. A four-person sum has no household-size adjustment.