Weekly Grocery Budget Calculator

Build it per person rather than copying a household average. An economical-to-moderate plan lands near $80 a week per adult and about $55 per school-age child, so two adults and two children fall roughly in the $255 to $290 range. Enter your household above for a figure based on actual ages.

Roughly $75 to $95 a week on an economical-to-moderate plan, with the lower end realistic only if you cook most meals and buy few convenience items. Cooking for one is more expensive per person than cooking for four because package sizes rarely scale down.

About $237 to $321 a week, the USDA Thrifty to Moderate range for two adults and two school-age children, depending on the ages of the children and how much of the cart is convenience food. Two teenagers push a family of four toward the top of that range, since teenagers eat close to adult portions.

Multiply by 4.33, not 4. A month averages 4.33 weeks, so $250 a week is about $1,083 a month. Multiplying by 4 understates the yearly total by roughly four weeks of groceries.

Include them if they go in the same cart and come out of the same money, otherwise the budget will look broken every week. The cleaner approach is one number for the whole trip, with household items tracked as a separate line inside it.

Weekly is easier to control because the feedback loop is short and one bad trip is visible immediately. Monthly is better for comparing against income and rent. Most households do best setting a weekly amount and reviewing it monthly.

Usually because of top-up trips, non-food items landing in the cart, and unpriced fresh items rather than the main planned shop. Pricing your list before you leave and consolidating into fewer trips closes most of that gap.