Average grocery cost per month for two people

There is no single average, because it depends on what you buy and how often you cook. The USDA publishes a monthly price for four levels of eating, all of them nutritious and all of them made at home. They make a good yardstick for your own number.

Average grocery cost per month for 2

These are the USDA's U.S. average costs for September 2026, issued in October 2026, for a man and a woman. The USDA prices each person as if they lived in a household of four, and tells you to add up the people and then add 10 percent for a household of two. We did that arithmetic and rounded to the dollar.

If you read “average food cost per month” as everything you eat, remember these figures leave out restaurants, takeout and delivery. Every plan assumes all meals and snacks are prepared at home.

Average grocery cost per month for 1

A household of one pays more per person. The USDA says to add 20 percent to the four-person price for a household of 1. The same arithmetic, rounded to the dollar:

Two people sharing a kitchen cost less than two people each buying for one. A couple at the Moderate-Cost level pays $808, where two adults shopping alone would pay $882 ($404 plus $478).

Grocery cost for two, per week and by age

The monthly USDA figure is the weekly cost times 4.333. If you shop weekly, this is the number to hold your receipts against.

What two people actually spend

The USDA plans price a nutritious diet, not what people buy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics asks households what they spent. In 2024, two-person households spent $6,088 a year on food at home, $507 a month, and one-person households $3,395, $283 a month. Another $339 a month (two people) went to food away from home, which is on top of groceries. For the whole picture, see average monthly expenses for one person and a couple and the grocery cost by household size. To bring it down, read 18 ways to save money on groceries.

What these numbers are, and are not

• They are a nutritious diet priced by the USDA, not what households report spending.
• They are U.S. averages. Your city, your store and your diet move them.
• They are updated every month for food prices, so next month's report will be a little different.
• Alaska and Hawaii are priced separately by the USDA, and we have left them out.

Use the tables to see where you sit. If you spend $1,100 on groceries as a couple and the Liberal plan is $1,008, that is a number worth looking at before you look at anything else.

How to split groceries as a couple

Groceries come in small pieces every week, so they are hard to keep even by feel. There are two common rules:

• 50/50. Each of you pays half. It is easy to explain and easy to track, and it works well when your pay is close.
• By income. Each of you pays the same share of your pay. If one of you brings home 60 percent of the household's money, that person covers 60 percent of the food. It keeps the lower earner from giving up a bigger slice of what they have.

Neither is the right one. See what each rule does to your two pays with the fair split calculator, or read how to split bills by income. Whichever you pick, use it for the whole shared list so you are not re-deciding every receipt. One person paying with a card and the other paying them back is fine, as long as you can both see who is owed what.

Ways to bring the number down

• Know your real number first. Add up three months of grocery charges and divide by three.
• Plan dinners around what you already have. Food you throw out is money you spent twice.
• Cook more of the week at home. For a couple, the USDA prices the Thrifty plan $378 a month under the Liberal plan, so how you shop and cook moves the number.
• Buy the staples in bulk, the rice, beans, oats and frozen vegetables you use every week.
• Try the store brand on three things you buy often.
• Set a monthly line for groceries and check it mid-month, not at the end.

Keep restaurants in a separate line. When groceries and eating out sit in one pile, a $120 takeout week hides inside a grocery bill that looks too high.