For two adults who cook at home, USDA's food plans for August 2026 put a monthly grocery budget at about $630 to $1,007 for a man and a woman between 20 and 50, depending on which of the four plans you pick. The middle option, the Moderate-Cost plan, comes to about $808 a month, or about $186 a week. Those totals already include the 10 percent USDA suggests adding for a two-person household.
How much should two people spend on groceries a month?
USDA prices four food plans every month: Thrifty, Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost and Liberal. Each one gives a weekly and monthly cost per person by age and sex. The table below adds a man and a woman together and applies the two-person adjustment, using the Thrifty plan and the other three plans for August 2026.
| USDA plan, August 2026 | Couple age 19 or 20 to 50 | Couple age 51 to 70 | Couple age 71 and over |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thrifty | $630 a month | $569 a month | $582 a month |
| Low-Cost | $652 a month | $624 a month | $620 a month |
| Moderate-Cost | $808 a month | $777 a month | $763 a month |
| Liberal | $1,007 a month | $933 a month | $926 a month |
Totals are rounded to the dollar. The Thrifty plan's youngest adult band is 20 to 50; the other three plans use 19 to 50.
Two people of the same sex land in different places. On the Moderate-Cost plan for August 2026, two women age 19 to 50 come to about $739 a month and two men the same age about $876.
How do you work out your own two-person number?
USDA's costs are for people living in four-person households, so a two-person total takes one extra step. The August 2026 reports spell out the method:
- Open the latest monthly report on USDA's Cost of Food page. The August 2026 figures were issued in September 2026.
- Pick a plan and find each person's age and sex row.
- Add the two monthly costs together.
- Multiply by 1.10, the 10 percent USDA suggests adding for two-person households.
- To budget by the week, divide the monthly total by 4.333, the factor USDA uses to turn weekly costs into monthly ones. Dividing by 4 overstates each week.
Here is that arithmetic for a woman age 45 and a man age 58 on the Moderate-Cost plan: $336.10 plus $375.00 is $711.10, and $711.10 times 1.10 is about $782 a month, or about $180.50 a week.
If you are in Alaska or Hawaii, use the separate figures USDA publishes for those states on the same page.
Which USDA food plan fits your household?
Start with the plan closest to what you spend now, then decide whether you want to hold there or step down. Two details make the choice less obvious than the four names suggest.
The plans were not built at the same time. The Thrifty plan was revised in 2021, uses 2013 to 2016 consumption data and 2015 to 2016 prices, and its cost for a family of four is what sets the maximum SNAP benefit. The Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost and Liberal plans rest on 2001 to 2002 data. All four are brought up to current dollars each month with the Consumer Price Index, and USDA says its re-evaluation of the Thrifty plan begins the process of updating the other three.
That is why the bottom two steps sit close together. For a couple age 19 or 20 to 50, Low-Cost is only about $22 a month above Thrifty, while Moderate-Cost is about $156 above Low-Cost. If you are already near the Thrifty figure, the Low-Cost plan gives you little extra room.
All four plans also assume everything you eat is prepared at home. Every meal you buy out comes off the grocery side, which is the subject of the next section.
What do two-person households actually spend on food?
On average, two-person households spend less at the grocery store than the USDA plans suggest and spend a large share eating out. In 2024, two-person households spent an average of $6,088 on food at home, about $507 a month, and $4,070 on food away from home, about $339 a month, according to the BLS Consumer Expenditure Surveys.
Add those together and the total is about $846 a month, in 2024 prices. That sits close to the Moderate-Cost plan's August 2026 figure for a couple age 19 or 20 to 50, even though only about 60 percent of it went to groceries.
These are averages across two-person households of every age and income, so treat them as a reference point, not a target. They do suggest a useful check: if your grocery spending looks low next to the USDA plans, add what you spend on restaurants, takeout and delivery before you decide you are under budget.
Why does food for two cost more per person?
USDA suggests adding 10 percent for a two-person household and nothing for a household of four. The report doesn't give a reason, but the pattern is familiar in a two-person kitchen: family-size packs, recipes written for four or six, and a loaf of bread or a bag of greens that two people struggle to finish before it turns. Food that goes unused is money spent without a meal to show for it.
That makes the 10 percent the part of a two-person budget you have the most control over:
- Cook a four-serving recipe and put the other two servings on the plan as a lunch or dinner later in the week. Our leftovers guide covers how to plan around them.
- Buy the bigger package only when two meals on your plan will use it, and compare price per serving, not just price per pound.
- Split bulk packs of meat or bread when you get home and freeze the portion you will not use soon.
- Shop once a week from a list built from that week's meals. The meal planning guide walks through it.
- Check two to four weeks of receipts against your plan figure. The gap tells you how far you are from the number, and the grocery budget guide covers how to keep the total in check before you reach the register.
For a wider look at what food at home costs, see the real cost of eating well.
Where MealMaxx fits
MealMaxx plans breakfast, lunch and dinner for the week around your grocery budget and gives you an estimated total for your shopping list before you shop. It saves extra servings as leftovers and can plan them into a later meal, so the second half of a four-serving recipe has a place on the plan.