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A food budget
sized to your family.

The government’s own food plans, priced every month by age and household size, turned into a weekly and monthly grocery number for your family. Then room for kosher prices, Shabbos guests and eating out.

USDA food plans, September 2026 · Four levels · Next to what frum families report

Put in your family

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Groceries a month

$0

A week

$0

A person, a month

$0

With eating out

$0

Your week next to frum families Weekly food spending reported by the 2,885 Kosher Money survey respondents (2024) who gave a figure, and the four USDA plans for your household.

    Who you shop for

    Everyone who eats at home, with their age. USDA’s figures differ for men and women from age 12.

      USDA plan

      Fine-tune 4 more inputs
      % on top
      Kosher meat and poultry usually cost more; add your own premium. We found no current, published US figure to start from, so it starts at zero.
      a month
      One guest at one meal counts as one.
      $
      An illustration; use your own.
      $/mo
      USDA’s plans assume every meal is made at home, so this sits on top. The starting $100 is an illustration.

      The budget

      Groceries a month

      $0

      A planning sketch, not advice. USDA’s plans are national averages for a nutritious diet with every meal cooked at home; prices where you live, and kosher prices, will differ.

      Figures checked November 2026. USDA Food Plans: Cost of Food at Home, U.S. average, September 2026, issued October 2026 (the latest report): Thrifty and Low-cost, Moderate-cost and Liberal, with USDA’s household-size adjustments. Weekly food spending: Kosher Money Frum Finance Survey (2024, Table 9; an open online survey of 2,994 US respondents, not a random sample).

      Where the number comes from.

      USDA’s food plans

      • Four levels. Thrifty, low-cost, moderate-cost and liberal: the same nutritious diet at four price points, repriced every month.
      • By person. A cost for each age, and for men and women from 12, for someone in a household of four.
      • By household. Add everyone up, then adjust: one person +20%, two +10%, three +5%, five or six −5%, seven or more −10%.

      What it leaves out

      • Kosher prices. The plans price ordinary groceries. Put your own premium on top.
      • Shabbos and Yom Tov. Family meals are in the plan; guests are not. Count them per guest meal.
      • Eating out. The plans assume every meal is made at home.

      Bringing it down

      • Price one week. Keep every receipt for a week and compare it with the weekly figure.
      • Plan the meat. The biggest kosher premium is usually on meat and poultry: buy in bulk, freeze, plan around it.
      • One level down. The gap between two plans is the monthly saving on the table.