reasonable grocery budget for family of 3

Hopefully your paycheck will go up as well, but if it doesn’t, proactive planning can lessen the bite to your family budget. So a Bay Area “liberal food plan” will likely increase from $1,170 to $1,217. They have increased about 3.9% year-over-year. Inflation is also rearing its head in grocery prices. If you adjust these averages for an increase in the cost of living in the Bay Area (about 13%), this brings you to $1,170 per month on food if you are on a liberal food plan. These plans assume that all meals and snacks are prepared at home. For a family of four with children under the age of 5, the four plans range from $533 to $1,035 per month on groceries. They provide four food plans: thrifty, low-cost, moderate and liberal. The USDA kindly provides “Official USDA Food Plans” to help families decide how much money they should be spending on food. If you took the $20 per week and invested it earning 5%, you would have $1,067 at the end of a year. But consider the opportunity cost of that money. Is the extra $20 worth the convenience? Sometimes the answer is yes.

You could make that same dinner at home for about $15. The good news is that eating out is discretionary and can be reduced relatively easily by more mindful planning.įor example, a burrito take-out dinner for a family of four will likely run you $35 without beverages. This is a wide range, and where you fall in this range depends on how important food is to you and how much you can afford to spend. Add to this the cost of eating out, coffee shops and convenience items you are looking at an additional $250–$1,000 per month depending on your lifestyle. However, this clearly shows that it costs more to eat in the Bay Area.įrom my years as a financial planner, most families in the Bay Area spend between $800-1,200 each month on groceries. These averages are not specifically for families, so it probably underestimates how much a family spends on food. According to, the average monthly spending on all food and dining in San Francisco is $1,325, compared to the California average of $1,282 and US average of $1,169. If you want to know how you compare to your neighbor, here are averages to help you gauge whether you are overspending in this area. Take the average of those months and decide if that number feels comfortable for your family.

If you cannot answer question #1, look at your spending for a couple of months and add up all the charges for grocery, eating out and coffee.

Do you know how much you spend on groceries, eating out, and coffee?Īnswers to these questions will drive a big portion of your spending on food.Ask yourself the following questions right now: My answer to that question depends on the family’s specific situation. Food related expenses tend to eat up a big part of a family budget, and one of the most frequent questions I get from couples is “How much should we spend on food?” But spending at great groceries stores, farmer’s markets and restaurants can add up each month. One of the wonderful things about living in the Bay Area is the excellent food. Marin Mommies is presents another great guest article by Marin mom and financial planner Katy Song, CFP®.

Reasonable grocery budget for family of 3