Groceries are the budget line almost everyone argues about and almost no one has measured. People guess low, get surprised at the end of the month, and then decide the budget is the problem. The better question isn't "what should a household spend" but "what does mine actually spend, and is that number reasonable?" National statistics help with the second half of that question, as long as you know what they do and don't tell you.
What national surveys say about grocery spending
Most countries run a household budget survey every few years, and the statistics office publishes what the average household spends on food. The table below collects the latest figure we could find for each country, converted to a monthly amount in the local currency.
The figures are not directly comparable, and they are not meant to be. Some are per household and some per person, some include takeaways and some don't, and the survey years differ. The column in the middle says exactly what each number measures, so look for your own country first and treat the rest as context.
Monthly grocery spending by country
| Country | Groceries per month | What the figure measures | Source and year |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $519 | Average per household, food at home | BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2024 |
| Canada | C$722 | Average per household, food bought in stores | Statistics Canada, 2023 |
| United Kingdom | £146 | Average per person, household food and non-alcoholic drinks | DEFRA Family Food, April 2024 to March 2025 |
| Ireland | €697 | Average per household, all food including takeaways | CSO Household Budget Survey, 2022-23 |
| Germany | €375 | Average per household, food (about €335) plus non-alcoholic drinks (about €40) | Destatis, 2023 |
| France | €440 | Average per household, food and non-alcoholic drinks (calculated from the published share) | INSEE Budget de famille, 2017 |
| Spain | €449 | Average per household, food and non-alcoholic drinks | INE Household Budget Survey, 2024 |
| Portugal | €258 | Average per household, food (calculated from the annual figure of €3,091) | INE Household Expenditure Survey, 2022-23 |
| Netherlands | €585 | Median per household, from the bank transactions of about 150,000 households | ABN AMRO, September 2024 to August 2025 |
| Poland | 475 zł | Average per person, food and non-alcoholic drinks (calculated from the published share of spending) | GUS, 2024 (preliminary) |
| Ukraine | ₴4,700-6,300 | Average per person, food (rural to urban), about half of all spending | Household survey published in 2025, covering 2023 |
Why an average makes a poor target
An average household blends a single student with a family of five, a city with a small town, a freezer-meal cook with a weekly takeout habit. Your number can sit far from it for perfectly good reasons, and trying to force it toward the average tends to fail within a month or two.
The shares differ just as much as the amounts. Groceries are under 8% of household spending in the United States, about 16% in Spain and Ireland, 25% in Poland and roughly half in Ukraine. For Ukraine, regular official figures have been limited since 2022 (the last full Derzhstat quarter before the war put food at 49% of spending), so treat that row as an estimate and expect prices to have moved since.
Treat all of these as a sanity check on your own numbers, not as a verdict on them. In the United States the USDA also publishes four official food plans (thrifty, low-cost, moderate-cost and liberal) with monthly cost estimates by age and sex, which is a useful way to see how much the same people spend depending on how they shop and cook.
How to find your own grocery benchmark
A realistic number comes from your own history, and it takes four steps:
- Pull the last three full months of statements from every account and card you shop with. Three months smooths out the one month with a big stock-up or a holiday.
- Separate groceries from eating out. They behave differently, and mixing them hides the real drivers: a high food total can mean expensive groceries, frequent takeout, or both.
- Divide the monthly average by the number of people who eat from that kitchen. If three months show $540, $600 and $570, the average is $570, or $285 per person in a two-person household.
- Compare that against your income and against the benchmark for your country. Not to hit someone else's number, but to see whether the share looks reasonable for your situation and whether it is stable from month to month.
See how one couple turned monthly shortfalls into goals
Where a grocery budget quietly leaks
Most overspending on groceries is not the weekly shop. It is the extras around it: quick top-up trips to a convenience store, delivery fees and tips, the pharmacy or household items that sit on the same receipt as the food, and the second store you visit "just for one thing." None of these feels like a decision, so none of them shows up in your head when you guess the total.
That is also why the category matters more than the merchant. If every supermarket purchase is counted as groceries, a cart of cleaning supplies and toiletries inflates the number; if delivery apps are counted as eating out, a full weekly order shows up in the wrong place. Sorting transactions into categories once, with rules that apply every time the same merchant appears, keeps the monthly comparison honest.
Common questions
Should my grocery budget include eating out?
Track them separately, then decide. Groceries are the part you can plan and price-compare; eating out is closer to a lifestyle choice. Keeping two categories lets you cut one without guessing which one caused a bad month.
What percentage of income should go to groceries?
There is no single correct share. In the national surveys above, food takes anywhere from under a tenth of household spending to around half, depending on the country and its incomes and prices. Measure yours over three months first, then judge it.
My grocery spending jumps around every month. Is that normal?
Yes, a single month is noisy because of stock-ups, guests and holidays. Look at a three-month average and at how far each month strays from it. A budget built on that average, with a small cushion, holds up much better than one built on your best month.
How do I cut groceries without eating worse?
Start with what the statements show rather than with a general rule: fewer top-up trips, a short list for the main shop, and checking the per-person number against your earlier months. Small, repeatable changes beat a strict target you abandon after two weeks.
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