Enter your annual income and the number of people you need to feed into the food budget calculator. The calculator will display your yearly and monthly food budget range.

How much money should i spend on food?

Food can be a very expensive monthly bill in many households, especially for those with large families. As a result, many families or individuals could save drastic amounts of money through proper budgeting of food.

So how much should you spend?

For individuals, this is a little easier to calculate. In general, a max of 10% of your monthly pre-tax income should be spent on food for 1 person. Ideally, something like 4-5% should be adequate depending on your income and location. Location can affect food costs greatly.

For families, this 10% holds true for the total family income, with an additional 1.5% per kid, up to a maximum of 20%. Anything over 20% and you will be in a serious financial hole in no time.

How can i reduce my food budget?

You might be thinking that the numbers given above are quite low, and they can be depending on your location and caloric needs, but it’s what you should strive for. You might think that you could never get to those numbers, but you can. Here are some tips to help achieve reducing your food budget.

  1. Buy as much as you can in bulk. On certain items that don’t spoil quickly, it’s important to buy as much as you can at once to save money. This could easily cut 50% off some items such as rice and pasta.
  2. Cut out expensive foods. Preferably unhealthy food first, then healthier food if there’s room to improve.
  3. Meal prep weekly. Preparing your meals ahead of time helps reduce wasted food dramatically. A large drop in the waste can be seen with meal prepping.
  4. Try more than one grocery store. Not all grocery stores are created equal and not all offer the same prices.
  5. Use coupons.
food budget calculator