Free Grocery Budget Calculator: Per Week, Per Day and Per Meal
A monthly grocery number is hard to shop with. This calculator breaks it into a weekly amount you can take to the store, a daily amount, and a rough cost per person per meal, so you can tell whether a recipe or a week of meals fits.
It runs in your browser. Nothing you type is saved or sent anywhere. The numbers filled in below are a made-up example; change them to yours.
How the math works
- Per week = monthly budget × 12 ÷ 52. Dividing by 4 instead overstates each week, because most months are a little over four weeks.
- Per day = monthly budget × 12 ÷ 365.
- Per person per meal = per day ÷ people ÷ meals a day at home. Snacks, drinks and household items bought at the grocery store all come out of the same money, so the real per-meal amount is usually a bit lower.
Example (made up): $400 a month for 2 people eating 3 meals a day at home is about $92.31 a week, $13.15 a day, $6.58 per person per day and $2.19 per person per meal. After $55 spent this week, about $37.31 is left.
This is general information, not financial advice.
Want to plan the meals too?
The Meal Planner + Grocery Budget Spreadsheet ($5) lets you plan four weeks of meals, build a grocery list by store section, and compare what you spend to your grocery budget. Works in Excel and Google Sheets.
Get the planner on Gumroad – $5
This template is also in the Complete Household Money Bundle (what's inside): all 13 home money spreadsheets for $29 (about $69 if bought one by one).
We make this template, so take that into account. The calculator above is free to use either way.
Related free guides
- How to Meal Plan on a Grocery Budget
- How to Budget Groceries for One Person (Example Numbers)
- How to Make a Grocery List That Stays on Budget
- How to Batch Cook on a Budget (Example Week)
More free tools: all calculators.
See all Cedar & Ledger templates