Is $69 for a week of groceries realistic? The Banner goes shopping.

It’s a question everyone hates to ask but must: How much should I be spending on groceries every month?

The government has an answer — and it’s more generous than the Trump administration’s $3-per-meal comment from earlier this year. But is it enough?

For the past 65 years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has tracked Americans’ food consumption and purchasing patterns to create four food budgets that reflect “the least amount necessary to meet nutritional guidelines.”

The results form what are called the Liberal, Moderate, Low and Thrifty Food Plans. They don’t tell you what to eat, but they can provide budgetary guidance.

The Thrifty Food Plan has been used for federal policy purposes since the 1960s, serving as the basis for the maximum allowance for families using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the formal name for what many call food stamps.

Even for families who aren’t using SNAP, groceries make up a huge chunk of household budgets. Prices at grocery stores skyrocketed in 2022. They’ve since come down, but never recovered to pre-pandemic levels, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In Maryland, Virginia and D.C., consumers’ food costs have steadily increased, said LaMonika Jones, director of Maryland Hunger Solutions. “What we have seen is that our wages have not increased, nor has our [SNAP] benefits, so it’s becoming more expensive to live,” she said.

Mindful of affordability issues in the Baltimore region, I decided to put the Thrifty Food Plan to the test through an imperfect experiment. I analyzed my receipts from four grocery shopping trips, buying as I normally would the first time and then trying to meet the budget over three more.

And because I’m a household of one in the city, I tapped Baltimore County resident and fellow Banner reporter Julie Scharper, who has a family of five, to join me in scrutinizing the government’s lowest food budget.

Could we come in under budget, or were these standards unreasonable for today’s prices?

How the Thrifty Food Plan works

Before I tell you how it went, let’s dig into the math and context behind the Thrifty Food Plan.

Twenty years ago, the guidance for a family of four (two adults and two children under 11 years of age) was $119.80 per week, or $519 per month. These days, it’s $231.60 per week, or $1,003.40 per month.

That guidance changes depending on the size of a household. Frankly, the formula the government uses is complicated and confusing.

One eyebrow-raising aspect of the government guidelines: They vary by gender. A man in his 30s, for example, should spend $312.80 per month on groceries. A woman of the same age, however, should come in at $249.30 per month — a $63.50 difference.

As I went through the experiment, my goal was to spend no more than $69 per trip, or $299.16 per month, which includes the additional 20% that I can spend since I’m only shopping for myself.

Scharper’s family had a weekly Thrifty Food Plan budget of $272.46, or $1,180.57 per month, after subtracting 5% as the guidelines say.

Here’s how the shopping went.

Round 1

I shopped as I normally would — replenishing some items in my fridge and pantry, and purchasing what I needed to make about three meals a day for one week.

I stopped at Aldi — I tend to go there because it’s a cheaper store than others — to buy milk, eggs, tuna, canned black beans and a few other items, spending just shy of $54.

At Giant, I was in search of cubanelle peppers for an enchilada bowl recipe and other items that Aldi doesn’t carry. I loaded relevant coupons on the app and looked for loyalty discounts, which saved me nearly $15 and brought my total to $37.32.

My final stop was Weis to find those elusive peppers, but I was forced to use poblanos and paid $3.49 for a bag of them.

In total, I spent $94 for my small haul of food — an unsurprising but disappointingly high total.

Meanwhile, Scharper hit Trader Joe’s for 84 items and Food Lion for another 11. She spent $394.38 between the two stores.

Scharper and her husband try to save money by shopping at Food Lion, considered one of the less expensive stores in our region.

But she said her need to feed three fast-growing children ages 13 and under and desire to eat organic, gluten-free, free-range and pasture-raised when possible means her family’s budget and shopping preferences often don’t match.

Round 2

On my second grocery run, about 15 days after the first, I shopped exclusively at Giant. It took me that long to need groceries because of a lucky run of free food at the office and, I admit, eating out a bit more than usual. The guidelines presume you’re not doing that.

This time, Scharper and I had to follow the Thrifty Food Plan. As a reminder, my budget was $69. Hers was $272.46 — roughly $100 less than she spent during her standard week.

I picked up shredded cheese, frozen hash browns, a half-dozen eggs, cereal, beef chuck and produce like oranges and tomatoes. I easily blew the budget, spending $86.60.

As I rolled my cart out to the parking lot, I thought: “How could this have happened?” I purchased only 20 items, shopped with coupons loaded on my phone and purchased sale items whenever possible.

Scharper’s family and their 60 items from Food Lion totaled $226.79. Sounds great — but that doesn’t account for the case of a missing receipt. (I did say this experiment was flawed.)

She shopped at Mom’s Organic Market and estimated spending another $120 or so. That would bring her total to roughly $346.79, less than her standard week but still well above the Thrifty Food Plan.

Rounds 3 and 4

With a fairly bare fridge, freezer and pantry, I headed back out to the grocery store. This time I went to Harris Teeter.

I forgot my shopping list at home and knew this wasn’t the best place to shop if I wanted to save money. I used memory and sheer will to try to stay under budget — and still failed.

I grabbed milk, bread, brussels sprouts, apples and 11 other items. Fewer groceries meant I spent $76.73 after saving $10 from loyalty discounts and on-sale items. I put in a lot of effort to save money on this trip, and still couldn’t get my spending down to $69.

Looking back over the receipt, I’m not sure what I could have done differently.

Then, on my final shopping trip, I spent $60.50 on 15 items at Giant. Finally!

What made this shopping trip so different from the last three? I didn’t buy any meat. (But I did buy a big bag of candy.)

Final thoughts

Amid the affordability crisis, it feels harder than ever to save money at the grocery store.

While the food plans are adjusted for inflation each month, it’s not localized. Some metropolitan areas have higher or lower inflation than the national average. Food prices in the Baltimore metro trended above the national average between July 2024 and July 2025.

The Thrifty Food Plan also uses outdated information from 2021 to set the monthly budget, which is a problem for SNAP recipients.

The federal legislative bill that stopped one of the longest government shutdowns in history kept SNAP benefits from being chopped, but included a provision that the Thrifty Food Plan would not account for actual food costs or updated dietary guidelines moving forward.

This means the benefit amount for SNAP recipients won’t increase with food costs, and “it’s going to be more expensive to eat,” said Jones, the Maryland Hunger Solutions director.

My experiment is over, but I haven’t stopped using the Thrifty Food Plan in my everyday life. It’s a helpful guide and I use it as my monthly budget, slightly adjusting every month for inflation.

But does the federal minimum adequately reflect what we in Baltimore are seeing in terms of grocery prices?

Definitely not.

Can a standard household of four feed itself on the Thrifty Food Plan?

“No, they can’t,” Jones said.