Average Monthly Household Grocery Bill
Find out how much Canadian spend on grocery each month.
About three months ago, I posted an article on Average Monthly Grocery Bill. I was hoping people would comment on that article, sharing how much they spend on grocery with me and the readers. Sadly, people in Canada don’t like to share their thoughts, I suppose. 
I know a lot of people come to my site for this info, but are unwilling to share.
So, I decided to find this information on my own, and certainly I found it. So should I share it here??? 
The data include average annual household expenses for all provinces & territories in Canada: Yukon (YT), British Columbia (BC), Alberta (AB), Saskatchewan (SK), Manitoba (MB), Northwest Territories (NWT), Nunavut (NU), Ontario (ON), Québec (QC), Nova Scotia (NS), Prince Edward Island (PEI), New Brunswick (NB), Newfoundland and Labrador (NL).
The average annual food expesne for family in Canada ranges $6000 to $7000 (monthly $500 to $600). 
The statistics does not indicate how many people in each household, but my guess would be for a family of 4. So, you can calculate the expense for families of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, so on. My monthly grocery bill for me alone (I’m single still) is around $200; however, I include personal care and some health care as part of my grocery expesnes. So I guess I’m doing alright.
National Average Annual Household Expenses Year 2007
| NL | PEI | NS | NB | QC | ON | NU | |
| Total expenditures | 55,007 | 55,574 | 59,987 | 58,205 | 57,308 | 76,654 | 73,747 |
| Total current consumption | 40,332 | 40,922 | 44,145 | 42,285 | 41,100 | 53,938 | 54,400 |
| Food | 6,463 | 6,629 | 6,640 | 6,602 | 7,321 | 7,383 | 14,057 |
| Shelter | 8,985 | 10,137 | 10,815 | 10,031 | 10,167 | 16,341 | 11,547 |
| Household operation | 2,968 | 3,097 | 3,304 | 2,945 | 2,601 | 3,666 | 3,445 |
| Household furnishings & equipment | 1,719 | 1,424 | 1,784 | 1,567 | 1,543 | 2,136 | 2,082 |
| Clothing | 2,588 | 2,112 | 2,412 | 2,312 | 2,368 | 3,420 | 3,345 |
| Transportation | 8,392 | 8,039 | 8,820 | 9,137 | 7,542 | 9,600 | 5,456 |
| Health care | 1,582 | 1,994 | 1,868 | 1,817 | 2,067 | 1,721 | 874 |
| Personal care | 1,008 | 1,027 | 1,048 | 1,000 | 1,089 | 1,239 | 1,123 |
| Recreation | 3,305 | 3,019 | 3,329 | 3,215 | 3,055 | 4,133 | 6,855 |
| Reading materials & printed matter | 179 | 250 | 249 | 234 | 245 | 281 | 201 |
| Education | 579 | 797 | 1,055 | 1,005 | 633 | 1,220 | N/A |
| Tobacco & alcoholic beverages | 1,636 | 1,474 | 1,628 | 1,426 | 1,354 | 1,459 | 3,506 |
| Games of chance (net amount) | 247 | 195 | 253 | 191 | 178 | 283 | 465 |
| Miscellaneous | 681 | 727 | 939 | 804 | 936 | 1,055 | 1,144 |
| Personal income taxes | 10,466 | 9,504 | 10,585 | 10,610 | 11,739 | 16,403 | 13,312 |
| Personal insurance payments and pension contributions | 3,171 | 3,694 | 3,550 | 3,811 | 3,595 | 4,177 | 4,742 |
| Gifts of money and contributions | 1,038 | 1,454 | 1,708 | 1,499 | 874 | 2,137 | 1,293 |
| MB | SK | AB | BC | YT | NWT | Canada | |
| Total expenditures | 63,303 | 63,944 | 85,912 | 72,621 | 76,997 | 89,075 | 69,946 |
| Total current consumption | 44,701 | 46,089 | 59,288 | 53,394 | 53,929 | 63,369 | 49,766 |
| Food | 6,518 | 6,073 | 7,491 | 7,745 | 7,078 | 9,096 | 7,305 |
| Shelter | 10,852 | 10,711 | 14,955 | 15,056 | 14,058 | 18,249 | 13,643 |
| Household operation | 3,063 | 3,161 | 3,768 | 3,357 | 3,831 | 4,110 | 3,287 |
| Household furnishings & equipment | 1,715 | 1,873 | 2,608 | 2,036 | 2,707 | 2,466 | 1,964 |
| Clothing | 2,482 | 2,434 | 3,548 | 2,818 | 2,915 | 3,844 | 2,948 |
| Transportation | 9,651 | 10,412 | 12,678 | 9,896 | 10,775 | 11,439 | 9,395 |
| Health care | 1,786 | 1,738 | 2,259 | 2,177 | 1,603 | 1,306 | 1,932 |
| Personal care | 1,102 | 1,082 | 1,288 | 1,135 | 1,193 | 1,351 | 1,167 |
| Recreation | 3,607 | 4,387 | 5,387 | 4,577 | 4,860 | 6,132 | 3,976 |
| Reading materials & printed matter | 267 | 218 | 291 | 233 | 415 | 312 | 260 |
| Education | 869 | 804 | 1,176 | 1,215 | 739 | 503 | 1,017 |
| Tobacco & alcoholic beverages | 1,441 | 1,615 | 2,124 | 1,624 | 2,236 | 2,792 | 1,536 |
| Games of chance (net amount) | 311 | 286 | 340 | 223 | 308 | 653 | 251 |
| Miscellaneous | 1,037 | 1,293 | 1,374 | 1,303 | 1,212 | 1,116 | 1,081 |
| Personal income taxes | 12,411 | 12,215 | 19,766 | 13,297 | 16,437 | 17,751 | 14,447 |
| Personal insurance payments and pension contributions | 4,003 | 3,923 | 4,331 | 3,850 | 4,961 | 6,228 | 3,946 |
| Gifts of money and contributions | 2,188 | 1,716 | 2,527 | 2,080 | 1,670 | 1,727 | 1,788 |
Reference: Statistics Canada
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We are a family of 2 in our mid fifties with 6 grown children all living on their own. I am retired my wife would like to retire in the next few years so last night we went over our bills for the year in order to figure out a monthly budget. I was astounded at what we spent and decided to find out what the average was for other Ontartio families.Your site was very helpful and I’d like to share with you our costs per month which turns out to fit your average.Our monthly average was $4,468. your monthly average was $4,949.a difference of only -$27.
Thank you for this information. I have been looking for this type of info for some time now. We are a family of 4, I make most things from scratch, even the kids granola bars, bread, yogurt, buy almost everything on sale, and i still can’t seem to get my food bill under $700-800 per month!
we are a family of 4 and our grocery bill is over 1400 a month. we make multiple trips to the store between grocery days. this is a great resource to get some perspective.
we are a family of two. no kids. we spend around $500 a month on groceries. we are not including eating out which modestly comes in around $150 and the odds and ends we pick up which comes in around $175 so the total would be $825 a month for the two of us. and this is us on a budget.
Great information – thanks. I tried to find the table you used. Is it posted with Stats Canada? Is there a more recent one, where did you find this table? We are a family of 4 and we spend an average of $570 per month, without coupons but try to buy things on sale. This does not include restaurants, which averages once a week about $260 per month. Cheers
I’m a single guy. I don’t eat out at all. Grocery bill is about $600 per month. I used to eat out all the time, 2 – 3 times per day. Food bill exceeded $1400 per month. $600 is a steal.
Thanks for the stats. I am most interested in these responses. I am a single woman and rarely dine out. My monthly food bills are close to $600, mostly due to the higher cost of organic food and vitamins. What’s healthy for my body is hard on the budget, I guess!
I was curious how I fare against the average BC couple. There are 2 of us, no kids and we seem to spend around $700. Doesn’t include eating out. When I read about the single guy who spends $600/mo, (but not sure where he lives) I think, we are doing great! But then you can read the opposite, a family spends $600. Regardless, it feels like there is never enough money, and I was hoping to shop a bit more wisely and thus save some of that money for something fun like a vacation!
Great information! I’m a manager in a BC hotel and they provide lunch and/or dinner 5 days a week. Being a single male, I don’t have a family to feed either. I always gripe about not making enough money, so I wanted to research how much this benefit is worth. I buy groceries once a month and always on the first tuesday to get the 10% off deal at Safeway. That bill with the milk and fruit that I buy throughout the month probably totals $50 to $75 on actual food. Considering what the average person seems to be spending, I figure this benefit is probably saving me $2,000+ per year.
We’re a family of 3, with one young child (7 years old). We average about $800/month, with peaks >$1000 at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
We are 2 adults & very active (high calorie needs). We stick to organics and hi-vegetable + quality protein diet. Except for oats, honey/stevia, nuts, & frozen veggies– minimal packaged anything. Have been tracking grocery for years…watched our same diet jump from $400/mo when we live in SE US to $600/mo when we moved to NW US (2003)…since then steady increase to $900/mo for the same foods, despite tighter budgeting and increase consumer demand ???