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Grocery budget: what STATEC counts as enough to live decently
Every six months STATEC publishes a reference budget: the monthly amount a household needs, at a minimum, to live decently in Luxembourg. The reference budget methodology describes it as a low level of consumption, built as baskets of goods and services: food, clothing, health, housing, mobility, social life, among others.
Each basket assumes households in good health, with no particular medical need, who know their rights and keep track of their budget. For the single adult, the series of reference budgets by household and basket states that the figure is the average of a man and a woman aged 45, in work.
So the food basket prices what is enough to eat well without extras. It is not derived from an average of what people actually spend. A household that buys more fresh, organic or ready-made food goes above it without its budget being badly run.
The reference budget measures the minimum for a decent life, not what households spend on average.
Grocery budget per month: the food basket by household type
The table shows the food basket and the full reference budget for the first half of 2026, in euros a month, as published in the STATEC series. The last column relates one to the other.
| Household | Food | Full budget | Share of food |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single adult | €363 | €2,601 | 14% |
| Single adult, retired | €280 | €2,724 | 10% |
| Couple without children | €725 | €3,267 | 22% |
| Retired couple | €559 | €3,747 | 15% |
| Couple, one child aged 6 months | €833 | €3,990 | 21% |
| Couple, two children aged 5 and 8 | €1,029 | €4,532 | 23% |
| Couple, two children aged 12 and 15 | €1,331 | €5,201 | 26% |
| Single adult, one child aged 18 months | €495 | €3,285 | 15% |
| Single adult, two children aged 12 and 15 | €969 | €4,444 | 22% |
A couple's basket is almost exactly twice a single adult's: €725 against €363. Two teenagers cost more to feed than two young children, €1,331 against €1,029 for the same couple. And the share of food is low for a single person because housing weighs heavily in their full budget.
STATEC flags a break in the series in the first half of 2026, so comparisons with earlier half-years need care. Between the first half of 2024 and the second half of 2025, with no break, the single adult's basket went from €351 to €358.
A couple counts roughly twice the basket of a single person; teenagers push the bill up more than young children.
Shopping list with prices: pricing it before you go
In Luxembourg, a retailer normally shows two prices for the same product: the selling price and the unit price, meaning the price per kilogram, litre, metre, square metre or cubic metre. The Guichet.lu page on price display, updated on 29 June 2026, sets out the exceptions, among them: a product sold loose shows only its unit price, and a shop of 400 m² or less may show only the selling price, unless the same operator runs another, larger shop.
The unit price makes packs comparable. A 250 g pack of coffee at €4.00 comes to €16.00 a kilo; a 400 g pack at €5.20 comes to €13.00 a kilo. The first pack is cheaper at the till and dearer by the kilo.
Pricing a list means multiplying, for each item, the planned quantity by a known unit price. The prices in the example below are made up for illustration.
| Item | Planned quantity | Unit price noted (example) | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Semi-skimmed milk | 2 L | €0.95 a litre | €1.90 |
| Tomatoes | 1.5 kg | €2.80 a kilo | €4.20 |
| Pasta | 1 kg | €1.60 a kilo | €1.60 |
| Ground coffee | 250 g | €16.00 a kilo | €4.00 |
| Strawberries | 500 g | no price noted | unknown |
| Known prices | €11.70 |
The €11.70 total is a floor, not an estimate of the whole list. The strawberries will cost something, but the list does not know how much. Counting them at zero would pass an incomplete list off as a complete one. The only honest reading is "at least €11.70, plus one item with no known price".
Two conditions keep the sum honest. The quantity and the price have to use the same unit: a price per kilo is not multiplied by a number of pieces. And a noted price ages: a price seen six months ago says what the item cost, not necessarily what it costs now.
A list priced with known prices gives a minimum; every item without a price is counted separately, never at zero.
Grocery budget Luxembourg: the same list across the border
Eurostat compares price levels between countries with an index where the European Union average is 100. For "food and non-alcoholic beverages", the Eurostat dataset prc_ppp_ind, updated on 10 July 2025, gives for 2024:
| Country | 2024 index (EU = 100) | Gap with Luxembourg |
|---|---|---|
| Luxembourg | 124.8 | reference |
| France | 110.1 | 11.8% lower |
| Belgium | 105.3 | 15.6% lower |
| Germany | 102.7 | 17.7% lower |
A basket costing €100 at the EU average price level therefore costs about €124.80 in Luxembourg and €102.70 in Germany. For 2025, the Eurostat page on food price levels, with data from 17 June 2026, puts Luxembourg 22% above the average, the highest level in the Union for this item.
These indices are national averages. They say nothing about a given store, a town or your own basket, which may be mostly products where the gap is smaller, or larger. For a cross-border worker who lives on one side and works on the other, the useful comparison is still the prices they noted themselves, item by item, in the shops they actually use.
Eurostat's index compares countries, not shops: the only comparison that holds for a list is the prices noted for that list.
Trip cap and monthly budget: two figures that talk to each other
The STATEC food basket is a monthly amount. A shopping trip is a one-off amount. For a couple without children, €725 a month comes to about €181 a trip if the month holds four big shops, a sum that leaves out the Saturday market, the bakery and meals eaten out.
A trip cap sets a limit on a single list. During the shop, it shows where the total stands against what was planned. The 50/30/20 rule guide files food under needs, next to rent and energy: a trip cap then reads as a slice of that envelope, and a personal cash flow forecast shows when the month can carry it.
A shopping list tool, such as the one in Avuru, works out this floor from your own price notes and counts items without a known price separately.
What the figures in this guide do not tell you: the diet (gluten-free, vegetarian, baby food), how many meals are eaten at the canteen or in restaurants, and how prices move between two STATEC releases. The reference basket is a benchmark, not a target.
A trip cap cuts the monthly budget into pieces you can check at the till.
Frequently asked questions
What is a monthly grocery budget for a single person in Luxembourg?
The food basket of STATEC's reference budget is €363 a month for a single adult in the first half of 2026, and €280 for a retired single adult. It corresponds to a decent but modest standard of living, not to an observed average spend.
What is the food budget for a family of four in Luxembourg?
According to STATEC, in the first half of 2026 a couple with two children aged 5 and 8 counts €1,029 a month for food, and a couple with two children aged 12 and 15 counts €1,331. The children's age therefore moves the basket by about €300.
How do you make a shopping list with prices?
For each item, the planned quantity is multiplied by a known unit price, per kilo or per litre, in the same unit. The sum of the known prices gives a minimum, and items without a price are counted separately rather than at zero.
Why does the price per kilo change the comparison?
Because two packs of different sizes cannot be compared on their selling price. In Luxembourg, the unit price is normally shown next to the selling price. The exceptions include shops of 400 m² or less, which may show only the selling price, and loose products, which show only the unit price.
Key points
- STATEC's food basket is €363 a month for a single adult and €725 for a couple without children in the first half of 2026.
- The basket measures the minimum for a decent life, not what households spend on average.
- The price per kilo or per litre, normally shown on the shelf, makes packs of different sizes comparable.
- A list priced with known prices gives a floor, and every item without a price is counted separately.
- In 2024, Eurostat put food price levels at 124.8 in Luxembourg against 110.1 in France, 105.3 in Belgium and 102.7 in Germany, with the EU average at 100.