Canadian prices
A grocery budget for one person in Canada
These lists are written as one plate. Breakfast is oats. Dinner is rice and one egg. Nothing on this page assumes a second adult or a child at the table.
A practical one-person shop: $10
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| 900g Rice | $2.75 |
| 1kg Oats | $3.25 |
| 6 Large Eggs | $2.50 |
| Can of Beans | $1.50 |
| Total | $10.00 |
Six eggs, one per dinner in the instructions, is six dinners. One can of beans. 900 g of rice and 1 kg of oats. The total in the tool is $10.00. It does not convert the bags into a number of days. If you follow the one-egg rule, the eggs are the part you can count without guessing a portion.
The shop that is easier to stay with: $15
The same foods, plus peanut butter at $3.75 and white bread at $1.25. The tool's total is $15.00. The $15 note calls this the buffer and treats the peanut butter as the caloric floor. For one person, this is the list that gives breakfast something besides oats, using only prices the tool already has. Seven mornings and seven evenings from that shop are written on Budget meal plan for a week.
$5 is the emergency list
No Name rice at $2.75 and dried lentils at $2.25. Total $5.00. The button's own line says that under $5 in 2026 is emergency territory, and it says to seek aid. Use 211 before you try to live on those two bags. The full two-line table is on Cheap grocery list for Canada.
If this shop is more than you have, use a directory. 211.ca connects you to local help, and Food Banks Canada covers the country. In Quebec, 211 Québec and the Banques alimentaires du Québec do that job.
$20, $25, and $30 for the same person
You do not switch to a different kind of list as the amount rises. At $20 the same plate gets carrots, frozen spinach, and oil, and the tool's total is $20.00. At $25 it gets a pasta night, and the total is $25.00. At $30 it gets onion, salt, pepper, and hot sauce, and the total is $30.00. Every line is itemized on Cheap grocery list for Canada.
What this page will not do
It will not multiply $10 by four and call the result a monthly budget. The tool never says the $10 list is a week or a month. The count that is actually printed on the list is the eggs: 6 of them, one per dinner in the instructions. If a second person eats from the same bags, read Grocery budget for a family before you assume the carton still covers the week on Budget meal plan for a week.