The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effects of the Bolsa Família family conditional cash transfer programme (PBF) on beneficiary families' spending on food, fruit, meat and fish, poultry and eggs, green vegetables, cereals and oilseed products, flours and pastas, tuber and root vegetables, sugar, bakery products, alcoholic beverages, education, hygiene, health and school utensils. The estimation was based on microdata obtained from the 2008-2009 Brazilian Household Budget Survey; and the propensity-score matching methodology was used to calculate the average effect of the treatment on the families treated. The results were statistically significant in respect of expenditure on: (i) food products; (ii) poultry and eggs; (iii) legumes and green vegetables; (iv) cereals, leguminous and oilseed products; (v) flours, starches and pastas; (vi) tuber and root vegetables; (vii) sugars and sugar-based products; and (viii) school articles. The fact that beneficiary families increased their purchases of priority goods and school utensils suggests an investment in education.