UC Berkeley

Debates about whether a healthy diet is affordable often overlook how low-income consumers themselves evaluate food cost. This question is relevant to explaining food choices and measuring food prices. Drawing on interviews with 49 low-income primary caregivers and grocery-shopping observations with 34 of these interviewees, I find that respondents judge food cost in two ways: 1) absolute judgments, or assessments of whether a food covers a family's needs with scarce resources and 2) relative judgments, or interpretations of price relative to another food that frames an item as affordable or pricey by contrast. Absolute judgments reflect actual expenditures, including not just the sticker price, but also four underappreciated monetary costs. These underappreciated costs stem from food waste; packages containing more than is needed; food that is consumed too quickly; and unsatiating foods. When monetary costs go unmeasured and when consumers interpret prices in relative terms, researchers' views of food cost diverge from the experiences of low-income people. Divergent views have two results: food-cost estimates overstate the affordability of a healthy diet and observers may misconstrue purchases as financially imprudent. These findings can inform policy, programming, and public discourse.