Contrary to predictions from the new household economics theory and heuristic thought, income earned by wives working full time did not increase the marginal propensity to consume food away from home. Tobit estimates of the same propensity from other income sources in married U.S. households in 1978 showed that income earned by part‐time working wives and children, asset income, and transfer payments increased this propensity above that from husband's labor income. Whites had higher expenditures, higher marginal propensities to consume, and lower income elasticities for food away from home than nonwhites.