“It costs more to be poor” is a saying that dates to at least 1965. The poor often can’t afford to shop outside their neighborhood for better quality or better prices, to buy insurance, to buy preventative medicines, and other factors.  “It costs more to be poor” has been put on posters and stickers.
       
 
Irational.org
Fly poster and sticker graffiti street art, It costs more to be poor, Bristol, United Kingdom (UK).
Fly poster graffiti it costs more to be poor bristol.
 
4 June 1965, Christian Science Monitor, pg. 5:
In fact, it costs more to be poor. That is the essence of a report by a panel of experts on consumer In fact, it costs more to be poor. That is the essence of a report by a panel of experts on consumer education for persons with limited incomes, headed by Esther Peterson, Special Assistant ...
     
Google Books
Open Twenty-Four Hours; a drama in one act
By Roger N. Cornish
New York, NY: Samuel French
1968
Pg. 8:
WHITE WOMAN. — it costs more to be poor. You should try raising five on a welfare check.
 
Google News Archive
21 July 1968, Toledo (OH) Blade, “Basics Found To Be Uniform: It Costs More To Be Poor In Some Cases, Toledo Study Shows” by Robert Grant, pg. A8, col. 2:
Is being poor more expensive than most people would imagine? The answer is sometimes yes and sometimes no in Toledo.
 
Google News Archive
8 July 1970, The Dispatch (Lexington, NC), pg. 7, col. 4:
It Costs More
To Be Poor
NEW YORK (UPI)—It costs more to be poor.
 
The statement sounds on the surface as a paradox, but a deeper examination of the spending habits of the 30 million in the United States classified as poverty people shows, in the words of one woman economist, that they have “infinitely less economic freedom than do their more affluent countrymen.”
 
They have less money to spend, of course. But they also have less freedom of time, place, quality, amount and method of purchase. By contrast, the more affluent can determine purchase by convenience and as a result be thriftier shoppers.
 
6 April 1971, Cleveland (OH) Plain Dealer, “It Costs More to Be Poor” by Sylvia Porter, pg. 7C, col. 1.
 
3 July 1971, Aberdeen (SD) Daily News, “3 Minutes A Day” by Richard Armstrong, pg. 4, col. 3:
IT costs more to be poor.
 
This conclusion emerged from a recent article in the Journal of Home Economics that probed the buying habits of the poor.
 
“Poor is buying in the neighborhood at whatever the prices happen to be,” said Trienah Meyers, author of the article.
 
She explained that the poor lack the freedom of movement that enables the affluent to take advantage of lower prices in distant stores. Also, they must buy when they can, and are thus unable to benefit from end-of-season sales and supermarket specials.
 
The poor do not have sufficient ready money to purchase in bulk, to save by paying cash instead of charging or to protect investments in major appliances by taking out insurance for repairs.
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Poverty in Auckland, or, It costs more to be poor
Author: Patricia Wester; Auckland District Council of Social Services. Living Standards Committee.
Publisher: [Auckland, N.Z.] : The Committee, 1982.
Edition/Format:  Book : English
 
NPR
Does It Cost More To Be Poor?
May 20, 2009
According to the Census bureau, more than 37 million people in this country are living in poverty. In urban areas, basic amenities such as groceries and gasoline cost significantly more than in the suburbs. Bradley Schiller is author of The Economics of Poverty and Discrimination. Schiller is joined by Danette Tucker, who recently lost her job, to discuss whether it actually costs money to be poor in the U.S.
 
Fox News Latino
Daniel Garza: Economic Malaise Is Not the Only Thing Hurting Hispanic Children
By Daniel Garza
Published October 09, 2011
There is truth to that old adage, “it costs more to be poor.” To be sure, no one bears the cost of our stagnant economy more than Hispanic and Latino children. A recent study reports that for the first time ever, the number of Hispanic children living in poverty exceeds that of other groups.