Have you noticed how your cash is buying fewer items than it did a ~year ago? My daily item costs are WAY up, which is really just saying the value of the cash is WAY down.
Honestly, no, I haven't. My groceries are the same. My electric bill is stable. The watch I'm replacing today is the same price today as ten years ago when I got its predecessor.
I don't know if it's because I buy different things from you, or if I live in a different place from you, or what. But my andecdote is that no, I'm not paying more for stuff than a year ago.
A gallon of milk is still a gallon of milk. A pound of carrots is still a pound of carrots.
It sounds as if your basket of goods is different from mine. Most of the examples on that Wikipedia page are sugary foods, which I just don't buy a lot of.
Here, two pounds of carrots are $1.79, just as they have been for as long as I can remember. I don't have a spreadsheet, but I know what carrots cost. They certainly haven't shot up by 50%.
I do actually. Because I am poor, I’m extremely conscious of my spending, and have spreadsheets and save receipts to track price changes in normal purchases.
I just saw this in real-time this past month with cat food.
A 24pk of Rx Renal cat food went from 5.8oz to 5.1oz[1]. I buy two packs at a time and what used to cost $113.76 is now $114.72
Effectively they're charging me an extra buck to keep 33.6oz (5.7 old-cans / 6.5 new-cans) of cat food from me.
Clothing prices seem to be way up in the US, especially shoes. My suspicion is people are flush with cash from the stimulus checks and retailers can charge whatever and people are buying.
Yes, inflation is real, and since I’m on a fixed income I noticed that despite cutting out luxuries and limiting meat purchases, my groovy bill went up and I still lost weight.
If you are trying to lose weight, shifting away from sugary & processed foods & meat to high-quality fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, etc. can definitely increase your grocery bill while reducing your weight in a very healthy way. Food bill may go down by going directly to farmers, but travel & fetching costs increase.
Or, it could be an unhealthy shift towards more processed foods, costing more in factory work & transport, and you are seeing real inflation.
So, insufficient data to indicate inflation or not.
Wasn’t trying to lose weight and my diet remained essentially the same other than modification due to cost (mainly less meat).
I had a fixed grocery budget, and over months, I lost weight due to a caloric deficit. Literally I bought less food with the same money and the result was just over a pound a month lost .
I don't know if it's because I buy different things from you, or if I live in a different place from you, or what. But my andecdote is that no, I'm not paying more for stuff than a year ago.