The CPI is not calculated by morons. It is calculated by the government with a strong incentive to come up with as low a figure they can get away with.
Sort of like the Soviet industry production figures, which included phantom industries pumping out imaginary products. GDP looked great!
The top line CPI that gets reported usually isn’t the core one anyway. Generally core is preferred by the Fed so they can make long term money supply decisions without worrying about short term volatility. No one is saying that core reflects what consumers experience.
according to https://www.bls.gov/cpi/ For the past 12 months, energy actually was negative. While food at home rose 1.3%. These wouldn't contribute significantly to the overall numbers
The WSJ also wrote about how the government inflation figures understate inflation, because of things like:
1. shrinkflation - the container has less food in it for the same price
2. unbundling - the extras become extra cost items (a big example of this is luggage fees being separate from the ticket price)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/shrinkflation-is-in-the-air-onl...
Inflation is significantly higher than the government figures.