Cost of Living
Grocery prices, gas prices, utility costs, inflation impacts on everyday expenses, consumer sentiment, and the real-world financial pressures facing households.
Latest in Cost of Living
Grocery prices climbed 2.7% over the year, with beef rising and eggs the rare item falling
Grocery prices were 2.7 percent higher this July than a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest food price data, and the...
Hawaii is the one place where SNAP benefits shrink this October instead of growing
Every SNAP jurisdiction in the country gets a raise on October 1 except one. USDA’s fiscal year 2027 cost-of-living adjustment lifts maximum food-assistance allotments in...
SNAP benefits rise about 2.9% nationwide on October 1 for the new federal fiscal year
The federal government’s annual cost-of-living recalculation lands on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits October 1, and this year’s adjustment pushes the maximum monthly allotment for...
Marketplace health premiums are jumping about 114% on average after enhanced tax credits expired
Out-of-pocket premiums for subsidized Affordable Care Act marketplace plans are rising by about 114% on average for 2026 coverage, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation,...
New Jersey Senior Freeze payments keep arriving through October 1 for later spring filers
New Jersey’s Senior Freeze reimbursement schedule is still moving through a defined fall window, with payments for a specific group of later spring filers expected...
California is putting $894 million in electric-bill credits into the hottest months of 2026
California scheduled $894 million in residential electric Climate Credits for 2026, moving major investor-owned utility credits into August and September when cooling demand can be...
Connecticut electric bills are down 18% this year, and the credit now lasts through April
Connecticut says average residential electric bills have fallen 18% so far in 2026, and new funding will keep a public-benefit-cost credit running through at least...
Regular gasoline now averages $4.316 a gallon nationwide
The national average for regular gasoline reached $4.3163 a gallon on September 14, according to AAA, which rounds to $4.316 in the headline figure. That...
Wholesale prices climbed 5.4% in a year as diesel costs jumped 24.1% in August
Producer prices for final demand were 5.4% higher in August than a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The monthly index rose...
Workers lost 0.3% of real hourly buying power over the past year
Average hourly pay failed to keep pace with consumer prices over the year through August, leaving workers with 0.3% less inflation-adjusted buying power per hour....
August inflation accelerated to 0.4%, lifting yearly consumer prices 3.4%
Consumer inflation picked up sharply in August, with the broad price index rising 0.4% in one month after a 0.1% July increase. Prices stood 3.4%...
Subsidized Obamacare enrollees will see their premiums more than double next year
Enrollees who get help paying for an Affordable Care Act marketplace plan are now paying, on average, more than double what they paid for the...
Gasoline rose 27.4 percent over the year and did more than a third of August’s monthly inflation
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Car insurance fell 5.1 percent, the biggest decline in the whole report
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Heating oil is up 52 percent with the tank-filling season weeks away
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Coffee and other nonalcoholic drinks cost 4.1 percent more than a year ago while sugar and sweets rose 7.4 percent
The U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts nonalcoholic beverage prices will rise 4.3 percent for all of 2026, and the July reading already sits close to...
Beef costs 9.4 percent more than a year ago, eggs 25.7 percent less
Beef and veal prices climbed 9.4 percent in July compared with a year earlier, while retail egg prices fell 25.7 percent over the same stretch,...
Diesel set an all-time record at $5.967 a gallon, up 36.8 cents in a single week
The national average price for on-highway diesel fuel reached $5.967 a gallon during the week of September 7, an all-time high that breaks the previous...
Wholesale prices rose 5.4 percent over the year as energy costs jumped 4.2 percent in a single month
The cost of goods and services leaving American factories, farms and energy producers rose 5.4 percent over the twelve months ended in August, the sharpest...
Out-of-pocket marketplace premiums rose 58 percent after the enhanced credits lapsed
The enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits that capped what higher earners paid for marketplace coverage expired at the end of 2025 after Congress...