I found this inflation calculator online

I also have a cookbook from 1975 that has a list of prices in the back.

So it was an interesting exercises to compare prices. Not sale prices, but regular off the shelf prices.

In 1975 bananas were .12/lb, I pay .59/lb, according to the calculator they should be .53/lb.

Her milk was 1.39 gal, I pay 3.29 gal, calculator shows 6.16/gal
Her large eggs were .81/doz, I pay 2.09 doz, calculator 3.59 doz
Her thin spaghetti noodles were .39/lb, I pay .99/lb, calculator 1.73
Her onions .11/lb, I pay .89/lb, calculator .49/lb

So with just spot checking a few common items it looks like food actually has not kept pace with what the "government" says it has been and yet I'd swear that food prices have skyrocketed in the last 5 years. I wish I had written prices down so that I could do an actual comparison.

Can anyone else do comparisons?

Marsha

Inflation (calculated by the consumer price index in the calculator you linked to) is an average figure of the whole economy, so there are going to be fluctuations when you compare individual items.

In terms of food specifically, I have noticed that certain items have gotten more expensive over the past few years, particularly fresh produce.  This probably has less to do with inflation on a larger scale and more to do with the drought in California and high fuel prices.  I know when I buy from road-side farm stands, their prices are much cheaper than the grocery store.

Food (like gas) is not the most stable way to gauge inflation. Food (and gas) are notoriously volatile. Don't like food (or gas) prices? Wait five minutes and they'll change.

This is counterintuitive to most people's concept of inflation though **because food and gas are what matters** the most to the non-rich!

You don't want to calculate raw prices, but compare it to how much people made. It is like when my Midwest and southern family hears (sees) home prices here in CA, they freak. But none of them make (at the same job) anywhere near CA wages either. [That being said, California is still awful for working class folks, the, say 15 or even 20 % higher wages don't compensate for the nearly double or more housing costs and taxes IMO, but I digress).

For example, I don't know prices in the mid to late seventies, but my dad said (if I recall) he was making 8 grand a year back them. Eight, not eighty. He said he was making what was considered *good* money (union job) at the time. Eight grand a year! If I recall, he said he bought a nice car for 4800 bucks (new, not used). He bought a house for 99k a couple years later (81 or 82) and told me he thought when he bought it "there's no way I am ever going to pay off a 99k house. Never. What am I thinking? Where am I gonna get 99,000 dollars in my life?! I shouldn't do this." He said that 99k back then was actually pricey (my mom was a difficult woman).

Anyway, it's relative.

Food and gas ain't so bad now when you compare to income.

The problem now is *consumption* in my opinion. People have more *debt* than ever before. Typical car loans are 60 months now. Typical! I think my dad said (when he was telling me about the car in the seventies) that you'd have a 2 year loan. No one even offered 5 year loans! Hardly anyone had a credit card. He said people thought a credit card meant you were rich. And you couldn't get one practically if you weren't-- he said that stereotype was more or less true.

Wives didn't (have to) work, because people didn't have a TV in every room, you had one, and if it didn't work well you'd smack it and bang on it and deal with it because you didn't just buy a new TV because it had a couple extra inches in size or more pixels.

You had less "stuff" basically, it was not uncommon to have only one car.

People have way more debt now, way more stuff. That's the source of the feeling that everything is a struggle, not food and gas IMO.

We had inflation in the seventies. I remember going to the grocery store and the feeling of disbelief because a ten cent loaf of bread was now ninety-nine cents. Coffee and sugar were expensive,too

Interest rates went up in order to control inflation.

I found this inflation calculator online

I also have a cookbook from 1975 that has a list of prices in the back.

So it was an interesting exercises to compare prices. Not sale prices, but regular off the shelf prices.

In 1975 bananas were .12/lb, I pay .59/lb, according to the calculator they should be .53/lb.

Her milk was 1.39 gal, I pay 3.29 gal, calculator shows 6.16/gal
Her large eggs were .81/doz, I pay 2.09 doz, calculator 3.59 doz
Her thin spaghetti noodles were .39/lb, I pay .99/lb, calculator 1.73
Her onions .11/lb, I pay .89/lb, calculator .49/lb

So with just spot checking a few common items it looks like food actually has not kept pace with what the "government" says it has been and yet I'd swear that food prices have skyrocketed in the last 5 years. I wish I had written prices down so that I could do an actual comparison.

Can anyone else do comparisons?

Marsha

It's uncanny if you look at the organic prices, they are right around the last price you showed there.

Another point. Right around 10 years ago, the age-old law that prevented speculation on food, was abolished. That's partially why prices are in such a flux now. You have "investors" that are causing the erratic prices.