The official inflation rate is based on an average household's spending. Yours is probably different. Enter roughly what you spend each month, and we'll weight official price data by your own budget to estimate your personal inflation rate.
How much prices have risen since Aug 2006. Enter your spending to compare your prices with the official CPI.
Each category above uses its Consumer Price Index from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. We take what you spend on each category today and work out what the same things would have cost at the earlier date. Your inflation rate is how much more your whole budget costs now. For periods longer than a year, we show the average annual rate.
Categories you spend more on count for more. If gas prices jump but you don't drive, it won't affect your rate. The official CPI does the same thing with an average household's budget, which is why a sample budget built from the official weights lands close to the official rate.
The official CPI puts about a third of its weight on housing, mostly on what owners would pay to rent their homes. If you rent, own your home outright, or have a fixed-rate mortgage, your housing costs may behave very differently. Food, energy, and car costs also vary a lot between households.
The categories here cover most of a typical budget, but not all of it. Spending that doesn't fit anywhere, such as taxes, savings, and debt payments, isn't part of the CPI and should be left out. Prices are national averages, so local prices may have changed by more or less. Car prices measure what vehicles cost, not loan interest rates.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), not seasonally adjusted. The sample budget splits about $5,000 a month using approximate BLS relative importance weights.