This morning’s price report has one number missing, and the one that matters most is already in your kitchen.
Your Daily Dad Joke
What do you call a dog that can tell time?
A watch dog.
The number on your receipt
You get to the register with the same few things you always buy. The total comes up, and it’s a little more than it was. You don’t stop to figure out why. You tap the card, the receipt goes in the bag, and you get on with your day.
That’s why I wanted to pass this along.
You may have seen this morning’s headline on Fox Business that consumer prices rose faster than expected in October. Other outlets are saying prices continue to climb. Both are true as far as they go. The government’s report, out at 8:30 this morning, says prices overall went up 0.4% in October, after 0.6% in September. Fox reports that economists had expected 0.3%.
A few pieces of it land right in the house. Groceries rose 0.4% for the month. Beef was up 0.9% and snacks 1%. Electricity rose 0.9%. Not everything went up: piped natural gas went down 0.8%, and so did used cars.
Here’s the part most of the coverage skips. There’s no “compared with a year ago” number this time. Last fall, during the government shutdown, nobody collected prices for October 2025. So the government says it simply can’t publish the 12-month change for most of this report. This month, nobody can tell you how much more you’re paying than a year ago, except your own receipts.
And honestly, even in a normal month, that national number is an average of everybody. Someone who drives a lot and eats out has a different month from someone who mostly buys groceries and pays an electric bill. Your number could be well above it or well below it.
These are numbers, but the most important number is how your expenses feel to you. Did they go down last month, or even over the last year?
The one thing I’d do. I’d pick three things I buy almost every week. Milk, coffee, a pack of chicken, whatever’s always in the cart. Then I’d look at what they cost this week next to a receipt or an online order from a few months back, or last fall if it’s still there. Three pairs of numbers on the back of an envelope. That’s your own inflation rate, and it’s more useful to you than anything in the report.
If one of the three jumped, that’s the one to shop around on. If they didn’t move much, that’s good to know too. It means the squeeze you feel might be coming from somewhere else, like a bill that crept up.
Anyway, I wanted you to hear about the missing number before somebody tells you prices are up “X% from last year” this week.
Did your three things cost more than last fall, or about the same? Share it in the comments so we can all learn from it. I read every comment.
If this was important to you, share it with someone you care about.
Nobody needs a degree in economics to run a household. You already know more about your own prices than the report does, and looking at three receipts is enough to feel a little more in charge of them by tomorrow.
— Steve
New on my Your Money Actually podcast: “Check your power bank and your French press,” the two recalls from yesterday’s letter, told as a story with the sound, for anyone who’d rather listen. It’s on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.
A longer video from me: What to Say When a Debt Collector Calls (Don’t Mess This Up!). It’s lesson one of my free class, and the heart of it is one calm sentence: “Can you please send me the validation notice in writing?”
SEE A SCAM? SAY SOMETHING. If one has landed on you or someone you love, tell me at tips@getoutofdebt.org. The ones that can warn other people may show up here. Leave out account numbers and passwords.
If this was important to you, share it with someone you care about. It’s free at yourmoneyactually.com, and I don’t sell the list. The places I actually use for my own money, and what I get out of telling you, are on one page where they’ll always be.
This is what I’m telling friends like you over coffee. But remember, you do you.