Consumer Price Index - Urban Consumers (CPI-U)

Who knew? All the years I have heard about the CPI - Consumer Price Index. And I never knew that there are actually multiple versions, but the one usually quoted is specifically, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U): U. S. City Average, by expenditure category and commodity and service group. In other words, we Urbanites rule.

Elizabeth Warren is the queen of bringing public attention to consumer spending with her research and advocacy for families trying to make ends meet. Her point - family incomes are not keeping pace with the real costs of living. Money is having to go toward new costs even though the cost of many products and services have remained level or even declined over the last generation or so.

I looked through the list of CPI-U components and compared these with our current expenditures and with the spending patterns for friends and neighbors. More important, how are our spending habits changing as the economy sinks further, as it seems destined to do.

Then there is the inflation / deflation debate. How will spending change depending on which of these "choices" comes to pass?

We tend to be on the leading edge for lifestyle issues and expenses. As we go so goes a generation.

First and foremost, we spend a lot more on healthcare premiums, even though we are pretty healthy. We don't drive very much because we live in an urban setting so we don't have to. We still eat out quite a bit. Eating at home is pretty expensive and time consuming - we don't own a microwave, so that may have something to do with it.

We rent housing rather than own, so that changes our expenditures on durable goods like refrigerators, homeowners insurance and household maintenance. Theoretically that's factored into our rent, but our out-of-pocket costs today are much less than when we lived in our own house.

Other areas where we spend less - apparel, personal services. We spend more on travel and recreation. And so it goes...