You’d think that with the kids growing, there’d be more time to write but a week camping with scouts, the need to finish multiple projects – and a larger foray into the generational sandwich – has left less time to spend on the site. Oh well, life intrudes.
But there’s always time to roll through the same three grocery stores to pull together the 47 item marketbasket data for the PracticalDad Price Index. The results however, reveal little change from the July index level as the August Total Index rose to 107.90 from July’s 107.57 (November 2010 = 100). When the Food-Only Index of 37 items is considered, the index was essentially flat with August at 113.14 versus the July result of 113.13 (again, November 2010 = 100). There’s honestly little notable about the results, but I’ll be watching the ground beef prices as drought in Texas and the lower midwest has caused ranchers to decrease the herd levels not seen since 1952. The offset is that rain in the upper midwest has caused a rebound in corn and hog output.
The results of the past four months are as follows:
Month/Year Total Index Food-Only Index Spread
5/13 107.64 113.68 6.04
6/13 107.65 113.55 5.90
7/13 107.57 113.13 5.56
8/13 107.90 113.14 5.24
The simple reality is that for all of the discussion about incipient inflation, the index for 47 commonly purchased grocery items (seen here) is simply flat and has been so since reaching a peak in December 2012.