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Brian Lehrer: I'm Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now I'll end with one of our occasional, where are you feeling inflation in your life today call-ins. Listeners, where are you feeling inflation in your life today? Give us a call 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, or tweet @BrianLehrer. You know why we're doing this the Consumer Price Index report for August, came out yesterday and made the stock market have a little mini crash. The Dow went down by almost 1,300 points. It showed, this report did, that the annual inflation rate dipped to 8.3%, annualized rate, in August from 8.5% in July.
The cost of many goods and services spiked up because some of the key drivers of inflation, gasoline prices, used car prices, and issues with the supply chain faded, but that's still left a lot of other things going up. As one article I saw online put it little cheekily, yes, your gasoline prices are going down, but everything else in your life is going up. Help us report this story folks, where are you feeling inflation in your life most right now? What are you squeezing to be able to afford to live? How are you changing your buying habits 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.
To throw out a few specifics here from the Consumer Price Index report, electricity prices have jumped 16% in the last year, according to NPR, that's largely a result of high price of natural gas which is used to generate nearly 40% of the nation's power. The recent heat waves here and around the country certainly haven't helped with that. Food, very much at the center of inflation right now. Eggs saw among the highest price increases. For some reason, eggs were up 40% in August compared to a year ago. That's also because of the avian flu, not just inflation. Avian Flu wiped out 10% of the egg supply in this country, we are told, but margarine, margarine can't catch the flu, also at 40%.
Butter, up 25% in the last year, mainly due to the cost of raw materials such as soybean oil and cream, we are told. Flour and prepared flour mixes, 23% more expensive than a year ago. Processed meats, fresh fruits, and vegetables, unfortunately, as well. Rent increases, do we even have to tell you, most of you who listen in the New York area, but also a lot of other places. Tell us how inflation is most biting you right now and what you're cutting back on as a result, John in Peekskill. Hi, John, you're on WNYC.
John: Hi, Brian. Longtime, first time and just a belated thank you for what you did for us through the pandemic. Listen to you all the time because I was out of work and you maintained my sanity.
Brian: Thank you.
John: Thank you for that. You're a treasure to this great state. Well, I'm on the board for our co-op here it's a limited equity co-op so we're not awash with money. We've been putting off repairs now for years. It seems like every year prices have been doubling, cement blocks, cement boards for the siding, they've literally have gone up by about 400% and we just don't know how long we should be delaying it, every year like, "Well, it's going up again, should we do it now?"
We're just kind of at a crossroads. When is this going to end? When are they going to just start producing more goods and just how we can get back to the, I like to call it the before times, where things were just the better price or maybe this is-- also ties into our increased energy costs, especially in Westchester with the closing Indian power plant, the nuclear power plant, which is literally in my backdoor, backyard. Now we're just using natural gas, which energy costs have gone up by about 75%-- 50% to 75% for everybody here.
Brian: We had another caller who talked to our screener but didn't wait. Who says Westchester County sent out a note about gas and electric going up by a projected 28% this winter. I don't know if that's a true fact, but that's what the caller said. John one quick follow-up, have you had to raise the maintenance a lot in the co-op since you're calling sort of representing what's happening in your co-op?
John: That's a great question and you have to be a qualified artist to live here. No, we have not. We've strived for that. We have a pretty good bank account now. It used to 15 years ago [crosstalk]
Brian: I'm going to leave it there. Get some other folks on. Thank you so much-
John: I appreciate it.
Brian: -please call us again, John. Thank you very much. All right. Now, a lot are coming in having to do with food. Peter in Midtown. Going to start on a very basic New York food item. Hi, Peter. You're on WNYC.
Peter: Thanks for taking my call, Brian. Good morning. I went to get a bagel with salmon spread this morning. I haven't had one of those in ages, I felt it was a nice day and I was going to treat myself for breakfast. It was $6.80 and the last time I bought-- this was the Upper East Side just off of 96th Street. The last time I bought one I do not recall how much it was, but honestly, my mouth was agape. I was like, "Holy, $6.80 for that?"
Brian: That was just with salmon spread. Imagine if you've got an actual [unintelligible 00:06:34]. Peter, thank you very much. Brandon in Sayville. You're on WNYC. Hi, Brandon.
Brandon: Hi, good morning. I was telling the screener just price for real estate on Long Island has just gone up in Nassau and Suffolk. I was looking-- purchased a house that I rent and it was promised to me for $500,000 and now with the price of real estate going up they're like, "Well, we could probably get like $600,000 or $750,000 for it," so making it, especially with-- keep raising the interest rate so making it like the monthly payments would just be completely unaffordable.
Brian: You said something to our screener about the price of food?
Brandon: Going out to dinner with the kids. Just you can see it. Even at your local [unintelligible 00:07:26] everything went up, your last costs, everything went up $2. The cost of a six-pack went up-- actually now it doesn't make sense to buy a six-pack because a small pack is $3 more. I guess that's a trucking cost thing. Maybe it's just cheaper with packaging. The price of chicken, you used to be able to get some pieces of chicken for $1 and change now everything's $2.99 for your drumsticks, which we used to go for less than $2.
Brian: Brandon, thank you very much. Hang in there. It's not just human food. Justina in Queens WNYC. Hi, Justina.
Justina: Good morning, Brian. It's true that cat food is crazy, crazy expensive. I foster. I have a lot of mouths to feed and just the other night I actually sat down and I compared the prices. When I purchased [unintelligible 00:08:25] which is nuts and fancy food really. In January 2020, a can cost me $0.51. Now in September '22, a can is $0.83, so you see the difference. There is at least four cans a day. Well, in my case, it's much more with all these kitties.
Brian: You have a lot of kitties. How many kitties do you have?
Justina: I have six, but I wanted to give a shout out to a rescue that I volunteer for. Their name is Puppy Kitty NYCity, and they always need food, they always need cat litter, who's price also gone up, so if you guys can go on Instagram and look for Puppy Kitty NYCity and donate, we would love that.
Brian: Very nice shout out, Justina. Thank you very much. Oh, that percentage increase in the price of cat food, wow. If you keep having to feed that multiple meals a day, as Justina was describing. I said Christina by accident because Christina in Queens is going to be probably our last caller. Hi, Christina. You're on WNYC
Christina: Hi, Brian. Thank you so much for taking my call. I got a Con Ed email on September 13th saying help for managing higher energy bills. I wasn't prepared for what the email read. Prepare now for higher winter bill and bill increases for essentials like energy on top of everything of every other rising costs are difficult. Please do what you can now to prepare for significantly higher gas and electric bills this winter. This is an official Con Ed email and they detail residential gas customers and the increase will be 32% more than last winter.
Westchester will have 27%. Residents for New York City will have 22%. Small business 23%. Large 28% increase. They've done their homework. They know that gas prices are going to go up for us and then they give you suggestions on how to manage that, but I'm sure a lot of other people received that. [crosstalk]
Brian: Thank you for reporting that message from Con Ed. Not a happy one, but there it is and affirming what the other caller said they got in Westchester. I guess it's probably not going to be our last call-in on your reports on how inflation is affecting your life. Thank you for this smattering, the sampling of how things are going up for you right now.
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