Inflation Increases MD Costs, How Much To Budget For Extra Expenses

MARYLAND — Every Marylander who has put gas in the car or flinched at the total of their grocery bill knows that prices are continuing to climb.

Inflation hit a new, 40-year high in March, jumping 8.5 percent over the previous 12 months, according to a new Labor Department report released Tuesday. The news spells trouble for Maryland households already feeling the pinch of rising costs for necessities.

Estimates vary on how much extra money Maryland residents should build into their household budgets through the end of the year. Bloomberg News calculates households should plan to spend $5,200 more this year, or $433 a month, for the same "consumption basket."

In the greater Baltimore-DC region, the price of all items has gone up 7.3 percent since March 2021. Food prices are up 7.2 percent over the past year, and 0.2 percent just since February 2022, according to statistics in the Labor Department's report.

Increased prices for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs, up 10.0 percent, and fruits and vegetables, up 8.6 percent, led the general rise in grocery prices.

Since January, the energy index, which includes prices for household and transportation fuels, increased 13.0 percent, the highest increase since July 2008.

Inflation has been steadily rising for months for a variety of reasons, ranging from a bottlenecked supply chain and increased consumer demand to volatility in global food and energy markets worsened by Russia’s war in Ukraine, The Associated Press reported.

Ryan Sweet, a senior economist with Moody Analytics, told CNBC in March that inflation costing Americans $296 more a month was “going to get worse before it gets better.”

In fact, Americans haven’t managed such high inflation since 1981, and the 1.2 percent increase in the consumer price index from February to March was the biggest month-to-month jump since 2005.

And with gas prices that have increased 48 percent over the past year and food costs up 10 percent, budgeting for inflation becomes crucial.

Gasoline prices averaged $4.05 a gallon in the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson area in March 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Area gasoline prices were up 46.0 percent compared to last March when they averaged $2.77 per gallon.

At $4.05 a gallon, costs for gasoline in the Baltimore area were 7.9 percent below the national average of $4.40 a gallon in March 2022.

Baltimore area households paid an average of 14.1 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity in March 2022, up 12.8 percent from one year ago.

Not everyone feels the same pain at the checkout counter and gas pump, or when they’re making out their rent checks.

Analyses by the Penn Wharton Budget Model and Wells Fargo showed low- and middle-income U.S. households are hurt the most by inflation. The Wells Fargo study, cited by CNBC, showed the middle class is being hit the most; and within that group, Hispanics and Latinos have the steepest jump in living costs.

There’s no way to know exactly how much prices will rise, though the Labor Department’s past consumer price index reports portend continued inflation.

One way to keep track of how much more you’re paying is through a Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator. Say your monthly household budget was $4,982 in March 2021; a year later, you’d need $8,129.09 to pay the same bills.

“This is really harmful for people on fixed incomes,” Carol Ehlers, a human sciences specialist with the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, said in a news release recommending the inflation calculator as an effective budget-building tool.

“Higher prices mean families need to be more strategic about their spending and find ways to stretch their income. Budgeting for periods of higher inflation challenges families to rethink the way they spend and determine which expenses they potentially can reduce or eliminate,” Ehlers said.

Analysts and others who spoke to CNBC offered some tips on keeping household budgets on track, including combining errands in one trip to save on gas, searching for apps and digital coupon sites, and canceling or renegotiating subscription services.

Also, experts said, it’s important to check the household budget weekly to see what costs are increasing the most and where budgets can be trimmed.