It drives me nuts when people talk about "cost of living" and inflation. The
government and many other places that report the data adjust the numbers so that it
does not include food or energy items.

Hello... I still have to pay for food and energy so it is a REAL cost. Please
do NOT adjust my real costs out of your formulas to make things look better.

Here is an example:

3 month rate ending 2008:

All items: 6.8%

All items minus food and energy: 3.1%

Check that out... the real number is DOUBLE what people are reporting.

----Most folks are seeing salary raises in the 1.5-3.5% range.

----Our real cost of living is growing at 4-7.5% a year.

We are in a recession.... our costs are raising faster than our incomes. Our government
is growing faster than the people that have to pay for to it.

I don't know about you but our family has been trimming costs for a couple of years
to try to live within our means. --Call me a fiscal conservative.