Inflation puts the squeeze on household groceries, gas purchases

Yahoo Finance's Dani Romero joins the Live show to detail the ripple effect inflation has had on rising food and grocery costs, as well as how Americans are balancing surging gas prices on top of pantry concerns.

Video transcript

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- Well, we are all feeling the pinch of inflation with everyday items like groceries, but how much more are consumers paying at checkout? Yahoo Finance's Dani Romero here with that report. Dani, it is painful every time you check out, isn't it?

DANI ROMERO: Yeah, I think that's a nice way to put it, right? But rising costs for food has really changed consumer behavior, especially when it comes to grocery shopping. According to the consumer price index, inflation increased 8.3% annually, which is down from 8.5% in March. Overall, prices edged up 0.3% from March.

Now, households are really feeling the squeeze and the largest increases we saw in April were an airfare, food, as well as shelter and new vehicles. Now even though the April numbers were a slight dip in overall inflation, there was really little relief when it came to the food category. Costs were up, rose for the seventh consecutive month. Increases in meats, poultry, fish, eggs was 1.4% higher in March, but that category increased by more than 14% over the last 12 months. Now, just take a listen to how shoppers are really feeling the squeeze right now.

RICK ROMERO: Everybody's complaining about it. Between the cost of food, the cost of fuel, it's just hitting everyone hard and we're not getting any compensation at work to try to balance it out. So we have to re-balance the budget.

We have to constantly redo a budget every time. It's not like before where you set a budget and you're good. You have to rework it now.

DANI ROMERO: And now, you can hear it right there, how these consumers are really feeling the pinch. But aside from the CPI report, Cohen Research found that 75% of respondents said that there's been an increase in day to day purchases, which is higher compared to a year ago, which was also an increase by 60% in February. Now gas prices, according to gas Buddy Gas, gas prices, the average price for gas now exceeded $5, that $5 mark, which differs than the AAA data that shows gas prices nationwide are at $4.97 a gallon. So California is still leading the way with the highest gas prices, as drivers pay an average of $6.47. Guys?