US inflation climbs above forecasts to 3.7% as Americans detail strain

Three families describe inflation’s toll on daily life

US consumer prices rose 3.7% over the 12 months ending September, up from 3.4% in the year ending August, according to official numbers released on Wednesday — and the rate came in above forecasts. High energy prices, with diesel at record highs and gasoline rising, were among the drivers of the cost-of-living pressure Americans described in interviews.

Kathryn Vaughn, a 46-year-old primary school art teacher at a rural West Tennessee elementary school, returned to her classroom this autumn with a longer list of obligations than in previous years. She spends her days working three different jobs to support her family of four. After the school day ends, she heads to a second job as a facilitator at an after-school programme for at-risk youth, where her five-year-old son can join — a perk she said reduces the cost of after-school care.

Beyond the two school-adjacent positions, Vaughn said, she has taken on a range of side work to make ends meet. “I have done some incredibly unhinged things to survive,” she said. “I hand-modeled for a local jewelry store, I sell everything that sits longer than ten minutes at my house on Facebook swap sites, I resell clothes on ThredUp and Poshmark.” She said she even writes obituaries for people who have died to make extra money. The added income still did not cover her family’s costs.

Vaughn said the trade-offs have continued into the school year itself. She was gobsmacked when back-to-school shopping produced a $130 bill for her five-year-old son’s supplies. She decided to have her son purchase lunch at school each day rather than take homemade lunches, having calculated that the school meal would be cheaper than what groceries now cost. The family also cancelled a planned trip to Florida this autumn to see her parents because the price of gasoline was too much.

“It’s rough out here,” Vaughn said. “The cost of everything is insane. Gas to get to work, my insurance costs have gone up, feeding two children and a husband. It’s a lot.”

For Punal Bhavsar, 39, the price of gasoline is the biggest burden. He had thought 2026 would be the year he could save enough to purchase a home. “I was thinking the interest rates would decrease and then I’d be able to purchase a house, but I don’t think that’s likely now,” he said. Instead, he said, the rise in the cost of goods has made saving money difficult.

“I drive a car that takes premium gas, and unfortunately, in California and the area that I live in, it’s almost $6 (£4.5),” Bhavsar said.

With midterm elections weeks away, Bhavsar said the economy has begun to define how he intends to vote. “For me, it’s just like gas prices have got to be under control,” he said. He described the current economic outlook as bleak.

The Gallup Economic Confidence Index, which summarizes Americans’ assessments of current economic conditions and the economic outlook on a scale of -100 to +100, stood at -40 in September. A summer survey from the Guardian found that 95% of respondents think the US is in an affordability crisis.

In Utah, Caitlin Green and her husband have felt the shift in the meat aisle. When she first moved to the state seven years ago, Green recalled, her mother told her: “If you ever need a cheap, easy meal, always get ground beef.” As prices have climbed, Green said, she has struggled to follow that guidance: she remembers paying $2 a pound for ground beef, and now pays about $8.

“[Ground beef] is almost …not a luxury like steak… but it’s just to the point where it’s become a luxury; we have to think about it if we’re going to purchase it,” she said. The household has sometimes opted for ground turkey or ground chicken instead. Green and her husband have gone from spending some $200 a month on groceries to $400 a month.

“I understand inflation is a thing, but I just feel like in my lifetime, I’ve never seen inflation hit so quickly and so drastically,” Green said.

For Vaughn, the daily trade-offs continue. With three jobs and a household budget that still does not balance, she has cancelled family trips and started writing obituaries. “It’s rough out here,” she said again. “The cost of everything is insane.”