Saving Money at the Pump - Not on Housing , Medicine, Health Insurance

The media has obsessed over the gasoline savings we have been experiencing. While we are saving money at the pump we are spending more money for shelter and communication. We are also starting to hear about jumps in healthcare Insurance and medical costs. This is born out by this months data. It is also a trend that we have seen this during January, February, March, July, and August of this year. We probably saw similar trends during  April, May and June this year while real life reared its ugly head for writing these columns. We would be experiencing some real financial pain if we did not have gasoline deflation right now.The truth is being obscured by seasonal adjustments.

We are seeing "cheaper" furniture, clothing, energy and food.  The data shows that these four categories saw deflation compared to last September. The problem is that the government is saying that we are allocating less of our money on these items.

We are seeing more expensive Medical Care, Medical Services, Health Insurance, Hospital Costs, and Shelter expenses. What is interesting is that the weighting of these items is higher than September of 2015.  These categories also say inflation last September.

We Saved $40 dollars to Spend $113 dollars more this September. While we have saved $40 a month on energy this year, based on spending $4000 a month the way that they say we did, we spent $44 more on housing (rent or "rent equivalent) and $36 more on education and communication services. This does not factor in the increase in taxes this past year.  We took in $18 million more in taxes this fiscal year. We "saved" $50 billion on lower gasoline expenditures during the same period of time.

If we are experiencing a decrease in medical care affordability and nobody reports it is it really happening?