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Updated on: November 19, 2025 / 5:27 PM EST
/ CBS News
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Although inflation across the U.S. is far cooler than in the post-pandemic years, millions of Americans say they still feel the pinch of rising prices, struggle to pay the bills and express concern about their financial prospects. Price increases are nowhere near the level reached in June of 2022, when the Consumer Price Index hit a 40-year high of 9.1%. Yet many people feel squeezed by the cost of simple daily necessities, including the ability to afford healthy food, and by long-term increases in the cost of essentials such as housing and health care.This affordability crisis is rooted in a combination of both longstanding economic issues dating back decades and more recent developments. For instance, housing costs have surged partly due to a lack of available homes, a result of cutbacks in construction following the Great Recession, while more recently steep new U.S. tariffs have fueled inflation. Inflation and the economy now rank as Americans' top national concerns, according to an October CBS News poll. "Everything is going up in price very quickly," said Jeremy Tolbert, a 47-year-old web developer in Lawrence, Kansas.With his family's monthly health care premiums set to rise 18% to $2,600 next year, he's planning to cut back in other areas. "Our food budget is going to go down — we're not talking about eating beans and rice, but going from a comfortable middle-class lifestyle to eating how we did when we first got out of college," Tolbert said.Here are five key categories of spending that many Americans are struggling to afford.
