Main Street Dollars

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Amazon Shipping, the company’s parcel delivery service for businesses, adds a temporary surcharge on top of its regular rates every autumn, and the 2026 version costs more than last year’s did. The steepest stretch of the year falls in a five-week window between November 22 and December 26, exactly when U.S. households do most of…

Rent and homeowner costs are up 3 percent over the year, and the climb picked up again last month

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in Housing & Rent

Shelter is the single biggest line in most household budgets, and the government’s latest reading on it points the wrong way. After a monthly increase of just 0.1 percent in July, the shelter index jumped 0.3 percent in August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the past twelve months, shelter costs are now…

Car insurance prices have now fallen two months running

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in Insurance

Car insurance is usually the one line item on a household budget that only moves in one direction. The federal government’s latest inflation report shows it moving the other way, for a second month in a row. New Consumer Price Index data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the average cost Americans pay for…

Airline fares are 23.4 percent higher than a year ago

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in Cost of Living

Flying has gotten a lot more expensive over the past year, and the government’s own inflation data confirms it by a wide margin. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the airline fares index climbed 23.4 percent over the 12 months ending in August 2026, a far larger jump than the rest of the household…

Gasoline prices did more than a third of last month’s inflation by themselves

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in Groceries & Gas

Every month, one number sums up how much more expensive the last thirty days felt at the pump, the grocery store and the rent bill combined. In August, that number moved mostly because of one thing: gasoline. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest inflation report shows the price of filling up did more to push…

The survivors’ benefit form would drop from 20 pages to seven under a proposal due by December

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A form that decides whether a surviving spouse, dependent child, or other family member of a veteran receives ongoing VA survivor benefits currently runs 20 pages and takes roughly 40 minutes to complete. The Department of Veterans Affairs has proposed cutting that same document to seven pages and a 25-minute session, a change moving through…

Veterans Affairs wants to cut its disability application from 15 pages to five

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The Department of Veterans Affairs is proposing to cut its main disability compensation application from 15 pages down to five, and shave the time it takes to fill it out from roughly 25 minutes to 15. For a military family living on a fixed VA check, a shorter, clearer form is not a small thing:…

An order signed last week could cut another 20 to 30 days off a veteran’s first disability payment

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A veteran who left active duty this month could see the government’s first disability check land weeks earlier than veterans who separated a year ago. President Trump signed Executive Order 14426 on September 8, 2026, directing the Department of War and the Department of Veterans Affairs to share military records automatically instead of only on…

Veterans now wait 76 days for a disability decision, down from 141

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When a veteran files a disability compensation claim with the Department of Veterans Affairs, the number that decides how long a household waits for its first check is the processing time. That number has been falling. The Department of Veterans Affairs now says the average time it takes to decide a disability claim has dropped…

Forty-three states have to tell Medicaid enrollees about the new work rule before they start enforcing it

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