Category: Cost of Living
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A federal judge threw out SNAP soda and candy bans in five states, and USDA told stores to stop enforcing them
Grocery carts in Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and West Virginia can hold soda, candy and other recently-banned items again without the SNAP card getting rejected at the register. A federal judge in Washington threw out the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s approval of each state’s food-restriction waiver, and the agency has since told grocers, in writing,…
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State Farm is returning about $5 billion to auto customers, roughly $100 a vehicle
State Farm is handing back a lot of money to its auto insurance customers, and for most it will arrive without any effort on their part. The company is distributing a record dividend of about $5 billion to policyholders, averaging roughly $100 per insured vehicle. For a household watching every line of the budget, an…
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New 50% tariffs on Canadian goods are lifting prices on liquor, clothing and building materials
A fresh round of steep U.S. tariffs on goods from Canada took effect on August 22, and the sting is starting to reach ordinary shopping carts and home-improvement receipts. The new duties add 50 percent to the cost of a wide list of Canadian products, from bottles of whisky to lumber and certain clothing. Because…
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Kroger is closing about 60 supermarkets, thinning grocery and pharmacy access in some towns
Kroger, the country’s largest traditional supermarket operator, is working through a plan to close about 60 of its stores — and for the towns losing one, the hit lands on both the grocery aisle and the in-store pharmacy at once. The retailer laid out the plan in mid-2025 and has been carrying it out on…
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Tariffs are adding hundreds of dollars a year to the typical household, the heaviest burden since the 1930s
Tariffs are usually discussed as a fight between governments, but the cost lands much closer to home. Independent analysts estimate that the import taxes now in place are adding hundreds of dollars a year to what a typical American household pays, and that the overall tariff burden is the heaviest the country has carried since…
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Marketplace health premiums doubled for 2026, and the Senate is stalled on an extension before open enrollment
Millions of people who buy their own health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces are staring down a sharp increase in what they pay out of pocket. The extra subsidies that held premiums down for the past several years expired at the end of 2025, and for many households that change roughly doubles the…
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Mortgage rates near 6.7% are close to a one-year high, squeezing buyers and downsizers
Anyone waiting for mortgage rates to finally break lower before buying a home or trading down to something smaller did not get the news they wanted in late August. The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage has settled just under 6.7 percent, hovering close to its highest level in about a year. For anyone…
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One in three homeowners saw insurance jump over 20% at their last renewal as non-renewals climb
Homeowners insurance has quietly become one of the fastest-rising line items in the household budget, and the pain is not evenly spread. Surveys over the past two years show that a large share of homeowners, roughly one in three or more, opened a renewal notice to find their premium had jumped by more than 20…
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Marketplace health premiums jump for 2026 as extra subsidies lapse, hitting people 55 to 64 hardest
For the millions of people who buy their own health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace, the cost math is changing for 2026 — and not in their favor. The enhanced premium tax credits that had held down monthly costs since 2021 expired at the end of 2025, and their disappearance is pushing up…
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Ground beef is up about 19% and coffee about 20% over the past year at the grocery store
Two staples of the American kitchen table have gotten conspicuously more expensive, and the grocery receipt shows it. Federal price data from around April 2026 put ground beef up roughly 19 percent over the past year and coffee up about 20 percent. Both increases dwarf the broader grocery basket, which rose far more modestly, meaning…
