Here in the US, I’m definitely coming out ahead because food is a small portion of my budget (plus the stuff I buy hasn’t gotten more expensive) and my rent isn’t going up. I think that first part actually applies to most Americans besides the very poor (and I think they got more additional money than just the stimulus checks). Could be wrong about that. And I’ve actually saved money since I don’t go out anymore.
But from what I hear anecdotally, rent is skyrocketing for many people, especially people in cheap units. I’m not sure if that counts as “inflation” exactly; it doesn’t contribute to the price indices as much as it should and I don’t think it’s really caused by the usual factors that would cause inflation generally. (Maybe building materials affects it some?)
And then if you want to throw in the rest of the world, yikes: https://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/foodpricesindex/en/
But at the end of the day, at least in the US, I’m more worried about the people who dropped out of the labor force, lost a breadwinner, or got evicted due to the pandemic. I was fortunate enough that none of those things happened to me (yet). I think that’s going to have a bigger economic impact on people.
Does that make sense? I’m not basing this on any data other than the world food price thing. Just my personal experience. I also don’t really use the healthcare or education system, which iirc have been the two biggest inflation drivers in the US for a while.