I have searched for the actual inflation rate, but since the CPI no longer includes food or fuel (there are white lies, lies, dirty lies and statistics...) in their statistics, I suspect the real inflation rate is about 10x what we are being told.
Inflation measured by consumer price index (CPI) is defined as the change in the prices of a basket of goods and services that are typically purchased by specific groups of households. Inflation is measured in terms of the annual growth rate and in index, 2015 base year with a breakdown for food, energy and total excluding food and energy.
The closest I could get on any search was this: https://www.businessinsider.com/if-people-knew-the-actual-inflation-rate-it-would-crash-the-economy-2016-8
https://aoausa.com/why-real-inflation-is-higher-than-government-reports-by-gary-halbert/
Until I found this!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1JPCCb7M98
and this: Calculate Inflation Rate For Yourself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3BuyF9nUWU
They also decoupled house prices from the CPI in the nineties. I 'member.
The theory was that house prices operate in their own market, and should not be included in the average needs of an average person.
So....enter homelessness as a result. People don't need houses! The basket of goods says so...
Also: this post is proof of great minds think alike. I just had a conversation yesterday with my 19 y/o, who wanted to know what the current inflation rate was running at. Reason was: where do I put my money to avoid inflation? We googled around and were none the wiser. Plenty of CPI calculators on the web, but they don't even tell us what the rate is. LOL.
We ended up doing a similar calculation as here: A pound of butter cost $1.85 in 2005, and now it costs over $7.00, when on 'special'. Similarly, a serving of fries from a fast-food restaurant cost 10c in the seventies, and now costs over $5.00. Meat was $6.99 a kilo in 2020, and now it is $16.99, but the supermarket occasionally runs a special at $8.99 - but these specials are becoming rarer...