THE EVERYDAY ECONOMY / 01Saved BLS edition / 2019-2025
Six familiar things. Two different totals.
Your grocery bill
has a memory.
You can buy the same groceries and leave with a very different bill. Fill a small basket at two dates to see which items account for the increase.
Our illustrative basket went from $18.28 in June 2019 to$27.29 in June 2025. That is+$9.01, with exactly the same quantities.
Make the comparison yours Illustrative basket using national average prices. This is not your actual shopping bill or the official CPI.
01 / SAME BASKET, TWO DATES
What stayed in the bag?
Two pounds of bananas. Two pounds of white bread. A dozen eggs, a gallon of milk, four pounds of whole chicken, and a pound of ground chuck. Keep those quantities fixed and the difference between the receipts comes entirely from prices. Then adjust the basket to see how the comparison changes.
THE RECEIPT YOU REMEMBER
June 2019
BLS national averages / USD
- Bananas2lb at$0.574 / lb$1.15
- White pan bread2lb at$1.280 / lb$2.56
- Large grade-A eggs1dozen at$1.203 / dozen$1.20
- Whole fortified milk1gallon at$3.054 / gallon$3.05
- Fresh whole chicken4lb at$1.590 / lb$6.36
- Ground chuck1lb at$3.951 / lb$3.95
TOTAL$18.28
Same quantities.Fixed basket.
THE SAME THINGS, ANOTHER DATE
June 2025
BLS national averages / USD
- Bananas2lb at$0.654 / lb$1.31
- White pan bread2lb at$1.864 / lb$3.73
- Large grade-A eggs1dozen at$3.775 / dozen$3.78
- Whole fortified milk1gallon at$4.029 / gallon$4.03
- Fresh whole chicken4lb at$2.086 / lb$8.34
- Ground chuck1lb at$6.103 / lb$6.10
TOTAL$27.29
Same quantities.Fixed basket.
THE DIFFERENCE+$9.01June 2019 to June 2025: $18.28 becomes $27.29, a change of +$9.01 (+49.3%). Fixed basket: 2 lb Bananas, 2 lb White pan bread, 1 dozen Large grade-A eggs, 1 gallon Whole fortified milk, 4 lb Fresh whole chicken, 1 lb Ground chuck. Illustrative basket using national average prices.
Same quantitiesJune 2019June 2025
Bananas2lb$1.15$1.31
White pan bread2lb$2.56$3.73
Large grade-A eggs1dozen$1.20$3.78
Whole fortified milk1gallon$3.05$4.03
Fresh whole chicken4lb$6.36$8.34
Ground chuck1lb$3.95$6.10
Try a different basket:
02 / FOLLOW THE EXTRA DOLLARS
The difference has ingredients.
Large grade-A eggs has the largest contribution by absolute dollar amount: +$2.57. Quantities matter as well as unit-price changes.
What you buy matters as much as the change in price. A small increase per pound adds up when you buy four pounds of chicken. Each row below multiplies an item’s price change by its quantity to show how much it adds to—or subtracts from—the bill.
The item contributions are listed below.
- Large grade-A eggs1dozen+$2.57
- Ground chuck1lb+$2.15
- Fresh whole chicken4lb+$1.98
- White pan bread2lb+$1.17
- Whole fortified milk1gallon+$0.98
- Bananas2lb+$0.16
Signed dollar changes, ordered by absolute contribution. Equal contributions are tied. Each item links to its BLS unit-price series. Calculations use source precision; individually rounded lines may not add to the displayed rounded total.
Inspect all quantities, unit prices, and contributions
June 2019 / June 2025.Fixed basket: 2 lb Bananas, 2 lb White pan bread, 1 dozen Large grade-A eggs, 1 gallon Whole fortified milk, 4 lb Fresh whole chicken, 1 lb Ground chuck. Unit prices are USD per listed unit; costs and contributions are USD. Required missing prices make the complete comparison unavailable.| Item | Quantity | Before unit price | After unit price | Before cost | After cost | Contribution | Included |
|---|
| Bananas | 2lb | $0.574 | $0.654 | $1.148 | $1.308 | +$0.16 | Yes |
|---|
| White pan bread | 2lb | $1.280 | $1.864 | $2.560 | $3.728 | +$1.17 | Yes |
|---|
| Large grade-A eggs | 1dozen | $1.203 | $3.775 | $1.203 | $3.775 | +$2.57 | Yes |
|---|
| Whole fortified milk | 1gallon | $3.054 | $4.029 | $3.054 | $4.029 | +$0.98 | Yes |
|---|
| Fresh whole chicken | 4lb | $1.590 | $2.086 | $6.360 | $8.344 | +$1.98 | Yes |
|---|
| Ground chuck | 1lb | $3.951 | $6.103 | $3.951 | $6.103 | +$2.15 | Yes |
|---|
03 / HIGHER IS NOT THE SAME AS FASTER
Prices can ease.
The old total can stay out of reach.
For the quantities and scope currently selected, March 2025 cost $29.40and June 2025 cost $27.29: -7.2% over those three months.
Eggs show why a falling price can still feel expensive. A dozen cost $6.227 in March 2025, $3.775 in June 2025, and $1.203 in June 2019. June’s price was well below the recent peak and still more than three times the earlier price.
The next chart follows both the basket’s cost and its yearly rate of change. When that rate falls but stays positive, the bill is still rising, just more slowly. A negative rate means the basket costs less than a year earlier. Follow the monthly path to see how far that leaves it from 2019.
Monthly chart enhancements are loading. The saved data packet includes every monthly value.
The series covers January 2019 through December 2025. January-December 2018 supplies the first annual comparisons. A gap means a required price is unavailable. A missing baseline also makes the following year's percentage unavailable. No line bridges those gaps.
04 / WHAT THIS RECEIPT CAN REMEMBER
Build a basket closer to yours.
Your bill depends on where you shop, which brands you choose and what is on sale. These BLS prices are national averages for broad product categories. Use the quantities to explore your mix of purchases, keeping the listed units in mind: bread is priced by the pound, for example.
Removing meat or buying more milk changes how much each price matters to the total. The comparison holds your new quantities fixed at both dates. It shows the cost of that basket at average prices, leaving choices such as switching brands or shopping for sales up to you.
This six-item basket is a way to examine a grocery bill. The official Consumer Price Index covers a much broader range of purchases and accounts for product and quality changes. For this receipt, the item totals explain where the extra dollars went; explaining why prices rose would require other evidence.
June 2019 to June 2025: $18.28 becomes $27.29, a change of +$9.01 (+49.3%). Fixed basket: 2 lb Bananas, 2 lb White pan bread, 1 dozen Large grade-A eggs, 1 gallon Whole fortified milk, 4 lb Fresh whole chicken, 1 lb Ground chuck. Illustrative basket using national average prices. Each item’s contribution is visible above. Change the basket, compare another pair of dates, or save this receipt to return to later.
05 / KEEP THE RECEIPT
Same comparison.
Wherever you take it.
The link remembers all six quantities, both dates, and any subset choice. Images keep their source date and limitations; the data packet also keeps the original price precision.
Open a link to this exact comparisonSVG uses the selected width. PNG exports at 2x: 780px phone or 1520px print.
Try it: change, save, reopen
- Change a quantity above and watch the receipts, contributions and monthly path recalculate.
- Download the data packet, then change your basket again.
- Reopen that file below. Its quantities and dates restore the same calculations.
Current comparison: June 2019 / June 2025 ·$18.28 / $27.29.
A saved image cannot update itself. Reopen the source link to see edition and correction notes. These are historical observations retrieved on2026-09-05 UTC, not a live price feed.