我们在家吃饭成本更高

我们在家吃饭成本更高

The latest inflation data offers a snapshot of Americans' new pandemic spending habits. Prices are down for most goods and services but up sharply for groceries.

最新的通胀数据反映了美国人新的流行病(期间的)消费习惯。大多数商品和服务价格下降，但杂货价格急剧上涨。

Food prices have jumped the most since 1974, when double-digit inflation became a national concern. But inflation isn't a worry this time as prices for just about everything else are diving.

食品价格出现了自1974年以来的最大涨幅，当时两位数的通胀成为全国关注的焦点。但这次通货膨胀并不令人担心，因为几乎所有其他东西的价格都在下降。

New inflation numbers out Tuesday from the Labor Department offer a window on how consumers are coping in the COVID-19 era. And the bottom line is that we're snacking more — and paying more for food — as we shop more at our local grocery stores.

美国劳工部周二公布的新通胀数据为消费者应对COVID-19时代提供了一个窗口。归根结底，随着我们在当地杂货店购物的增多，我们吃的小吃也越来越多，我们为食品花费的也越来越多。

Overall, consumer prices were down 0.8% last month — the sharpest drop since the Great Recession in 2008. But food prices at the grocery store rose 2.6% — the biggest jump in nearly 50 years.

总的来说，上个月消费者价格下降了0.8%，这是自2008年大萧条以来的最大跌幅。但杂货店的食品价格上涨了2.6%，这是近50年来的最大涨幅。

The price of pasta and rice bubbled up 2.5% in April. Hamburger prices ground up 4.8%.

四月份，意大利面和大米的价格上涨了2.5%。汉堡价格上涨4.8%。

Americans had grown used to spending more than half their food budgets on meals eaten outside the home. But that changed abruptly when the coronavirus pandemic hit. Restaurants closed their doors, and families were forced to cook for themselves.

美国人已经习惯把超过一半的食物预算花在户外吃饭上。但当冠状病毒流行病爆发时，情况突然发生了变化。餐馆关门，家庭被迫自己做饭。

"We saw an immediate, drastic decrease in expenditures away from home and an increase in the expenditures that we made at the grocery store," said David Ortega, a food economist at Michigan State University.

密歇根州立大学的食品经济学家戴维·奥尔特加表示:“我们看到，在外的支出迅速大幅下降，而在杂货店的支出则有所增加。”

Ortega sees the change in his own habits. Instead of buying a prepared coffee at the campus bagel shop, he's making his own coffee at home with store-bought beans. He's also shopping for his wife and 2-year-old daughter.

奥尔特加看到了自己习惯的变化。他不再去学校的百吉饼店买现成的咖啡，而是用从商店买来的咖啡豆在家里自己煮咖啡。他还在为妻子和两岁的女儿买东西。

"Yep, I have to now go to the grocery store and make sure we have snacks and goldfish and crackers and just about everything that's going up in price," Ortega said.

奥尔特加说:“是的，我现在必须去杂货店，确保我们有零食、金鱼和饼干，以及几乎所有正在涨价的东西。”

Most of us aren't driving much, so gasoline prices tumbled 20.6% last month. The price of auto insurance also dropped in April, by 7.2% — more than any other month on record.

我们大多数人都很少开车，因此汽油价格上个月下跌了20.6%。汽车保险价格在4月份也下跌了7.2%，降幅超过了历史上任何一个月。

"With people driving less, that will inevitably mean fewer accidents," said Sean Kevelighan, CEO of the Insurance Information Institute. Auto insurers are offering discounts and refunds totaling more than $10 billion this year.

保险信息研究所的首席执行官肖恩·凯维利汉说:“随着人们开车的减少，这必然意味着事故的减少。”汽车保险公司今年提供的折扣和退款总额超过100亿美元。

Kevelighan warns, however, that with fewer cars on the road, some people are driving faster. That means the accidents that do happen are often more costly.

然而，凯维利汉警告说，随着路上的汽车越来越少，有些人会开得更快。这意味着一旦发生事故，成本往往会更高。

"In fact, people are driving more recklessly at this time. And so that means we're having more injuries and greater damage," he said.

“事实上，人们在这个时候驾驶更加鲁莽。这就意味着我们会有更多的受伤和更大的损毁。”

The inflation report tells us more about how our consumption patterns have changed during the pandemic.

通货膨胀报告更多地告诉我们，我们的消费模式在流行病期间发生了怎样的变化。

As demand for toilet paper soared, household paper prices jumped 4.5% last month. There are a handful of other categories where prices rose — including hospital care (up 0.5%) and funerals (up 0.3%).

随着厕纸需求的飙升，生活用纸价格上个月上涨了4.5%。其他一些类别的商品价格也上涨了——包括医院护理(上涨0.5%)和葬礼(上涨0.3%)。

But while Americans are spending more on necessities like pasta and toilet paper, they're cutting back on everything else.

但是，当美国人在意大利面和卫生纸等生活必需品上花费更多的时候，他们在其他方面的开支却在减少。