Regardless, I keep stats, and I'm doing worse than I was 5 years ago. My rent has gone up about $300 a month (16%), health insurance about 30%, my daily coffee at Starbucks 18%, the toll road costs 33%, and various services like Netflix, cable, phone, etc. are up about 12%-15%. I just priced what it will cost to replace my car with the equivalent I bought in 2013, and it, too, looks like both the car and insurance will end up being about 15% higher.
I'm a single guy who makes good money and has few expenses, plus half my earnings end up in the stock market which has done well, so I can't complain. But I still don't understand how my coworkers - the guys with 2 kids, a wife who works part-time, and an average priced $600K house - do it year after year, especially when the biggest increase in prices seem to be things they spend far more on (health insurance, daycare, housing, education, etc).
* After five years of no raises, I just took matters into my own hands by moving, without asking, to a much more inexpensive city 120 miles away where housing is 1/2 the cost. I worked remote mostly anyway, and now only come back for important meetings about 1-2x a month. If they need me, I'm always on Slack or teleconference on Skype. My employer hasn't said a word, either. Guess we're both bad with confrontation. ;)
I have to hand it to you, this is one of the most insidious ways to misrepresent the true rate of inflation. If it was intentional, kudos to you; you almost tricked me. If it was not intentional, then a quick math nitpick:
If your coffee has increased 16% in price from five years ago, the average inflation rate (which almost always means per-year rate, and certainly means per-year given the stats cited above) is actually 16/5 = 3.2%.
It doesn't use energy, healthcare, housing or any of the other many required things we pay for as a basis for its measure.
It is essentially disconnected from the daily costs we bear and has been for a long time.