Prices for food, clothing, medicine, recreation and other goods and services cost more in July than they did in June, according to a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“On a seasonally adjusted basis, the [Consumer Price Index] advanced 0.4 percent in July, following an 0.2 percent rise in June,” the bureau reported.
Rising fuel costs are driving up consumer prices, the bureau reported.
For the first seven months of 2006, “petroleum-based energy costs increased at a 52.8 percent annual rate,” the bureau said.
Mitchel Shapiro, senior vice president of Smart Financial Advisors in Owings Mills, said consumers should consider creative ways to save money.
Shapiro suggests families with a mortgage and equity line of credit, which tends to rise with interest rates, consider consolidating the equity line with the mortgage into to one mortgage loan. The new loan can get a fixed interest rate, Shapiro said.
