Rising costs are nibbling at Thanksgiving budgets this year in Baltimore

Baltimoreans prepping for Thanksgiving dinner can add one more item to the shopping list this year: higher prices. Rising costs for everything from turkey to cans of pumpkin are putting a strain on budgets as the country continues to deal with burgeoning inflation rates. Overall inflation was 7.7% in October, according to the Consumer Price Index, which tracks the fluctuating costs of goods and services. The growth in grocery prices was even more substantial, at 12.4%. “It’s a real thing that it’s going to be more expensive,” said Laurence Ball, a professor of economics at the Johns Hopkins University. “There’s been inflation in general, but [the increasing cost of] food at home has been faster than inflation, and certainly faster than people’s wages have been growing.”