Enter your expenditure pattern in the “your spending” screen.
Note: opening values in the screen have been created using the Average Weekly Expenditure for General Index Households in 2006 and the RPI weights. Further Details on weight calculation can be found in an article published in April 2006.
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Enter your total regular monthly expenditure (excluding housing costs, loans and taxes) in section 1.
Enter your monthly expenditure for each category in section 2. Further details of what is contained in each category will appear when your mouse hovers over the appropriate title.
Check the residual “Calculated Other Monthly Expenditure” category in section 3 and replace it with your own estimate if necessary
Check the running total of monthly expenditure in section 4 and amend your previous inputs as necessary.
Enter the amount outstanding on your mortgage, and the value of your property and set the region of your principal residence in section 5
Enter your monthly rent and annual council tax, water charges, and house insurance, also in section 5
Enter your spending in the past year on other annual expenditure categories in section 6
Enter your spending in the last three years for furniture and electrical goods in section 7
Check the annual expenditure total in section 8 and the “your spending shares” screen and revise your estimates until you are happy with them.
Click on the graph screen
Choose the start and end dates for your results at the bottom of the screen
View the table screen to see values for inflation rates calculated using your expenditure pattern and the national pattern.
Warnings
Do not click the back button on your browser while using the personal inflation calculator (PIC). If you wish to return to the data entry screen after clicking on graph screen, you should click on the reduced version of the data entry screen on the right hand side of the graph. You can return to the PIC product screen using the “about this calculator” button.
Remember that the PIC only adjusts for differences between an individual’s or individual household’s expenditure patterns and the national pattern at a fairly broad level. It is not practical to produce an index which precisely reflects an individual’s or individual household’s inflation experience. To reflect an individual’s inflation rate precisely would require account to be taken of the following effects, each of which may raise or lower the price change experienced by a particular individual compared to the national average:
The pattern of expenditure within each high level expenditure group
Choices of brand and variety of product
Choices about where to shop
Shopping behaviour – shifting from brand to brand seeking out special offers or sticking with discounts etc.
Finally remember that the results are only as good as the expenditure estimates entered by the user.
The information you enter is not recorded or stored by ONS - it is simply used to generate your personal inflation rates.
Getting started
