CHICAGO — Don't tell Cindee and Ben Castronovo that inflation is fairly tame.

"I can't think of anything that hasn't gone up," Cindee said. She's felt the impact of inflation in no uncertain terms several times in the past six months, as Ben has called and warned her not to use the debit card until they receive their next paychecks.

This is a relatively new experience for both of them. As middle managers in their late 40s, they are used to living comfortably in northwest Chicago on more than $100,000 a year. But rising prices are gnawing at their household budget, just as they are for most Americans.

When Cindee lugged a 20-pound bag of cat food out of a store recently, she felt the weight of inflation. "What's up with that?" she asked herself as she pondered how the price had jumped 40 percent on a $15 purchase.

When she helped her 22-year-old daughter select laundry detergent, she wondered when the price had shot up $2. And when she fills her gas tank, the fumes of inflation are pungent.

Then, there's the nagging price of car insurance: It has been surging even though their driving records haven't changed. To control the premiums, Ben switched to liability insurance only and raised the deductible to $1,000, but he is still paying as much as he used to and getting less coverage.

Getting less for a higher price is what inflation is about. And the recently reported 1.2 percent monthly increase in inflation was simply a confirmation of what consumers like the Castronovos have been feeling for months: a creeping increase in prices that empties wallets quicker than a year ago while their take-home pay remains relatively unchanged.

"What matters to people is not just how fast prices are rising, but how fast relative to what they are earning," said economist Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute think tank. "You go to the market and fill a basket up with food and realize your paycheck isn't going as far."

The pinch for consumers is worse than Consumer Price Index numbers suggest, Bernstein says, because of the astronomical rise in prices on a few expenditures that people need to make — such as healthcare, housing and education.

Consider the Castronovos. The couple sat down recently to tally up accumulated debt on college loans for their children: Over the next 10 years they will be paying off more than $110,000 for their daughter, Gina, who recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a son who is in his second year at Chicago's Columbia College.

The couple never thought paying for college would be easy, but they hadn't expected a more than 40 percent rise in tuition at a public university over four years, or that the cost of a four-year college education would total about $100,000 for each child.

Nor did they expect interest rates on the adjustable-rate student loans to rise as sharply as they have lately — largely responsible for nudging $600 monthly payments to $800.

"It made me gulp," Cindee said.

The legacy has been passed not only to the Castronovos, but also to Gina, who took out $17,500 in federal student loans.

Such college costs also take on significant meaning for people Cindee and Ben's age. At 47 and 49, they are well aware that they need to be saving in earnest for retirement. But paying off such loans is going to make it tougher to sock away what they will need. Cindee figures she will make up for lost savings by working part time, if she can, after retirement age.

Meanwhile, she and Ben already have made changes to try to free up more money. A few years ago they stopped having a $60 housecleaner come to their home twice a month, and recently they have cut out a weekday newspaper subscription and Internet provider. If they go to a movie, they choose a matinee; if they go out to dinner, Cindee doesn't order a drink.

"A margarita really adds on to the bill," she said.

While the Castronovos sit down with their bills every month to figure out what else they can cut, they are starting to feel like they are fighting a losing battle. Necessities like healthcare keep rising as runaway medical costs cause employers to pass more of the burden to employees.

Ben Castronovo said he's paying an extra $100 a month in premiums for health insurance and has to pay more for prescriptions.

The Castronovos' experience is becoming the norm. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, premiums rose 9.2 percent in 2005 on average. Since 2000, premiums are up 73 percent and the average worker is paying $2,713 a year for family coverage — or $1,094 more than in 2000.

Currently, workers are paying about 26 percent of the total premium, but a survey by Kaiser suggests the future may be harder on households: About 40 percent of large firms say they are "very likely" to ask employees to pay a greater share of premiums next year.