This is something that I think produces very interesting research questions: Why are people's experiences not aligned with other economic data? I wonder if there is research literature already addressing this question and what it says (I am not an economist and would have no knowledge of this).
Will StancilInflation over the last year has been 3.5%. It’s hard to see how this sentiment can be explained by any “real” economic trend. It appears to be ambient political rhetoric about “affordability” and “grocery costs” filtering over and distorting people’s very grasp on reality.