Inflation adjuster How much would: $ in: be worth today? Today's dollars: $

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The Federal Reserve on Tuesday indicated that it is worrying a bit more about inflation, and the monthly report on consumer prices on Wednesday showed prices ticking up at a faster rate than expected.

Overall, there's no sign of runaway inflation. The consumer price index is rising at a 3 percent annual rate, and just 2.4 percent if you leave out volatile food and energy prices.

Still, there are some things consumers already know they're paying through the nose for.

Most noticeably...

Gasoline rose 17 cents a gallon over the four weeks through March 21, bringing the average price for regular unleaded around the country to $2.07. No let up seems near. On March 8, the Department of Energy released its revised price projections for petroleum upward another $2; it now says oil will average $48.70 a barrel for the first quarter of 2005.

Gasoline at the pump costs Americans 19.7 percent more than a year ago. If that percentage holds for the year, it means an added expenditure for the average motorist (who burns about 550 gallons of gas annually, according to AAA) of about $188 in 2005.

With fuel so costly, the cost of trucking goods has followed; the government's Bureau of Labor Statistics says that they climbed 6.4 percent from January 2004 to January 2005.

High crude oil prices have also contributed to rising air fares. The cost of scheduled air travel was up only slightly for the year, but it jumped from the late fall of 2004 to early 2005 when crude prices took off, rising 10.5 percent form November to January on international flights and 3.7 percent from September to January for domestic flights.

The combination of natural disasters and a home-building boom combined to reduce supplies and produce substantially higher building materials costs. Four separate hurricanes made landfalls in Florida and other states last storm season and destroyed or damaged thousands of residences, putting extra demand on the supply of building materials.

Housing starts, meanwhile, continued to boom. In February they amounted to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.195 million units, a new 21-year-record for the second month in a row, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. That pace exceeds last year's building pace by 15.8 percent.

Here's the impact:

• Lumber: up 7.8 percent year over year through January.
• Paints: up about 5.6 percent.
• All told, the cost of building a new house went up 9.4 percent.

The price of mobile homes shot up even more, 11.9 percent.

The natural disasters took their toll on home insurance companies as well and to make up losses they will pass the cost on to consumers in the form of higher premiums. The average property insurance premium went up 5.6 percent in 2005. By contrast health insurance, unaffected by the storm damage, only rose 3.2 percent, despite increases in health care costs, and car insurance inched up just 2.4 percent.

Sports fans had to dig a bit deeper to see their favorite teams last year, according to the Team Marketing Report, a publisher of sports marketing and sponsorship information. Major League Baseball tickets went up 3.9 percent in 2004 to an average of $19.82 and NFL teams charged 4.9 percent more to $54.75. The NBA held the line on ticket prices; b-balls fans paid only an extra 1.6 percent, to $44.68, in 2004.

(Baseball ticket prices for 2005 are expected on April 5.)

Those of us who needed to see an attorney paid a little more this year. Legal services crept up this past 12 months 4.3 percent through January, a little faster than inflation.

After years of rapid cable TV cost increases, prices cooled somewhat last year. Prices still grew 5.2 percent in 2004, according to the Federal Communications Commission annual study of cable TV prices.

And, of course, health care costs continued to climb in 2004. Americans spent $1.8 trillion on their health, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, up from $1.674 trillion in 2003. That's an increase of 7.2 percent.

Other commodities seeing price rises include coffee (for more click here), concerts (click here), and chocolate (click here).

To read about big rises in museum prices, click here.