here\u2019s how it lines up<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n\u2022 A partridge in a pear tree: $370.18. That\u2019s up 16%. Song has 12 verses. Have mercy!<\/p>\n
\u2022 Two turtle doves: $750.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Three French hens: $346.50. Up 5%.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Four calling birds: $599.96.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Five golden rings: $1,245. That\u2019s three of the first five with no change! Keep singing!<\/p>\n
\u2022 Six geese-a-laying: $900. Up 15.4%.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Seven swans-a-swimming: $13,125. Thankfully, no higher this year. But what else can we spend $13,000 on? Just sayin\u2019!<\/p>\n
\u2022 Eight maids-a-milking: $58. Ah, the consistency we\u2019ve needed. Or not? Only reason it hasn\u2019t increased since 2009 is federal minimum wage has not increased since then. Remains a bargain, and we all need that this time of year.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Nine ladies dancing: $8,557.37. Going up 3%.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Ten lords-a-leaping: $15,579.65. Up 7.2%, and still most expensive in the index.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Eleven pipers piping: $3,714.96. Up 15.8%, though only twice through in the song \u2013 so a definite bargain shopper\u2019s delight.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Twelve drummers drumming: $4,016.85. Up 15.8%.<\/p>\n
PNC assures this is like the U.S. Consumer Price Index. That\u2019s the measure of housing, food, clothing, transportation prices, and other things average Americans purchase.<\/p>\n
The first year of the index, in 1984, the core cost was $20,023.57.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(The Center Square) \u2013 Black Friday is upon us. Got 200 grand? For the 41st…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23812],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-425749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425749\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}