> Gasoline is a poor choice of benchmark. Energy prices aren't really a proxy for inflation.

Core inflation is also a poor choice.

My housing costs are fixed, so the variation that I see is in the things that core inflation excludes.

I am not sure that I understand your mention of housing costs. Doesn't core inflation exclude housing costs as well?

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_inflation , core inflation excludes food and energy. It does not exclude housing.