There’s a lot of talk about inflation coming down. And, of course, it has been. But life still feels expensive—even if inflation is less relative to last year.  

Well, just because inflation is less does not mean prices are coming down. Any economist will tell you that. But data dorks like us will show you.  

This month, we created a Variable in Domo (Variables are cool…) to change whether we were looking at the consumer price index (CPI) vs last year, two years ago, three years ago, or four years ago. Because Valentine’s Day is upon us, we thought it might be fun to see how much more expensive a traditional date night will be this year compared to the past four years. Even if it gives me a little heartburn…not the romantic kind.  

Our V-Day takeaways using Domo variables 

We’ve pulled our CPI data from December 2023 and used those numbers to estimate how much the standard Valentine’s Day purchases—flowers, chocolate, dinner out—will cost us this year. Here’s what we found, and you can play around with our adjustment tool below. The tool’s data will refresh as the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) updates the CPI.

Overall, the CPI was up 19.4% in December 2023 compared to four years ago.  

When you go looking for those roses, know that the CPI category “indoor plants and flowers” is up 18.6%, a little less than the CPI overall.  

The candy and chewing gum category is up 28.3%, the most of any we tracked. It might be worth noting here that these are standard CPI category names from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Hopefully none of our loyal Domo on Data audience buys their valentine chewing gum for the holiday—although Extra may beg to differ.

Lastly, food away from home is up 25.5%—so maybe staying in and splurging on a bottle of red is the most affordable Valentine’s date right now.  

But, I am all about letting people be curious with data. So, here is a data explorer where you can choose the same comparison variables and look at more details… Have fun and, Happy Valentine’s Day! 

Want to keep exploring Variables? 

To create our Valentine’s visuals, we used Variables in Domo—a simple but powerful feature we launched in 2023. Variables give you an intuitive way to explore your data without having to build individual data visualizations to account for every view of the data.  

Keep exploring Variables by: 

• Hopping over to our blog, Leveraging Variables in Domo to Unlock Business Value. 
• Watching our video, Variables Use Cases and Features Walkthrough.