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GETTING AROUND

MBTA rates aren’t going up anytime soon, but that cab ride home from the nightclub is going to cost you more in 2006. Boston recently approved a 50-cent surcharge on every pick-up. Brookline raised its per-mile rate by 10 cents every eighth of a mile. Newton raised its surcharge by 40 cents in September. Across the river, the Cambridge License Commission is considering both a 20-cent increase at pick-up, and an extra nickel for each eighth of a mile.

If you drive, you already know that filling your tank got more expensive last year. Gas prices have now dropped back to more reasonable levels, but driving will still be costly in 2006.

Good news will come in your next car-insurance contract. The state announced last month that the average premium will drop 8.7 percent, or an average of about $95.

But watch where you park: $25 tickets in Boston for violating street-sweeping parking bans have just jumped to $40, and the late fee went from $8 to $12.

Increased fuel prices have also prompted Amtrak to jack up ticket prices five to seven percent in the Northeast, which will add up for those who take the rails home to the parents with some frequency. For longer travels, the boarding fee at Logan Airport, built into your ticket price, has jumped from $3 to $4.50. Overall, despite fuel prices, competition is keeping airfares generally stable.

Even writing to your parents will be more expensive: stamps went from 37 to 39 cents on January 1.

In any event, if you fill up once a week, and take a cab twice a month, and get the odd ticket or two a year, budget an extra (from pre-Katrina prices) $400 this year, or $35 a month.

FUN AND GAMES

Steady yourself: Boston Beer is seriously considering raising the price of its Samuel Adams brews for 2006.

Overall, food and beverage prices in the Boston area have been climbing roughly three to four percent a year, according to US Department of Labor statistics. That should continue. The wild card is some Boston pols’ desire for a restaurant tax, which requires state approval. To date, that has shown no signs of movement.

Another plan may have more political traction, however: a student fee, of as much as $100 a year, to help defray costs to the city for such things as police overtime during high-profile Red Sox games. Whether charged directly to the students, or, more likely, to universities who will then recoup it from students, the fee figures to come from students (or, passed further along to their parents).

For once, Red Sox ticket prices will remain the same, unless you’re springing for box seats or the new premium seats. The cheapest bleacher seats will stay at $12.

Staying home will also cost you more. January 1 saw a hike in your most important apartment necessity: cable television. Comcast has added about $2.70 a month to its expanded basic service.

Charging it? Be aware that banks have agreed to hike the minimum payments on credit-card balances beginning this month. It’s a consumer-friendly idea, to prevent the long-term accumulation of debt, but in the short term it will cost you an extra $100 a month if you’re carrying $5000 of credit-card debt and usually pay the minimum required each month.

If you’re not in that category, you can still expect the cost of entertaining yourself to increase about $360 this year — another $30 a month.

Even sitting on your tush doing nothing will cost you, thanks to a dearth of toluene diisocyanate, caused by this year’s hurricanes. What is toluene diisocyanate, you ask, and why should you care? It’s a key ingredient in polyurethane foam, and the shortage is sending up the price of mattresses, couches, futons, and other furniture. Many retailers have already raised their prices by as much as 10 percent; others will do so when they print their new brochures after the New Year.

So all in all, be prepared to spend up to an extra $1400, or $117 a month, in 2006 compared with 2005. Happy New Year.

David S. Bernstein can be reached at dbernstein@bostonphoenix.com.