Money ... it's a thing.

Money is an odd metric in our society. Of all the smokes and all the mirrors, it's the one that is most expediently used. Billions printed through the pandemic, and now they have to be inflated away. None of us really got richer for all that cash being injected into society, we just stood still. And yet coming out the other side that cash injection (loan to self) must be paid back or devalued, so that it doesn't become toxic or recessive, and it can all be done with sleight of hand. However, if we stood still and didn't grow, how do things end up costing more? After all the bank of England and others, just added a lot of zeros to an existing ledger and said "Now we have this much. Who wants some?"

I understand the principle of the value of things, and that we need to be able to trade time (the ultimate commodity), for goods and services and yet at the same time the value of goods and services haven't changed/increased materially. In real terms, a pork chop is still a pork chop, a litre of fuel is still a litre of fuel, but by some means, their relative value or cost has increased. How? It's entirely abstract. Though there is the possibility that I really don't get it.