SAN DIEGO, CA (KGTV)— On Friday, the Labor Department announced consumer prices went up 8.6% in May, compared to last year. It's the highest 12-month increase since 1981, and San Diegans are feeling the pinch.
The cost of food, gas, used cars, and more jumped up once again in May compared to the same time last year.
Gas prices in California continue to be well over the national after, currently at $6.42 for a gallon of regular, according to AAA.
In San Diego, the average for a gallon of regular gas is $6.35.
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To put that into perspective, filling up a 15.9 gallon Toyota RAV4 would be around 100 bucks now, when at this time last year, the cost was an average of $4.21 a gallon, and it would be about $67 for a full tank.
"Just filled up, regular unleaded, paid $6.49 for a gallon of gas, cost me just under $100 to fill up," said Sam Duke, a resident of San Diego County.
"In the past probably would have been about 45 to 50 dollars to fill up a full tank of gas," he said.
"I would do a full tank at like 40, 50 bucks, and now it's 90 to 100 bucks, so it's almost double, and it hurts, it hurts the wallet especially when you have so many other bills to pay… yeah it's tough," said Harsh Maheshwary, another county resident.
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Like many, they're noticing prices have been going up across the board.
"Cost of living is going up, rent is going up," said Maheshwary.
"Grocery stores, gas, rent," said Duke.
The high cost of living, gas, and food, is making many think twice about how they spend any extra cash.
"It's affected me greatly, I focus a lot more on not only where I'm driving, but what else I'm spending money on just because I know I have to pay that much more for gas," said Duke. "I would love to see the prices go down, but really just stabilization, I want to see the prices stabilize across the economy so we at least have a little bit more predictability on what we're going to be spending."
